. Introduction: Education system of a country is evaluated on the basis of three accounts outreach, standard and provision of livelihood to educated youth.
2. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s education system has failed in all of the three aforementioned accounts.
3. Outreach: Provision of services:
L After Afghanistan, Pakistan has the lowest education outcomes in the region
11. The state has failed to provide sufficient infrastructure and conducive environment for education,
iii. Commitment gap and implementation gap have been identified as the two primary reasons for the abysmal condition of education system in Pakistan in the National Education Policy, 2009. گہرا۔
4. Education Standard:
i. Three parallel and largely unconnected systems of education are operating simultaneously which is a big compromise on standardized quality of education
ii. Abilities like broad-based knowledge, spoken and analytical skills are expected from an educated person these abilities are largely missing in educated class of Pakistan.
iii. Quality of education is poor and teaching profession has become less attractive for the competent individuals over the years.
5. Missing Education-Employment Linkage:
1. The educated youth of Pakistan is not imparted with the skill sets demanded by s potential employers.
ii. As a result, most of the employable youth remains unemployed.
6. Reversing the failure:
1. Inability to reverse the prevailing situation would not only limit the economic growth of the country but would also prove to be detrimental for the social fabr of the society.
44
ESSAY
Education system of a country can be evaluated on three main accounts. These aco thclude firstly, the capacity of a country to provide educational opportunities to every citize Secondly, it is related to the quality of the education which is imparted to the students: Thirdly, w evaluates the ability of the government to provide employment opportunities to its educated cl and at the same time, is the competency of the educated persons to attract the poten employers. Unfortunately, Pakistan has failed miserably on all of the three aforesaid accounts. has one of the lowest literacy rates in the region.
Moreover, The second highest number of out hool children of the world resides in Pakistan. As far as quality of education is concerned, he educated class largely lacks broad base knowledge, spoken and analytical skills. The teaching methods are outdated and cannot fulfil the demands of the contemporary world. As a resul unskilled and poorly groomed work-force is graduating from the institutes of learning. The abysmal condition of education system of Pakistan is the result of low budgetary allocation and inadequate infrastructure. Furthermore, the absence of conducive environment further exacerbates the performance of the education system. Pakistan needs to nevert the prevailing situation Otherwise, its economic conditions and social fabric would be at a greater risk. Right steps in the right direction are required to reverse the prevailing miserable situation. On these lines. Pakistan’s education system can meet the challenges of the modern world and eventually it would lead the country to progress and prosperity.
To begin with it is imperative here to understand the three main purposes and expectation from an education system of a country. The foremost expectation from an education system is that it should be equally accessible to all the citizens of the country irrespective of the background. It means that the children between the ages of 5 to 16 are provided with the educational opportunities by the state. For this, there needs to be sufficient schools, colleges and universities.
Along with infrastructural facilities, competent, well-versed and properly trained teachers are important for meeting the end of education and learning. Secondly, the education system needs to be well devised in imparting quality education in the student. It should fulfil the demands of the contemporary challenges of national and international natures. Above and beyond, it needs to be focused on ensuring social mobility for the educated class. This would only be possible if education system produces the useful citizens; such citizens that can respectably earn their livelihood. An education system which cannot accomplish the abovementioned criteria is considered as a failed system of education.
Education system of Pakistan has failed badly in achieving provision, quality and livelihood for its educated class. On quantity front, Pakistan, after Afghanistan, has the lowest education outcomes in the region. Its literacy rate is mere 58% (Alif Alaan). There is a huge gap between regions and genders in educational attainment and literacy. The gap between the women literacy rate and the men literacy rate is around 25%, Moreover, Pakistan has the second highest number.
of out of school children in the world, it is reported that around 25 million wheel, going ge children are out of school in Pakistan (Alf Alaun). The highest percentage of such children is in underdeveloped regions of Pakistan, lake EALA, Balochistan and anterio Santh Above all, the drop-out rate is continuously increasing in the country with the highest rate at primary level. This all speaks volumes about the awful condition of education system of Pakistan
Moreover, the major reasons behind the failure to provide education to every citizen are that the state has failed in establishing suflicient infrastructure and conducive environment for education. The number of schools, colleges and universities are far less than the required number There is a huge number of ghost and non-functional schools and colleges in the country Similarly, among the functional institutions, a huge number lacks basic facilities like boundary walls, electricity, drinking water and toilets. Moreover, schools are located far away from the communities, especially in rural areas. It adds further towards the challenges of the needy and underprivileged students. In the conservative society of Pakistan, the parents of girls are reluctant to send their daughters to far away sehools under the pretext of insecurity and harassment. All of this makes difficult for students in accessing educational facilities. Thereby, the number of out of
school children is swelling with time
Furthermore, the National Education Policy 2009 has identified commitment gap and implementation gap as the major reasons behind the low literacy rate in Pakistan. Commitment gap means that low financial resources are allocated to the education sector. Governments have been granting a mere 2% of the GDP to the education sector for last couples of decades despite huge claims of giving first priority to education sector. This budgetary allocation is one of the lowest in South Asia (Alif Alaan). On the other hand, the implementation gap means the sector is governed poorly and the utilisation of its resources is inefficient. It is reported that only 20-30% of the budget allocated to the sector is utilized effectively.
All else is used ineffectively and improvidently. The corruption, embezzlement of resources and nepotism are widespread in this sector. The postings and recruitments in this department are made under political influence which severely damages the culture of meritocracy. The result being that a large number of children are out of school and country suffers from overall low levels of literacy causing many ailments in
social, political and economic sector In addition to narrow outreach, poor quality of education further exacerbates the performance of education system of Pakistan. The foremost reason contributing towards poor performance of education system is the prevalence of three parallel and largely unconnected systems of education. These three parallel systems include public and non-elite private schools, clitist private schools and religious sem