Education in Pakistan

Education in Pakistan

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  0 Assignment #1 Pakistan Studies Topic:Education in Pakistan International Islamic University, Islamabad Department of Electronic Engineering BSEE F12: Pakistan Studies Spring 2016
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  1 INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITYISLAMABAD Topic: Education in Pakistan SUBMITTED TO: Ma’am SABAH MUSHTAQ SUBMITTED BY: AROOSA AMANAT 1932/BSEE/FET/F12 SUBMISSION DATE: 5/4/2016
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  2 TABLE OF CONTENT TitlePage No 1. Education and its Importance…..…………………………………………………………………………….3 2. Education Polices since 1947 …………………………………….………………………………………3 3. Education System in Pakistan …………………………………………………………………….…………4 3.1 Primary Education ………………………………………………………………………………………..4 3.2 Middle Education ………………………………………………………………………………………….4 3.3 Secondary Education …………………………………………………………………………………….4 3.4 Vocational Education …………………………………………………………………………………….5 3.5 Tertiary Education …………………………………………………………………………………………5 4. Issues in Pakistan’s Education …………………………………………………………………………....5 4.1 Lack of implementation of educational policies ………………………………5 4.2 Medium of education ………………………………………………………….5 4.3 Lack of Funding ………………………………………………………………………6 4.4 Corruption ……………………………………………………………………………..6 4.4 Lack of Technical Education ………………………………………………………….7 4.5 Social Imbalance ……………………………………………………………………....7 4.6 Examination System …………………………………………………………………...7 4.7 Unprofessional Teachers ……………………………………………………………….7 5. Solutions for Educational System ………………………………………………………………………..8
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  3 Education in Pakistan Educationand its Importance: Education is a process through which human beings acquire knowledge and learn useful skills. Education is a word derived from Latin statement “Educatum “which means the act of teaching or training. Education is the main building block of any society. Here are some famous quotes of different personalities regarding education. “Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. “Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.” ― Robert Frost “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” ― Nelson Mandela Education has more importance in every religion and Islam as a religion emphasis on seeking knowledge. The Holy Qur’an and the Islamic Tradition (Sunnah) invite Muslims to seek knowledge and wisdom. The first few verses of Holy Qur’an that were revealed to our Holy Prophet Mohammed (‫-ﷺ‬Sallallaho Alaihi Wa’Sallam) mention the importance of reading, pen, and teaching for human beings. “Read in the name of your Lord who created” “Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood” “Read, and your Lord is the most Generous” “Who taught by the pen” “Taught man that which he knew not.” (Holy Qur’an 96:1-5) Hence, it is a beautiful prayer for every Muslim to ask always: “O my Lord! Increase me in knowledge.” (Quran 20:114) Education plays important role in building society as it create social political and economic awareness among the people of country. Education is continuous process and it bring positive change in human life. Education is building block of any nation. As education create the sense in humans what is wrong and what is right. Education Polices since 1947: Importance of education is evident from the Education policies introduced by the Government different periods. Following education policies have been introduced in the country since its independence in 1947: Educational conference 1947 Report of the Commission on National Education 1959 Education Policy 1972-80 Education policy 1978
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  4 National Education policy1998-2011 From 1947 to 1998 all the policies emphasized upon the promotion of literacy, universal primary education, improvement in the quality of education and promotion of science and technical education. Stress was also laid on the quality of teacher training, improvement in the textbooks and the examination and evaluation system. High targets were set for improving primary education and literacy rate but in reality those targets could not be achieved. The first meeting on education National education conference was held at Karachifrom 27 November to 1 December 1947 after partition. In that meeting infrastructure as well as the ideology of education was decided. The Conference formed a number of committees, including for primary and secondary education and for adult education. It proposed separate pre-primary and primary education stages for children of ages 3 to 6 and 6 to 11, respectively. It also took account on the problems of medium of instruction, teacher training, physical education, etc. The important aspectof Education policy 1972-80 wasnationalization of private institutions but it damaged the system of education. In the policy of 1978 teaching of Islamic Studies and Pakistan Studies was made compulsory from class lX to degree level. During this period Social Action Program was started for improvement of education by opening new schools for female children. Literacy Commission was set up with an objective of spreading literacy in the country. But in practice the objectives of education could not be achieved as per targets set in the policies due to insufficient allocation of funds for different sectors of education, defective supervision and mismanagement of the educational institutions. Private sector was totally ignored and was kept away to share in the promotion of education. The examination system suffered from a number of mismanagements. The Teacher training system could not be improved. Therefore, government decided to prepare a comprehensive Education policy to meet the challenges of the modern world. In this Perspective National Education policy 1998-2011 waspreparedand enforced in the country. Education System in Pakistan: In Pakistan, the education system adopted from colonial authorities has been described as one of the most underdeveloped in the world. Our education system is divided into following parts: 1. Primary Education Grade 1-5 is described as Primary Education. Barely 60% of children complete grades 1 to 5 at primary school. 2. Middle Education Middle school follows with grades 6 to 8.Subjects include Urdu, English, arts, Islamic studies, mathematics, science, social studies, and computer science where equipment is available. 3. Secondary Education It includes grades 9 to 12 with annual examinations. On completion of grade 10, students may qualify for a secondary school certificate. If they wish to, they may proceed further to grade 12, in one of several streams that include pre-medical, pre-engineering, humanities / social sciences and commerce.
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  5 4. Vocational Education Vocationaleducation is controlled by the Pakistani Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority. This body strives to re-engineer the process in line with national priorities, while raising tutoring and examination standards too. 5. University Education Around 8% of Pakistanis have university qualifications although the government would like to increase this to 20% by 2020. Entry is via a higher secondary school certificate that provides access to bachelor degrees in disciplines such as architecture, engineering, dentistry, medicine, pharmacy and nursing. A bachelor requires just 2 years of study, and an honors degree 4. For the initial period the curriculum is a mixture of compulsory subjects and specializations. After that, students specialize completely. Thereafter,they may continue with more advanced study as they wish. Issues in Pakistan’s Education: Pakistan got independence from British colonial rule in August 1947.At the time of partition there are so many problems new state has to face like refuges, armed forces,Kashmir the disputed area,money to run the new state and relation of new state with world etc. Education at that time is not at higher priority. At independence, 85 percent of the population was illiterate and in the more backward regions of the country. Pakistan since its partition facessomany problems in education sector.Some of the main problems Pakistan is facing since its creation are: 1. Lack of implementation of educational policies Recently, minister of education announced a new Education policy for that next 10 years. The exciting thing is that the earlier educational policy from 1998 to 2010 is still not terminated. Although it is planned to give new plans and to make more promises with the nation. It is said in this policy that all the public schools will be raised up to the level of private schools. No plan of action have been discussed, yet a notice is issued to private schools to induct government course in 5th and 8th class and these classes will bound to take board exams. This troubled the students of private sector also. Despite of all these flaws in education system in Pakistan there are some students who are taking part in national and international level for the betterment of country. But still there is a need to overcome these flaws. 2. Medium of education 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. The students of private schools are equipped with expertise. They are able to survive in the modern technical world. They get best jobs opportunities, companies prefer to higher the people whom schooling is from renowned private schools. The students of these schools are more confident and independent. The students of these schools are unaware of teachings of Islam. The students of government schools are belongs to middle or lower middle class. The students are ignorant of modern technologies. Computer education is not necessary at prime level. They could not pay attention on the extracurricular activities which made the students dull and uninteresting. The students are less confident than students of English medium schools. Regional differences are also a major cause for a poor educational system in Pakistan.
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  6 These different mediumsof education are producing different classes in the society. They are creating huge gaps in society. We should spread awareness in the people that modern education is important as well as Islamic education is concerned. It is a disturbing situation of education system in Pakistan.The government should take initial steps to make a single education system in Pakistan. The quality of education is needed to improve. Professionally trained teachers should be higher in government schools especially rural areas of the country. 3. Lack of funding The extent that the money related assets for education were viewed as, Budget. The allocation of funds for education are very low. It is only 1.5 to 2.0 percent of the total GDP. It should be around 7% of the total GDP.As table 1 shows the countries ranking and the budget they spend on education as shown Pakistan is in 126th number in spending amount in education. As a percentage of the total federal budget 2015-2016, education spending is 2.1% following the same trend as previous years. At that budget allocation, the illiteracy rate in Pakistan would not decrease but rather increase. Pakistan, universally, is positioned 126th regarding open spending on education. There are 154000 grade schools with just 42000 educators in both urban and rustic areas of Pakistan. The majority of these schools don’t have sufficient rooms for students. A few schools even don’t have fundamental offices that urge the students to get education under trees. The federaland provincial governments need to cut down their expenses in other areas and devote a bigger proportion of income on education. Table 1 International Ranking and Educational Budget % of different countries Country World Ranking Educational Budget Cuba #1 18.7% Malaysia #10 8.1% Iran #58 4.9% India #81 4.1% Bangladesh #119 2.4% Pakistan #126 1.8% Indonesia #130 1.2% 4. Corruption In the words of Lord John Acton, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Indeed, education and ethics can play a vital role in the fight against corruption, but what would be the future of a nation where education and ethics have been corrupted by those who educate and enlighten have turned to corruption themselves? It is corruption in the education sector, from primary to the university level, which keeps hundreds of thousands of talented children both, boys and girls out of educational institutions.
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  7 5. Lack oftechnical education The lack of technical education is a major fault in the education policy that has never been focused before. Therefore, less technical people means low standard of education. At school level teachers are not paying attention or focus in the practical implementation and as a result our education system is producing students which are not fitting in the practical life. 6. Social imbalance If we look around and among ourselves, our friends and our seniors, we all come from very different schools, colleges and universities. Some are fortunate enough to study like our fairerskinned brothers living across the seas. They have the access to everything and whatever they might feel like doing while studying in that particular institute. We have certainly created a youth alive in the now proud act of discrimination. The United Nation declares that primary education should always be equivalent to everyone! No matter if you are a son of a politician or a clobber, you will get the same level of education. You will get to sit next to each other. We have divided our youth in such a way that the socially acceptable do not even feel the need to look at those who are not, let alone care for them. And the people who are branded socially unacceptable because oftheir beliefs and traditional culture values blame that everything wrong and corrupt is the doing of the rich and powerful. 7. Examination System Our examination system was additionally outdated. This system does not meet the requirements of the national and worldwide guidelines. Assessment and evaluation of people is led to check just memory and ability of repetition. Institutional, legislative issues have further compounded the examination system of Pakistan. Misconducts, for example, replicating and other exam related wrongdoings in schools are consequences of poor system of supervision throughout examination. The elementary school educational module does not enhance the reasoning capacities of people. It is old-fashioned, non-gainful and unreasonable. Learners retain the substance and repeat it in the examination. Therefore,schools in Pakistan are processing the best sorts of parrots on the planet. This practice is making a hole between understanding of the educational program and its successfulusage. System of responsibility is extremely poor in schools. Also, the feudal system,amazing neediness, and the absence of great administration are the principle jumps in the method for a fine education in the nation. 8. Unprofessional teachers It is said that a teacher is a spiritual parent who is considered to be the first brick or block in the structure of social development and developing behaviors and mentalities of individuals and communities. Today, it feels too pity to see the training of a teacherespecially here in Pakistan. The teachersin 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. Professional teachers are gradually being abolished. Although a fewof professional teachersare educatingin Pakistan, they are losing their respect by the students attached with various political parties these days.
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  8 Solutions for EducationalSystem: To solve Current flaws in education system, Government should take following steps.  Implementation instead of projecting policies, should be focused on.  It is the Government’s duty to approve uniform curriculum for all institutes and then make sure the implementation of it in each institute. Uniform curriculum will be a bridge between the poor and the rich class and will remove the gap and unite them.  Allocation of funds should be made easy from provinces to districts and then to educational institutes.  The government should increase the salaries of teachers to overcome the corruption in education sector as in Pakistan the education sector is the lowermost paid sector.  Workshops must be organized for teachers. Technical education must be given to all the classes. The education board of Punjab have a plan to give technical education to the children of industrial workers.  Promotion of the primary education is the need of time.  Educators, instructors and educationists should be asked while devising any plan, syllabus or policy.  Troubling a students with so much books will not work as he will not understand what the world is going to do next moment. Education is the only cure of the disability in the state and can bring revolution through evolution, by eliminating the social evils. This is how to remove illiteracy in Pakistan and enhance the standard of education in Pakistan.