EDUCATIONAL DISPARITIES IN PAKISTAN

Few years ago, in my neighbor there was a bunglow and no one was living there after some time a family came and started living there after investigation I found that they were hired by the owner of the bunglow to protect his property from any illegal ownership. The total number of members in the family was 5 and they were husband and wife, two boys and a little girl. The family belongs to the rural area of Sindh and they were very poor. The husband who was the only breadwinner of the family was working in a private school as a peon and both the boys were too young to work anywhere. Both the husband and wife were very interested in educating their children but due to their financial issues they were unable to educate them. Both of them want their children to study in a private school not in government one because when I was talking to them I came to know that they were very well aware of the low standards of public schools. I also came to know that he requested in the private school where he was working regarding the admission and concession in the fees but they rejected his request saying that it is against their policy.

From the above I just want to highlight that a person who belongs to the rural area of Sindh and is from a very poor background is not preferring government school for his children ,with the help of this we can clearly judge the standards and the disparities in the education system of Pakistan. It is a very common issue in Pakistan that if a person belongs to a poor neighborhood or minority than there are huge possibilities that the school in which he or she is studying may lack the most basic facilities.

A part from poverty there are many other issues and disparities in the education system of Pakistan some of them are regional disparities, above all is the difference in the syllabus and curricula there is a big difference in the syllabus and curricula of the government schools as compare to the private and it has been seen that there is a continuous increase in the number of private schools in Pakistan from the past two decades which increased the problems for the underprivileged one’s as they cannot afford the fees of the private schools and no one is paying attention towards increasing the standards of the public schools. I am very sure that there are many parents who are eager to educate their children but due to financial issues and low standard of public schools they step backward. Hence, due to this child labor also increases which is also one of the biggest problem of Pakistan.

Some of the statistical facts and a bitter truth regarding the low standards of the public schools in Pakistan are: According to the Academy of Educational Planning and Management (AEPAM), Baluchistan which is the biggest province according to land has the highest ratio with respect to out of school children According to the report 70% of children are out of school in Baluchistan. If I talk about the infrastructure of the Government schools it is very hard to say that more than 40% of public schools are operating without electricity, 43 % have unsatisfactory buildings and are vulnerable due to which the children’s are at risk, 25%are without any boundary wall with no drinking water facility and last but not the least 28% of the public schools are lacking any toilet facility in them. A part from all these issues accessibility is also a big problem; public schools which are located in rural areas are located far away from the village population due to which parents are not willing to send their children’s because mostly the people living in the rural areas are those who cannot afford any transportation facility.

These all above mention issues have contributed in educational disparities in Pakistan. Few solutions to overcome such issues would be 1) Implementation of the best national policy for the education system of Pakistan 2) Uniformity in the curriculum should be developed so that the equal rights should be available for the underprivileged one’s 3) Development of the public schools near village population for ease in accessibility 4) Introduction of technical and digital training systems and allocation of extra funds for this purpose so that the underprivileged one’s could step up with the modern world 5)Above all corruption in the education system of Pakistan is at its peak, to eradicate corruption from the system there is a need for a proper control and audit system and hiring of honest people is very important or nothing will be change.