Shahbaz’s funny mendacity

Editorial: THE FRONTIER POST

Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, says that education in the province on his watch has acquired international standards. Really? We didn’t know. But do those standards include state-run schools functioning in graveyards and on city streets, as in Punjab? And do they also have schools in the countryside in Britain that have no buildings at all and where classes are held under the shade of trees and students sit on the bare ground? Do they have schools in France, too, with not even a boundary wall? Do they have schools also in Italy where separate teachers take two or three classes simultaneously in a single room with not even a dividing screen? And in Germany do they too have schools where there is no teacher to teach science and no science laboratory for the students for practical exercises? Do they have schools in the Scandinavian countries as well with no toilets, not even drinking-water facility? In Norway, do they also have schools where the teachers in battalions do not turn up to teach? And in the United States, do they have colleges that function in vacated jails where classes are held in the prisoners’ cells and the students throng on the doors and the corridors to attend the lectures, as in Punjab? And which banana republic as it where not even a single secondary board could produce undisputed results as in Punjab? What kind of mendacity indeed is it that this chief minister has so funnily blurted out? So exasperating it is. And so untruthful too. It only demonstrates that he is absolutely ignorant of the stinking thick rot the state-run schooling is in Punjab. Nor does he seem to know in what a dismal shape is the college education in his domain on his watch. By building a clutch of daanish schools, he appears thinking he has done an education miracle to Punjab, which in reality it is not. With this ostentatious adventure, he may have enlivened the hope for the better of a few thousands of “talented” poor students. But by letting the vast network of state-run schools to rot, he has darkened the future of millions of poor students, many innately talented, on the rolls of this system which alone is accessible to the deprived and denied classes of the citizenry in his province too. With his populist laptop contrivance, he may have added a bit of fat to his vote-bank and may even garner a few votes in the other province where too he now plans to distribute laptops. But he has done a great disservice to the cause of education in the province by taking to this patently politically-motivated but prohibitively exorbitant trick. The precious billions of the taxpayer’s money he has squandered on this political venture so recklessly, he could have utilised for promotion of science education in the state-run schools, particularly in the countryside. And that predictably would have been quite profitable to him politically as well. An indebted public for his uplift of the rotting sate-run school system would have possibly returned the compliment by rallying behind him in strength at the ballot box. But such things could hardly come to him, so swayed is he by his populist daanish schools and laptops forays. He wouldn’t even know that the people in Punjab would do without the international standards and be quite content if what they already have is built up into a delivering system where the state-run schools are run competently and professionally. Where the schools have their proper buildings with boundary walls, adequate furniture and electric fittings, and amenities like toilets and drinking water. Where the teachers turn up regularly and punctually to teach. Where the facilities for science teaching, including teachers and laboratories, are all available readily. Where the inspectors visit the schools regularly as well as in surprise to inspect their upkeep and keep an eye on their educational standards. Where the secondary education boards produce correct and credible results. And where the colleges maintain full teaching faculties and ask not the students to hire out a private tuition in the subject they have no lecturer on payrolls to teach and they would send up their admission forms to the university for examination in the subject. Shahbaz must know that Punjab too suffers from deficiencies in almost every department of education, which instead of diminishing have only increased on his watch. And the people of the province are crying for no education miracles. They are screaming for an education system fit enough for their children to send to for learning and education. This he has spectacularly failed to give them.