79. The Plight Of Education

-<• 354 Emporium Current Essays The strength of a nation lies in its strong national character based on its philosophy and aspirations. It has not been possible to evolve a common uniform system of education for the entire world because countries differ in traditions, culture, history, climate and sociopolitical set-ups which makes it essential to tailor the education system to their needs. Since we are a distinct people from others in culture, social norms, religion and aspirations, we need a system of education which may satisfy our national objectives and philosophy of life. Since the establishment of Pakistan, six education policies/reports have been prepared by educationists dominated by bureaucrats. A variety of suggestions were implemented out of these policies but those were withdrawn or altered on account of new recommendations without properly evaluating the causes of failure of earlier recommendations. Nowhere in the world experimentation in the education system is made in quick succession as were made in Pakistan. In the UK, Mrs Thatcher had stated pondering over the improvement of British education system but she could not take any decision even after remaining in office as Prime Minister for many years. Similarly a document was published by the US government in 1983 to improve their system of education. No change has been visible in their system even to this day because education is a slow moving process an the result of any change could be seen after 12 to 20 years time. As such no intelligent government could afford to take decision in a haste as it tantamount to playing with the future of the entire nation. It is unfortunate that our topbrass administrators (not educationists) impressed with the foreign aid-giving agencies and their so-called experts who were not conversant with our sociocultural requirements played havoc with our formal as well as nonformal system of education. Today the education system of the nation is in chaotic condition with innumerable patterns or systems of education flourishing without any definet goal and direction. During the last about ten years, the government opened institutions to optimise literacy under the Literacy and Mass Education Commission but wound up those institutions without achieving any results. Likewise the government introduced English for teaching from primary onwards but failed because we did not have trained teachers in English, a commodity which is even scarce at middle and high school level. Some pseudo-experts even went to the extent of getting an education policy announced (rather enforced) by the provincial government for the promotion of science education and in their zeal stated a centre of excellence dumping a lot of money in a project which was doomed to failure. Before starting this project marathon meetings lasting nine or ten hours with a solo speaker not allowing any one to intercept or interact were laid. Within seven or eight months when the pseudo expert remained in chair the novel scheme fizzled out.

Some such childish attempts provided an opportunity to international financing agencies to hurl their advice. They came with bucket full of loans for the promotion of primary education of which they are very fond. They are pretty sure that there are greater chances of wastage of money spent on primary education because a child with five years of schooling can relapse into illiteracy or the education he or she has received is not work related. The Western world talks much about the theory of access to education, democratisation of education, etc., but is reluctant to help of finance higher education in developing countries, particularly Pakistan. In certain science disciplines where there is fear of transfer of technology, it is difficult for Pakistani students to get admission in Western universities. Moreover, the cost of education has been raised almost seven or eight times - what it used to be in 1978-79. Some of our Western friends have stopped giving scholarships to our students though they claim that they do not mix politics with humanitarian aspects of aid. Some institutions of higher education in the Punjab had cherished the desirjs to stay independent instead of remaining under the DPI and in that they had the support of the highest authority in the province. This was done in the name of better administration and qualitative improvement of education. Accordingly they were placed under the control of a Board of Governors/Executives while the staff employed remind unchanged and were treated as government employees. Throwing away the yoke of DPI may have satisfied the ego of some but the mere change of nomenclature (like for instance from Noor Din to Charagh Din) could hardly bring any spectacular change. A recent somersault by the government to hand over the nationalised schools to their original owners in one go along with the staff with certain conditions is yet another step taken thoughtlessly. These institutions were nationalised 24 years ago and staff employed by the private management would have superannuated by now. A great majority of the staff now working in these institutions is directly recruited by the government. Will the original owners be willing to retain the 'safarshi' staff with all the benefits of government service including pension, etc? Except for the buildings, there is nothing in these schools that belongs to the original owners. This will cause a large scale dislocation of the government staff in the denationalised schools. The Objectives Resolution which now forms part o the Constitution declares the objectives of the sovereign state of Pakistan as under:"Wherein the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice as enunciated by Islam shall be fully observed. "Wherein the Muslims shall be enabled to order their lives in the individual and collective spheres in accordance with the teachings and requirements of Islam as set out in the Holy Quran and the Sunnah."

Article 31 (1) of the Constitution in Chapter 2 under heading Principles of Policy further elaborates this point and says "to order their lives in accordance with the fundamental principles and basic concepts of Islam and to provide facilities whereby they may be enabled to understand the meaning of life according to the Holy Quran and Sunnah. (2) The state shall endeavour, as respects the Muslims of Pakistan (a) to make the teachings of the Holy Quran and Ishimiat compulsory, to encourage and facilitate the learning of Arabic language an to secure correct and exact printing and publishing of the Holy Quran; (b) to promote unity and observance of- the Islamic moral standards". In 1956 Constitution it is mentioned: "Remove illiteracy, and provide free and compulsory primary education within the minimum possible period. Similarly 1962 Constitution says: "Illiteracy should be eliminated and free and compulsory education should be provided for all as soon as is practicable". The 1973 Constitution said: "Remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory secondary education within the minimum possible time." According in all the education policies, the objective of the education was clearly stated, i.e. Teachings and requirements of Islam, principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice as enunciated by Islam. To achieve these objectives targets were proposed for primary, secondary, higher technical and vocational education including science, engineering and medical education. In the eight five-year plans also the targets for different level, were fixed and amounts to achieve those targets were indicated. Firstly the targets as indicated in education policies and those mentioned in 5Year Plans never totally coincided and secondly the amounts mentioned in the Plans were never made available. As such we never achieved the targets at all levels. This compelled the administration get the largest revised either in the new education policy or in the subsequent plans. The educationists had always been very bitter about these matters mainly for the reason that the top executives and politicians put the blame for failure in achieving the results on the educationists. The blame may partially be correct in so far as the quality and standard of education is concerned but the major part of responsibility rests on the top planners and top administrators as they were in a position to rectify distortions. There was a great setback to education on account of nationalisation in- 1972 and policy framed as a consequence of nationalisation. In the Punjab, a large number of private institutions was nationalised. At the time of nationalisation the Education Department had two different set-ups, one exclusively for the inspection of educational institutions and the other for administration. In the so-called new reforms, both the function were combined from the provincial level down to district and tehsil level. But in the wake of nationalisation, many new problems surfaced.

These included matters relating to taking over the property and absorption of staff of those institutions. At the same time, the government embarked upon a crash programme to open new institutions, (from primary to intermediate colleges) and introduced agrotech scheme without training facilities and administrative infrastructure. The large scale addition of new staff and expansion without adequate physical facilities left no time for the Directorates of Education to inspect the schools. Besides this, the Education Policy (1972) allowed automatic promotion of students from Class 1 to Class IX. The students were examined at secondary level, i.e. matriculation. The government had taken these steps in a terrible haste without doing proper homework with regard to trained executives and trained teachers. On account of political pressure and quota system for the elected representatives for admission in teachers training institutions, third divisioners were allowed admission in relaxation of rules. There are thousands of teachers in our primary and middle schools who cannot be called educated by any standard. They need to undergo a further training of two years if we want to improve the quality of education at primary, middle and matriculation levels. This makes it abundantly clear that these steps were taken aimlessly resulting in deterioration in the standard of education. The state has been required to impart Islamic education. According to Islam, the Quranic injunctions and sayings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), education is compulsory for every Muslim. During the Muslim supremacy in the olden days, the state or the rulers made arrangements for free education even up to higher level for all the citizens including nonMuslims. The rich and the well-to-do people sponsored educational institutions considering this an act of virtue and piety. As a result, before the British rule, the Muslims in the Subcontinent had the highest percentage of educated (not mere literate) people. This optimum level of education was attained through schools set up in mosques and institutions set up in locality by philanthropists: This was an indigenous and culturally appropriate system which could optimise literacy as well as education. This system was not time bound in the sense that anybody could enter the school or maktab at any age or time during the day since the coaching was done in the morning and in the afternoon after the prayers. This system workers efficiently for nearly 800 years. This system was supported by state grants and endowments. Halfhearted attempts were made to reintroduce this system in 1978-79 but it was torpedoed by the thugs and parasites in the department. The Constitution talks of promoting unity and observance of Islamic moral standards. Like Pakistan, most of the Asian and African countries face the problem of national unity and national integration and the\ are paying special attention to a uniform system of education through the use of national language as the medium of instruction. Countries like Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Tanzania have attained 85 to 95 per cent of literacy through their national language. They are very clear about it and are not suffering from English phobia. I have had the opportunity of undertaking a comparative study of the system of education of nearly two dozen countries at UNESCO's Institute of Education Planning and visited extensively all types of educational institutions in the UK, USA, France, China, Sri Lanka, etc., for an in-depth study of their educational systems

from primary to university level. In all these countries, they have a uniform system of education. Education includes curriculum medium of instructions, teachers training, educational planning and their priorities. But in Pakistan, we have allowed many systems to flourish, local as well as foreign. We are very proudly sending our children to public schools run on British pattern -- forgetting that after the World War II, public schools were discarded in viewed of democratisation of education. The new-elite class which emerged in Pakistan as a potent force in order to perpetuate itself on the poor masses has not only kept alive existing institutions but helped multiplication of elitist educational institutions. At present we have the following types of institutions run by the government and the private organisation:1) Traditional religious madrrassahs. 2) Oxford/Cambridge style institutions (O&A level). 3) Government controlled schools where Urdu is the medium of instruction at primary level. 4) Government controlled schools where English is taught as a second language from primary level. 5) Government controlled schools where English as a medium of education has been reintroduced. 6) Government supported public schools or colleges like Aitchison, College, Lawrence College and Bahawalpur Public School.

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7) Elite institutions set up with new model changing high fees. With the government supported schools there are Junior Model School, Model High Schools, Pilot Secondary Schools and Comprehensive Schools. These were established as a result of different recombinations of different recommendations of education policies with better inputs and better student -- teacher ratio. In comparison the quality of education in these schools is better than the other schools Under the government. A semigovernment type, Divisional Public Schools at some divisional headquarters provide quality education. In general they are following Pakistani curriculum. Here a point is raised. There is a law which regulates the opening of those private institutions which are following curriculum prescribed by the Government of Pakistan but those institutions which are following curriculum and syllabus of foreign universities or hoards of examinations are outside the purview of this law (or any law). This free for all state of affairs can tempt any country ideologically opposed to Pakistan to invest a billion rupees and open about one hundred such institutions which will be not only

selffinancing but earning projects with a couple of years. Since there is no restriction or no law. They,can introduce their own curriculum, bring their own teachers and in ten or fifteen years time can change the entire complexion of Pakistan, If somebody thinks this was a far fetched; snobbish idea then I would like to ask one simple question. For whom we are producing a highly specialised manpower when we have to scope in Pakistan to make use of the expertise of this highly qualified manpower: We do not have seats in our colleges for students qualifying in O+A levels. There are certain preconditions for manpower production. Do we anticipate our economy would be making spectacular strides in the next few years of'even a decade. The closing down of hundreds of industrial units and no new units coming up and unhappy stock market situation present a dismal picture. The only hope for such a trained manpower is to seek job, abroad if luck favours. The developed countries have in the past sucked into their economy highly .qualified persons from our country; In certain disciplines we have already reached a saturation point despite that fve are churning out more and more every year. The per nit cost of such a highly educated manpower roughly costs about a million rupees whereas this is an adequate good business in Pakistan. But now the doors for jobs in America and Europe have been slammed. Before closing some suggestions for the improvement of this vital sector are: 03 In Pakistan we have excellent educational experts and we do not need any foreign socalled specialists. They are absolutely useless in so far as elementary education is concerned. ED For qualitative improvement we should modernise our teachers training institutions, equipping them with latest gadgets from education, also (hey must have the best trained staff and no safarshi. CQ Emporium Current Essays 361 en ta Q C3 m

u m u Every teacher must up date his knowledge every five years. Those failing must not be allowed annual increments and promotion ins next grades. Similar training institutions be set up for college teachers with similar conditions. At elementary level, the teachers must make use of 'Teachers' Guide' prescribed for each subject. School and college inspections (academic as well as administrative) must be a regular annual feature. There should be separate inspectors for public sector and private sector educational institutions. A revised comprehensive Education Code be drawn which should outline the responsibilities of teachers, administrators (principals/headmasters, etc.), inspectors, and regulate grant of scholarships and awards, registration and recognition of privately managed institutions internal and external examinations and promotions, admissions and migrations, punishments, fines and expulsion of students, etc. This Code must have a legal sanction through a lawpassed by the legislature. There should be separate cadre of staff and a separate Directorate. We should make use of our traditional Islamic and indigenous system by updating the centuries old curriculum so that horizontal transfer from non-formal to formal system of education is facilitated. An academy for educational administrators be set up and it should be ensured that educational administration remains in the hands of these administrators. If anybody belonging to other service wants to join educational administration, he should severe his connections with his earlier service so that he is permanently absorbed in education service. Academy for Educational Planning (EPAM) at Islamabad should be beefed up to incorporate physical as well as academic planning along with curriculum designing. Aid-giving agencies be asked to allocate funds for higher education in the subjects of science and technology.