Few months back, I affiliated with a welfare organization who is working in educational sector. Often, I used to visit various schools located in remote villages of Sargodha. During my visits, shockingly I came to know that government teachers don’t bother to stay at school for a required time. Also, I felt that drop out ratio is too high especially in the primary schools. Moreover, Children are unable to go beyond the basic literacy which deprives them of getting a good job later on.
However, I met with an old farmer who sent his daughter the government primary school of his village. He wanted to see her daughter as a doctor or teacher. But he was terrified with the poor quality of education provided by government primary schools. In such circumstances, he feared that she will probably unable to get education above matriculation. Furthermore, some female students, who were reached schools after travelling kilometers from the village, grumbled that lack of secure transportation contributed to higher drop out ratio after matriculation. On the other hand, Arif, a clerk in Punjab government, was living in an urban area. He thought that government schools are ineffective and complained that he has to spend a lot on his children’s schooling in local private school even than his children cannot obtain quality based education. The difference of learning between his children and the children of his officers is quite clear and is widening swiftly over time.
Truthfully, Article 25A of the constitution endorsed that education is basic right of children. Unfortunately, no progress has been made to ensure this right which resulted in failing to ensure higher ratio of children to be enrolled. Along with, students who get enrolled are beyond the spectrum and quite poor comparing with the private schools of elite class with higher fee.
Recently, Annual education report 2014 was published which states that most of the children in class V cannot read or write properly and their level of mathematics similar to the children of II or III class. Furthermore, there are also a small percentage of the children who do not possess basic educational skills even studying in VIII or IX class.
All educational evils circles around justice, Fairness and rights. In urdu, two words are for justice; adl and insaf. Insaf derives from nisf (half) and indicates the idea of equality, while adl signifies the way justice is to be delivered. Both notions are the concept of human rights that are payable to others. The concept of justice is vehemently described by the Amartya Sen. She said that it is not only the responsibility of institutions to enact justice but also every individual of the society has to eliminate injustice and to start reducing it by enhancing the capabilities of people to provide greater justice.
Ensuring justice in education, state machinery, at first, holds the responsibility to implement, in true sense, the rights and duties mentioned in Constitution of Pakistan. Secondly, media is playing its role in raising awareness about necessity of education in life. Thirdly, courts are the custodian of constitution and also these are responsible to safeguard basic rights of individuals. Fourthly and lastly, present government allocated only 2 percent of GDP for education even though party manifesto of PML N clearly stated that education must be first priority of the political party. Along with, provincial governments took some steps as increasing budget of education but it is not enough to cope unjust educational system. The statistics provided by Pakistan Social Living standards Measurement data 2012-13 showed the gravity of situation as it informs that only 3 percent rural girls in Baluchistan are getting education in secondary schools and situation is alike in Sindh where only 7 percent girls are attending secondary school.
In a nutshell, educational disparities in Pakistan threaten safe future of the nation. What can be answered to the old farmer, a clerk Arif, and female students of remote villages of Sargodha? Obviously, the answer is we have no concern with our children’s educational brought up who is the future of the nation.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Lahore Times.