Pakistan’s education dilemma

Gilbert Keith Chesterton once described education as the soul of a society as it passed from one generation to the next. Unfortunately, this means that the next generation of Pakistanis are likely to inherit an extremely rotten soul. Education Emergency Pakistan, a report published by the Pakistan Education Task Force (ETF) highlights the plight of education in Pakistan, labelling it an education emergency that threatens tens of millions of children. According to the report, roughly one in ten of the world’s primary-age children who are not in school live in Pakistan, placing Pakistan second in the global ranking of out-of-school children. With approximately 40 per cent of the population under the age of 15, Pakistan faces an education crisis which threatens to have profound human, social and economic consequences.
The Pakistan Education Statistics handbook, most recently available for 2007-2008, notes that only 29 million of Pakistan’s 70 million children under the age of 15 are enrolled in school. This means that nearly 41 million kids are out of school, representing 60 per cent of the youth. The combination of philanthropic, NGO, madrassah, private and government schools therefore only cater to 40 per cent of Pakistan’s education needs. Undoubtedly, there exists a severe and dangerous vacuum due to the lack of educational opportunities – one which will continue to have ripple effects on the country’s economic development and security.
A common yet fallacious justification has been to blame Pakistan’s poor economy. Contrary to popular perception, 26 countries in the world have more children enrolled in primary schools than Pakistan – yet stand poorer in terms of GDP. We also lag far behind countries in the region, many of whom are on track to meet their education Millennium Development Goals by 2015. India is reducing the number of young children out of school at ten times the rate seen in Pakistan, while Bangladesh has improved access to primary schooling at double the rate seen in Pakistan over the past 20 years. These figures not only reveal a grim reality, but highlight the gravity of Pakistan’s inter-temporal education crisis.
While the efforts of NGOs and non-state actors must never be underestimated, particularly in the provision of education in remote rural areas, the bitter truth remains that the scale and magnitude of Pakistan’s educational vacuum can only be filled by the state. Approximately 20 million children attend government schools, leaving only nine million or 13 per cent of the total youth population to be served by non-state actors. The state however, has been held hostage by the invisible hand which runs the country’s affairs. Education spending has in fact been sliced by Rs811 million. According to the World Factbook published by the CIA, Pakistan ranked 143 out of 164 countries in 2009 as far as public expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP was concerned (2.7 per cent).
Why have we long denied children access to equal educational opportunities? Why has education been left perpetually peripheral from Pakistan’s development equation? After all, an educated, literate population can not only meaningfully contribute to the country’s economic prosperity, but also lay the seeds for a more tolerant and progressive Pakistan. Educated citizens are also empowered to create opportunities and shape their own future rather than accept a predestined ‘lot in life’. Therefore, education is not something we can simply outsource to private entities or confine to small pockets of the country. It must be elevated as a paramount human right, accessible nationally.
Importantly, education is not merely about the physical provision of infrastructure and resources. It is about investing in a process of lifelong learning. And it’s about constructing a framework where students and teachers can both realise the importance of this process. Teacher incentives, training workshops, regular seminars and conferences must therefore become an intrinsic component of the public school system. Quality teachers disseminate knowledge selflessly, facilitate learning authentically and inspire discovery and innovation continuously.
Pakistan however has witnessed a departure of effective governance across a myriad of spectrums, courtesy factors beyond the scope of this article. The dangerously skewed civilian-military relationship has further crippled the state’s capacity to deliver. Unless we embark on a national, consolidated drive towards educational reform by encouraging, empowering and monitoring the state, we will fail to alter the inevitable fate of our future generations.

The writer teaches macro and behavioural economics at the Australian National University