The new education minister, Mr. Ahsan Iqbal, has invited public comments on the national education policy. The draft of the policy document can be found here.
It is hoped that we will have a fruitful discussion on this issue and ideas for improvement in the national education policy here at Pakistaniat, possibly leading some of the participants to even give some valuable suggestions to the education ministry.
I hope to read the document in the coming days, but in the mean time, here are some general thoughts on how we should approach such issues.
We would love to have instant reform, which unfortunately is not possible. Our suggestions and criticism should be made while keeping this basic reality in mind. We can however break down reforms into short and long-term ones and see what can realistically be achieved over what time frame.
Secondly, there is absolutely no denying that funding is important, but the utilization of existing funds is also equally important. We have a tendency to overemphasize the shortage of money and use it as a convenient excuse for a lack of serious effort for institution building and the failure to make proper use of available resources. As a general rule, we should always be weary of overly steep increases in funding. Too much money going in too fast, though good for making impressive news headlines for the concerned ministry, can often lead to more corruption and institutional decay instead of bringing about a genuine improvement.
So while the education budget certainly needs to be increased to at least 4% of GDP as soon as possible, it must not be forgotten that such an increase by itself will not lead to much improvement if there is no prior ground work for ensuring that the extra money will not just be wasted away through corruption and inefficiency. And such ground work will inevitably require a bit of slowing down and setting achievable targets instead of unrealistic ones.
A somewhat related concern relates to how we see ‘big picture’ ideas as opposed to apparently smaller and basic things that are not even very hard to implement, but can make a significant impact. Both are very important, but we sometimes grossly underestimate and dismiss the simpler, but less grand ideas by saying that they do not ‘address the big picture’ or some other such ridiculous criticism. In the end, the ‘fundamental paradigm shift’ or ‘revolution’ does not materialize, but we also forego the smaller and incremental but more achievable improvements that can accumulate into something substantial over time.
Lastly, a good education policy should produce socially aware individuals and not just money making robots. We need people who can have the sense to start thinking ahead before an economic bubble bursts, before the severity of an energy crisis hits them right in the face and before a food shortage leads to a famine or violent riots and are willing to make compromises to their personal lifestyles and start agitating for badly needed policy reforms for their own selves if not out of any concern for the society.
References:
1. Ministry of Education, Pakistan
2. Photos for this post are from flickr.com
even a thelawala in mumbai earns 1500 rs daily!!
LOL- ROhit you’re funny. If that’s the case then I can safely say that even a burger wala in Karachi earns Rs. 2,000+/day.
Btw population of india is :
1.12-1.13 billion!
@MUS
Numbers are not fake!its availabe from website of american high commission!!
India produces as many graudates as china!india may not be as prosperous as china,but india definetly leads china in producing better engineers and doctors!!
No doubt,40% of companies which are established in silicon valley were started by indians !!
regarding povery and illiteracy :
india opened its economy in 1990 and china liberalized in 1980!
so china is ahead of india in most of fields except it lacks strong entrepreuner skills and qty engineers ,and low english language!!
india still has about 34% of illeterate ,but literacy rate is increasing by 1.5% yearly!!
or do u think that 90% literate of china are doing some skilled job!!it doesnt make much difference!!definition of literacy in deveoping worls is merely about knowing how 2 write your name!!
Peopel live in slums bcz there is no space in big cities !!btw even a thelawala in mumbai earns 1500 rs daily!!
Ibrahim, I do not agree with you. In a country where the literacy rate is less than 30%, do you not think that we should be concentrating on teaching a single language, and basic arithmetic, etc? I agree that we, including myself, should actually learn Islam and not just treat it as a series of meaningless rituals, but we seriously cannot afford to focus on Arabic right now.
Ahmed Shahid, I’m sorry but your ideas about doing away with the Cambridge system are utterly flawed. First, let me say that I fully agree that a side-effect of the Cambridge system has been the creation of an elite class which tends to stick with people long after they finish school. However, I claim that this division will morph into a new form once you do away with the current system.
I attended a “Cambridge-system” school in Karachi, and I’m glad my parents chose that option early on; frankly, it makes a huge difference. I have friends who went to all sorts of schools all over Karachi, and let me tell you that those who did not attend GCE schools sorely wish their parents had made that choice for them (I’m talking about those who could afford it). Had I not attended the school in Kehkashan Clifton :-), I would be definitely at a great loss. I seriously believe that that school, system, etc prepared me significantly better than most high-schools in the U.S. prepare their students.
The fact that the vast majority cannot attend decent schools is indeed a great tragedy; but doing away with the one successful system would be a ridiculous blunder.
Salamalaikum
Arabic should be introduced as a required language to learn along with Urdu and English. And, it should be introduced from the beginning just as the other two languages are introduced. Research has shown that it’s no big deal for young kids to learn multiple languages at the same time. This should be implemented both at federal and state board levels and in private schools including A/O level. When GCSE in England provides an option to study Arabic, then why not in Pakistan. But, I think it should be made compulsory at A/O level, unlike UK.
The reality is that in Pakistan there are many more qualified teachers who can effectively teach Arabic than there are English teachers who can satisfactorily teach English. Hence, there is no lack of manpower. Also, tried and tested Arabic-teaching curriculum can be borrowed from Islamic jamiaat.
Before anti-religion fanatics start criticizing this idea, know that this is not just for religious purpose. I know many non-Muslims showing tremendous interest in learning the language (and ending up learning it) because it has assumed great importance in today’s world…Muslim or otherwise. The two most well known Arabic-English dictionaries are developed by non-Muslims…Hans Wehr and Dr. Rohi Balbaaki.
We won’t send an ambassador to the US or UK who can’t speak English, but we gladly send Arabic-illiterates to Middle East who can’t effectively represent Pakistan. And, the govt. of Pakistan knows quite well that English comprehension in the Middle East, even at government levels, is quite weak.
I agree with Ahmed Shahid.Concentrating more on Ph.Ds will not work.It has not worked in the past too.What may work is going to the grassroots or even at the school and college level.
The infrascture for colleges and schools is already there so there no no need to create new ones.They could be upgraded and automated.
Affiliation with Canbridge O and A Levels be delinked.Pakistani parents eke out millions of dollars every month to Cambridge University for British educational certificates which has had no effect on the education as a whole.
There should not be any revolutionary changes as suggested by some. One of them is increasing the salaries of the school teachers, some suggest by as much as 5 times. Such “revolutionary” steps may sound good to some but don’t really yield in the long run. People now even debate that had China not adopted the drastic one child policy, would its population had been any different. Some new research shows that it would not have been. Given the rising cost of living, the Chinese population would have increased by almost the same amount but there had been no problems of girls exceeding boys by 30 million.
Drastic and “revolutionary” changes bring more problems than solve them. So the approach should be gradual. No matter how much we criticize the government, schools have been built over time, but with a country with such a high population growth rate and so many other national and international issues to care about, it would have been difficult for any government to solve it. Gradually the stage would come when the rate of growth in schools would be large enough so that all kids could enrol in schools. But that would also require the population growth rate to go down, which it is.
Also the pay scales should be decided by the market and not fixed by the government like increasing the pay scales of school teachers by “5 times”. Giving more pay than what one deserves creates more problems than solve them. If the pay is raised by so much there would be glut of eligible teachers, and there is always over-supply of skills. Thus many would not be able to get jobs.
The same may happen in the higher education sector. With so many people going for PhD, there might not be as many jobs for them as they think there would be. The result would be un-employment among the PhDs, and the ensuing frustration and accepting low paying jobs at a lower level. That in my view is not very plausible. But that would be the result of “revolutionary” policies adopted by the previous government to produce MSc and PhDs. Sooner we learn to align education with the market the better. Else we should be prepared to face boom and bust cycles in education.
@Rohit
Numbers are deceptive and relative.If India has that large number of graduates or post graduates,it is relative to the population of about 1.2 billion.China has never revealed its numbers but if it were to have that media exposure as India has, then one is sure that it surpasses India big time in all sectors.
As I said,numbers are relative.Going by that yardstick India also has the world’s largest number of illiterate population(about 450 million),the largest concentration of beggars in a single country,the greatest number of pavement dwellers(150 million).These numbers are staggering but as I say they do not tell the whole story.