Insaf Ali Bangwar
The looming large clouds of ignorance are getting thicker and thinner by the day owing to having a low-standard quality of education within the country and the Corona-led pandemic is aggravated the dilemma in the form of closures in education institutions for near a year. Through educating the nation all the social evil activities would be exterminated and will make the nation independent financially, dwindle the illegal happenings, diminish the ratio of illiteracy and decrease the totalitarianism against the unsophisticated since the enlightenment eliminates all the evils. Education is the only platform that can lead a nation to a prosperous future. By education, the youth also will prolong its comprehensive struggles for the nation as if a person is prospering so does a nation. Although we have had a lot of experience in the past eras that primitive education systems do not bring the desired results, we need to bring reform within it to have a forward step towards quality education. Irrefutably, nations across the globe are prospered owing to having a reformed education eco-system, implementation of law and order and investment in youth. Hence, they are called superpower states with mammoth GDP growth along with robust economies. Leaving behind a legacy that investment in youth always pays off succinctly. Despite a law in our constitution that the government should provide a ‘free and compulsory’ education to all children aged between 5 to 16 via Article 25A. Notwithstanding, some 22.8 million children are out-of-school and working somewhere else for indigenous crafts and other works, losing Pakistan’s asset since every growing child is full of stamina, if properly nurtured, plays a significant role to pop up the nation’s image. The other countries like Finland, Denmark and Singapore are mostly known for their education system. Finland is consistently at three years is top on the list for the education system and got declared the world’s happiest country since all individuals are independent financially and finance is the only aspect that leads to prosperity, salubriousness and healthiness. Unfortunately, here in Pakistan, we see children begging in the street, parks and highways because of the dwindling education system and unreliable government policies regarding it is forcing the parents to send their children to learn indigenous crafts over getting an education. Dwindling spending in education led us to ignorance, fueled the feudal lords and influential people and much more ignorance-borne turmoils since Pakistan spends 2 per cent of its budget on education institutions yearly which is merely a ‘drop in the ocean’. Whereas our neighbour — India — is a powerhouse regarding education and spends 4 per cent of its budget in education, though, she is the second-largest populated and provides a ‘free’ lunch to school children, resultantly, the CEOs of renowned companies of the IT industries like Google, Microsoft, Twitter and so on, are from India. Even in the federal capital — Islamabad — there is a deficiency of teachers with a huge percentage of 35 and when the reason came to know that the government cannot afford the salaries of the employees if they get employed. Some 500,000 people of the country flew to foreign countries for a better future and a better career they desire which was not being provided by the country, what if they all work for our own country and how beneficial it would have been for the economy? The institutionalisation of educational institutions are direly needed to be built and to promote the standard of education within the country and make people rely on that education is the only weapon that could lead us to as compared with the first world countries on the globe. So that the graduate students of the country may not go to foreign countries for a better future if our country provides them with better opportunities and provide an equal playground for all aspirants of the country. Yes, we acknowledge that the government brought a reform but of name, if the reform was completely new, even till bankruptcy, the process would remain unfinished, this is how much it costs. The Single National Curriculum even itself needs reform owing to being incapable of implementation and could not remain for decades. The current situation of the educational institutions is based on cramming, since what they cram, the same is available in the exams. The education system needs change other than Single National Curriculum [SNC]. Owing to not paying the desired results, it is compulsory to have reform within it. Because investment in education is the best investment. The state needs to push its nation towards betterment and that betterment would come only by making the education institutions robust and making their quality high-five and hilly.
