We all know the importance of
education. It is the most important aspect of any nation’s survival today.
Education builds the nations; it determines the future of a nation. ISLAM also
tells us about Education and its importance. The real essence of Education
according to ISLAM is “to know ALLAH” but I think in our country we truly lost.
Neither our schools nor our madrassa’s (Islamic Education Centers) are truly
educating our youth in this regard. In schools, we are just preparing them for
“Money”. We aren’t educating them we are just preparing “Money Machines”. We are
only increasing the burden of the books for our children and just enrolling them
in a reputed, big school for what, just for social status??? On the other hand
in our madrassas we are preparing people who finds very difficult to adjust in
the modern society. Sometimes it seems that they are from another planet. A
madrassa student can’t compete even in our country then the World is so far from
him. He finds very difficult to even speak to a school boy. It is crystal clear
that Islamic Education is necessary for Muslims but it is also a fact that
without modern education no one can compete in this world. There are many
examples of Muslim Scholars who not only study the Holy Quraan but also mastered
the other subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy and many more,
with the help of Holy Quraan. I think with the current education system we are
narrowing the way for our children instead of widening it. There is no doubt
that our children are very talented, both in schools and in madrassas, we just
need to give them proper ways to groom, give them the space to become
Quaid-E-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Allama Iqbal, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Alberoni,
Abnalhasam, or Einstein, Newton, Thomas Edison. The education system we are
running with is not working anymore. We have to find a way to bridge this gap
between school and madrassa.
Background of Pakistan’s Educational System
Numerous international assessments could explore that Pakistan is lagging behind
many countries in achieving the Education for All goal (EFA). We were the
signatory to the treaty under Dakar Framework where it was decided by all the
developing countries that they will be trying to achieve the target of EFI in
the meeting held in Senegal in 2000. UNESCO rates in Pakistan are at a lower EFA
development Index (EDI) because of low; enrolment at primary school, adult
literacy, gender equity and equality, equalities in education and quality of
education. The adult literacy in Pakistan, in spite of concerted efforts, fail
to go beyond the border line of 50 percent. The women literacy is much more
belittling as thirty three percent of the adult women cannot even read. The more
embracing would be that we would not be catching the target to achieve the adult
literacy by 2015. Progress towards the achievement of the targets is
exceptionally slow, while gender parity goal is at risk of not being achieved by
2015. Moreover, more than 6 million children are out of school.
Educational System in Pakistan:
Education system in Pakistan is really having a bad configuration at the moment.
There is no doubt in accepting the fact that education stands the backbone for
the development of nations. Looking at the history of nations, we may safely
reach the conclusion that the advanced nations of the world could reach the
zenith of prestige and power taking support from education. The allocations for
education are too meager, and in spite of allocation, the amount is not spent
for what it was meant for as the corruption is found in all the tiers of
education and also because of the same delivery from the government institutions
that is much below the desired and aspired levels. Private education in Pakistan
is far reaching for the poor and the turnover of this quality education does not
serve the country the way they are supposed to. Planning for education does not
go in congruence with the needs and implement remains ever ignored, so by this
way the system is getting more spoiled rather than flourishing. Our universities
have failed to produce the planners, developers, implementers, and decision
makers. Rather the turnover is a mismatch with the ground realities, the half
backed persons we are producing are of no use to us. The students we come across
are degree seekers rather than the knowledge. The increase in number of colleges
and universities does not mean that we are going by the standards rather these
are worsening, a simple evidence of which is that no Pakistani university could
find a space among the top 1000 universities of the world. The socio-economic
scenario is directly attached with the status of Education in the country. The
developed world managed to scale up their education in line with the needs and
market requirements. Despite the recent achievements, a lot more is needed to be
done as the country still faces numerous challenges which cause deterrence. We
are under obligation to raise the education of our population to the level of
our South Asian neighbors, to combat our own social and economic wants to the
satisfactory level.
The very scale of Pakistan’s education sector -- more than 150,000 public
education institutions serving over 21 million students and a huge private
sector that serves another 12 million – presents formidable challenges.