Education is the road to civil development. It creates a sense of responsibility among the people; People who are educated understand not just their responsibilities, but also how to execute their national, social, and individual rights. Since, the birth of the Nation in 1947, Pakistan always has admired education and believes that it has the capacity to change the fortune of the country. But Pakistan is facing several threatening problems of education. The education system of Pakistan is not admirable. The literacy rate as of April 2021 was calculated at 59 percent with less than 47 percent of the women being literate more than 71 percent of the men. The Constitution of the country clearly indicates that education should be free and compulsory for people of all ages.
The education system of Pakistan is composing of 260,903, schools, colleges, universities, and vocational training centers and all of them are facilitating 41,018,384 students all over the country with the help of 1,535,461 teachers, professors, and coaches. This includes 180,846 public institutions and 80,057 private institutions. Private educational institutes are a bit of expensive than public sectors which is one of the main problems for parents who want to educate their children. Some of the main problems of education in Pakistan are listed below.
Non-Practical Education: country’s education system is unable to gear up the students with practical skills. The more negative impact is that students only read books to pass their exams, as a result of this, most students holding degrees can’t utilize skills and earn a decent amount of money to live a cheerful life. They only trust in jobs with lower salaries that also need practical skills in the modern age. At some points, a big slap on the Pakistani education system is that non-degree holders are giving jobs to Degree holders.
Old Syllabus: yes, indeed we are teaching 20 years old outdated syllabus to our students, which is a joke to our education system, we cannot improve with the old syllabus on the table. They have to come up with fresh and latest knowledge which can be compared to a foreign syllabus to overcome the challenges of quality education in Pakistan.
Lack of Quality Teachers: teachers are considered the backbone of the education system. Quality teachers in Pakistani schools are disgraceful. This situation is worse in remote areas of Punjab and Sindh. Where there are no teachers available in schools and those schools are known as Ghost Schools. . A large number of teachers do not know about lesson planning which renders them incapable of using new methods of teachings. In the government sector, Teachers are often used as a form of favoritism/bribery by politicians. In the private sector, they locate inexperienced and low-wage teachers.
Dropouts: There is indeed a lack of discipline in educational institutions as a result of ineffective school administration. Educational institutions, resulting in a large number of student dropouts. This tendency has escalated to such an extent that to the point that there are currently 40 lac children out of school in Pakistan at the matric level owing to dropout. This tendency has contributed to Pakistan's low literacy rate.
Corruption: Another major problem in the education system of Pakistan is corruption that has been deeply affected. There is no check and balance which results encouraged criminals misappropriating funds, use authority illegally, and giving unnecessary favors in the allocation of funds, transfers, and decision making. Because of this teachers with lower salaries in search of a decent life attempt an unfair means in the examination and matters relating to certificates, degrees, and so on.
Education flourishes people in all spheres of life, such as social, moral, spiritual, political, and economic. It is a fact that countries that have developed a sound system of education have a sound social and political system. With an effective educational system, many countries are playing a leadership role in the country. Pakistan's education system has been unable to successfully perform its role in nation-building. This issue has led to the rise of dissatisfaction in Pakistani society. This research indicates that there is an urgent need to improve Pakistan's educational system, and it makes the following suggestions to that goal.