Education is the only tool
through which we can face challenges of life and fight to them with great
temerity. Education is as consequential for life as water and breath for us or
as fuel for running a car and an airplane. It is considered the light of life
and the way for development. It is an important source of economic progress,
technological and societal development. Education is also an essential tool for
the evolution of human civilization in the world throughout the history. In
Stone Age era the people had no idea of communication and technological
development while living in caves. However, the gradual progress continued in
this regard and the formation of language was the first step for communication
with each other. Then the next step was taken to arrange the alphabets while
thoroughly working on Philology. This is how the grammar came into being by
adding various bifurcations which made the communication further easily for
operating. Since then, the world has witnessed the evolution from stone to
atomic weapons and from dark to electricity. Then the world has also seen the
outflow and dissemination of globalization which made the countries boundary
less. This evolution has been done by the countless efforts and struggle of
mankind in all walks of life in general while particular in education.
Though, education is considered as the basic, permanent, precious and important
possession of every individual but still the citizens of Pakistan has deprived
from this basic human right. In fact, almost all Muslim countries are not only
backward but also facing severe challenges in education sector. Despite having
great natural resources, they sorely in need to get technological assistance
from western world. This basic reason behind this, expresses their negligence in
education. For instance, the number of universities in England is much greater
than total number of all Muslim states. Furthermore, there is no university of
Muslim states ranked in first top 200.
This is education that builds the nation and also it is very vital for survival
of nation. Islam greatly emphasis on the importance of education and makes it
the duty of every male and female. According to Islam education means “to know
Allah” but unfortunately we are totally unaware to this. It is failure of our
fragile system that neither our Madrassas nor scientific institutions educate
the youth in this regard. In scientific institutions, we prepare Money machine
rather than educating or guiding the youth with the real purpose of education.
In the same way, students come out from Madrassas face severe challenges for
adjustment in modern society of today. These unequal lines create discrimination
in the society as we are being faced today. Robert Maynard Hutchins states it as
“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves
throughout their lives.” We should create opportunity for youth to educate and
guide themselves. Edward Everett described that “Education is a better safeguard
of liberty than a standing army.”
It is important to observe the reason behind this downfall of the sector.
Education system is the victim of negligence from the hands of some individual
belonged to different strata of the society. According to 1973 constitution,
education is the basic right of citizens but it’s failure of the system,
politician, and ruling authority as still millions of children still out of
schools. I think this fragile system narrowing the way of getting education
rather than bashing it. Undoubtedly, Shaheen of Iqbal is very talented they can
do what they want if the system and government facilitate them. The youth is
observed as the precious opulence and future of the state. The government and
system need to groom, guided and educate the youth to become Allama Iqbal,
Quaid-E-Azam, Albert Einstein, Alberoni, Sir Sayed Ahmed Khan, Newton and Thomas
Elva Edison.
More than 6 million children are the victim of child labor, and most alarming
fact is that over half population at 10 never ever attended the schools. We
should realize that it’s education which produced skills, understanding,
knowledge and polishing talent of individual. These millions number of
uneducated children cannot play their role for development of the nation as the
educated do. There are a number of flaws existing in the system such as medium
of education, disparity at provincial level, gender discrimination, low funds,
lack of technical education, untrained teachers, rapid growth of poverty,
burgeoning quantum of corruption, imbalance at social level, bad infrastructure,
mismanagement of the system, private and government schooling system, lack of
educational policies, increasing population, weak authority, education as a
business, political interference, lack of renew able policies, scanty resources,
lack of research, lack of practical teaching, and many others.
These all problems mentioned above, need attention to be tackled on urgent bases
though they can take time. The government must fulfill the promise of providing
free education to all needy students. According to constitution 1973, article
37-b, “the state shall remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory
secondary education within minimum possible period.” It is crystal clear that
the state cannot find the way of development with low literacy rate.
Furthermore, Pakistan has placed 146 out of 187 in Human Development Index in
2012-13. Similarly, Pakistan’s total literacy rate is 57% with 69% male and 45%
female. There is speculation about this percentage because in 2013 the United
Nations reported 22% total literacy rate which is very low indeed. Actually
literacy rate means “the ability of a person who can read a newspaper and write
a simple letter in any language.”
Education is having backbone status in the development and unity of a nation.
The effective education system and attentive authority can lead the nation
towards a best future. Education is the only tool that can render the burden of
increasing population into productive human resource. Government must be doubled
the education budget to meet all challenges. It can lead us towards peace and
prosperity. Similarly, dissemination of modern education can also eliminate
terrorism, ethnic issues, discrimination and other challenging issues.
Furthermore, the government should renew its policies and fetch reform in
educational system. They should bash awareness among the people via media, civil
society and conferences. The government must focus on far off areas and
establish further schools, colleges and universities for the dissemination of
modern scientific and Islamic knowledge. Most importantly, politics must be
eliminated from colleges and universities and also student focus on their study
rather than wasting time nefarious means. James A. Garfield says that “next in
importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither
freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.”