There are many reasons for the low literacy rate in Pakistan such as poverty, population expansion, feudal lords and wadera system, low allocation of budget, male dominated society and lack of school in rural areas.
Poverty is the biggest disadvantage and the largest resistance in the development of a country. In Pakistan 40% people are living below poverty line. In such condition how it is possible for them to send their children to schools, colleges and universities. According to UNICEF, 17.6% children work and support their families. Now in these sorts of conditions, role and support of government becomes unavoidable.
Pakistani politics is controlled by feudal lords. Feudal system is a big obstacle in the identification of dream of better literacy rates. Statistics show that there are great inequality in the country on the basis of gender, class and regions. Women’s education is not considered important as that of men’s. These feudal lords and waderas enjoy political power as well as they deprive people from getting education.
In the present scenario Pakistan counts among those 12 countries of the world which are spending less than 2% of GDP on education, whereas china is spending 2.82, India 3.5% whereas the US, Japan, UK and Italy are spending more than 5% of GDP on education. The major cause of the poor performance of Pakistan’s education sector is the extreme low level of public investment
Free education is the right of every person but unfortunately this is not happening in our country. The government should devise a better planning regarding education in the budget.
FAIZAN BUTT
Lahore