Education: the major problem in Pakistan

MEHROSE RIZWAN

Education is the most essential ingredient for the development of a nation. It is a global fact that nations who have reached the heights of the development and prosperity have done it by using education and information as a tool to do it. Education is simply an investment to achieve both human and economic development. But unfortunately it is one of the biggest problems in Pakistan. The education system of Pakistan is rotten to the core. The literacy rate in Pakistan is recorded as about 55% in 2012-2013.

At present, the education sector is facing crisis just like other major sectors of the country. Following are the major problems in education system of Pakistan:

The educational system of the country is based on different mediums which divides the students in two segments. Mostly private schools are English medium while the Government schools are Urdu medium. Regional differences are also a major cause for a poor educational system in Pakistan.

Gender discrimination is very common in Pakistan. People are very conservative and they don’t want their girls to go to school and get education. Due to this, the ratio of boys and girls in primary schools is 10:4.

In Human Development Report Pakistan is placed at 136th position for having just 49.9% educated population. In addition to that, Pakistan is ranked at 113th out of 120 registered UN members according to the research conducted by UNESCO et al. Some of the very basic flaws of the education system in Pakistan contribute to the economic, ethnic and sociopolitical crisis within the country.

Moreover, the quality of education in most of the public schools and colleges is well below par; the teachers in government schools are not well trained. People who do not get job in any other sector, they try their luck in educational system. They are not professionally trained teachers so they are unable to train a nation. Quality of teaching needs special attention in rural areas where the teachers lack in all departments.

Poverty is another factor that prohibits the parents to send their children to private school where the quality of education is high. Poor people get their children admitted to Government schools. The teachers in Government schools are not professionally trained. They even don’t take lectures and waste the precious time of the students.

The allocation of funds for education sector by the Government of Pakistan are very low; only 2% of the total GDP. Government should increase this rate to improve the quality of educational system.

Education is very important for the development of every country. It is the only cure for the disability of a country because today’s students are tomorrow’s nation builder. Government of Pakistan should take steps to remove the above mentioned problems so as to improve the quality of educational system of the country.