Education and Pakistani society
Posted by Faheem Belharvi
Nelson Mandela states that “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.
Education is one of the obvious elements that causes the socio-economic development and enhances the capacity for the betterment of a country. Education helps in flourishing community improvement, national and political integration, and individual dignity. Investment on education contributes towards the accumulation of human capital resulting into knowledge-based economy. Education is the key instrument for eradication of all social evils and enables the people in bringing the social wellbeing. Education enhances awareness, capacity building, character building, and communal integrity. It is also one of the gateways leading towards the new horizons. The level of education actually determines the country’s level of prosperity and respective status on the globe.
Education sector of Pakistan has been facing severe problems since the day of independence like shortage of qualified teachers, poor infrastructure and politicized curriculum, un-timely provision of text books, weak administration and institutional capacity, as well as scanty resources at every level across the country. Pakistan is ranked among the lower education Index countries. Pakistan spends less than 2% of its GDP on education. This is our dilemma as the existing education system has been threatening economic, political and social stability. The current nexus denotes that some social evils i.e. terrorism, unemployment, poverty, unawareness and lawlessness are rising very rapidly whereas the government of Pakistan has been trying to use every preventive measures to overcome the prevalent situation. If we look at the root causes of prevailing situation we came to know that we are not paying serious attention to the component of education.
The contemporary picture shows our negligence which has been causing the radical and wicked elements as If people would get deprived of education they would not be able to utilize their skills and analyze that what way is right and wrong for themselves.
In this case our country cannot be able to eradicate all threatening elements. There is dire need to focus the betterment of education system so that we may counter all social evils as well as improving socio-economic conditions of Pakistan. More educated societies yield progressive benefits for the community at large. Our education sector should be polished with equity, equality and social justice to achieve farsighted benefits for Pakistan.
(M. Umar Farooq Baloch)
