Education in Pakistan
Education Reform In Pakistan – Challenges and Prospects
Education can be dangerous. It is very difficult to make it not dangerous. In fact, it is almost impossible. The only way you can prevent education from being dangerous is to try and develop an educational system in which the pupil is exposed to no ideas whatsoever. [Robert Hutchins]
The connection between education and human security – defined in a broad sense – is immediate and direct. How future Pakistanis will live, the qua lity of their lives, the kinds of employment available, the political system to be, the manner in which citizens will resolve conflicts between themselves, and the country’s relationship to the global community of nations, will ultimately be determined by the content and quality of their education.
Education also provides a society with its scientists, engineers, managers, technicians, and trained and trainable people. In a world where economies are increasingly based upon the availability of sophisticated skills and a well- informed citizenry, education in rapidly progressing countries is considered a sound investment into the future.
Belgium or Holland, for example, have few natural resources but have political and economic power that is disproportionately large. On the other hand, Pakistan’s greatest need – and its single greatest failure – is its tragic failure to educate its citizens. Only 25 per cent of the Pakistani work- force is literate, and female literacy in two of the four provinces, Balochistan and North West Frontier Province, is lower than in sub-Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, education remains a low-priority issue for the Pakistani state, evident both from historically low levels of funding and a chronic inability to take major steps towards reform now that funding is likely to increase.
What is true today was true nearly six decades ago as well. In fact, one might argue that the origins of the present situation are to be found at the time
Education can be dangerous. It is very difficult to make it not dangerous. In fact, it is almost impossible. The only way you can prevent education from being dangerous is to try and develop an educational system in which the pupil is exposed to no ideas whatsoever. [Robert Hutchins]
The connection between education and human security – defined in a broad sense – is immediate and direct. How future Pakistanis will live, the qua lity of their lives, the kinds of employment available, the political system to be, the manner in which citizens will resolve conflicts between themselves, and the country’s relationship to the global community of nations, will ultimately be determined by the content and quality of their education.
Education also provides a society with its scientists, engineers, managers, technicians, and trained and trainable people. In a world where economies are increasingly based upon the availability of sophisticated skills and a well- informed citizenry, education in rapidly progressing countries is considered a sound investment into the future.
Belgium or Holland, for example, have few natural resources but have political and economic power that is disproportionately large. On the other hand, Pakistan’s greatest need – and its single greatest failure – is its tragic failure to educate its citizens. Only 25 per cent of the Pakistani work- force is literate, and female literacy in two of the four provinces, Balochistan and North West Frontier Province, is lower than in sub-Saharan Africa. Nevertheless, education remains a low-priority issue for the Pakistani state, evident both from historically low levels of funding and a chronic inability to take major steps towards reform now that funding is likely to increase.
What is true today was true nearly six decades ago as well. In fact, one might argue that the origins of the present situation are to be found at the time