Prime Minister Imran Khan has
formally initiated the conversion of the PM House into the Islamabad National
University.The announcement was made during a seminar titled "Emerging
Challenges and Opportunities for Pakistan.PM Khan, during his speech at the
inauguration ceremony, said that the purpose of establishing a University or
Centre OfExcellence(COE) at the PM House was to reduce the gap between the
government and public.
The premier stressed the importance of "quality education" for a nation's
"progress and development", adding that the overall level of education will be
improved during his term.
It’s right that purpose of establishing a university in the PM House is to
signal the need for education and human development if Pakistan is to develop
and progress as a nation.
There are about 188 universities in Pakistan but the standard of higher
education is awful.House Of Wisdom was also mentioned by Imran Khan but a glance
must also be cast on private sector of education which only distributes degrees
without any wisdom.
The major structural issues in higher education system of Pakistan are leading
to poor governance of the educational institutions and questionable quality of
education. Governance differences are present both in public and private sector
universities.It is very rare to find a member on the board being appointed
because they possess knowledge of how universities need to perform or they have
outstanding academic contribution.
According to World Bank Report (2000) Pakistan has a high level of
accountability but it is of negative kind.The board of governors has a low
degree of autonomy.
Private sector universities in Pakistan have grown by a large number in the last
two decades. However, at one end, the growth of such institutions provides more
variety to students;there are some universities with questionable status.
Quality Assurance for the academia as well as the government and policymakers is
essential to guarantee outcomes for the managing of higher education
institutions (HEIs).Inspection and accountability are externally monitored,
whereas teachers, a variety of programs etc derive quality internally in
institutions.
HEC has acted like any other bureaucracy in the country where polices are made
on the basis of a reaction to the problem rather than to actually finding the
cause of the problem.Higher education institutions are still in confusion.
Unfortunately,a coherent policy for higher education in the country has not been
formulated at the national level.
The board of governors of universities seems unaware of these structural issues
of universities. This leads to universities being unable to cope with the
challenges. These challenges include the evolution of new markets and the
creation of new professions and vocations.There is a need for decentralisation
in terms of decision making.
Higher Education in Pakistan is not at par with international standards leaving
a dearth of qualified graduates who can help with the rebuilding of the higher
education institutions.Even Competitive exams like CSS results have further
exposed the scenario.
There is a need for the public sector’s boards to be remodeled to cope with the
changes and to be able to provide good governance.
There is a need to improve the quality of faculty and the programs being
offered.
There is no doubt in accepting the fact that education brings about a change in
the social, political and cultural scenario of the country; though the change
remains slow but it does have an impact on the society at large. It does bring
about improvements in the organizational problem-solving through the use of
design, structural paraphernalia, globalized need and quality based systems.
Indeed,Pakistan is suffering not only from economic problem but there’s a mild
diversity in case of Education. Lack of education is the main reason behind the
backwardness of Pakistan. Poverty has led many homes to discourage their
children from going to school. Educational infrastructure, ghost schools,
culture of absenteeism, multiplicity of educational system, gender disparity,
lack of technologies, bad governance and poorly-trained teaching staff are the
major reasons behind the education crisis. Lack of education is one problem that
needs to be solved as only it can lead to a brighter future of Pakistan.
Education’s condition is despicable throughout the country as its literacy rate
is 58% with huge gender disparity. 43% literacy rate is noticed in families
while less then 3% families know how to read in FATA. Nearly 5.1 million
children have been deprived of the basic right of Education in Pakistan.
Education is the only cure of the instability in the state and can bring
Revolution through evolution, by eradicating the social evils.
Education system is needed to be revamped making a space for the science, IT,
management, and pupil with the excellence to go to the higher education pursuing
the education of their own choice. Lesser emphasis on technical education means
the lesser manpower for industry and hence the lesser finance generation.
The allocation of funds for education is very low as it never went beyond 1.5 to
2.0 percent of the total GDP.There is a need to increase it around 7% of the
total GDP.
Teachers should be offered more financial benefits by increasing their
pays.Government should strictly check all private educational institutions for
keeping abalance of standards and level of practices.Workshops must be arranged
for teachers as a continuous feature for learning.
Cutting long story short,Education serves as the backbone for the development of
nations.The countries with the effective impressive need oriented, saleable and
effective system of education comes out to be the leaders of the world, both
socially and economically. It is only education which can turn a burden of
population into productive human resource. Pakistan's current state demands that
the allocations for education be doubled to meet the challenges of EFI, gender
disparity and provision of teachers in the work places earlier than 2018 as per
stipulated qualifications. Millennium Development Goals are yet to be realized
latest by 2015.We have to revisit our priorities to keep the country on the
track of progress.