Last Saturday, I was absorbed in exploring data on HEC website when my colleague entered and announced “Yeah! I’ve scored four As in my assessment,” and… and I smiled at both. Both brought at surface only ‘half of the truth’ — hiding Cs and Ds — which cannot justify their overall achievement.
I acknowledge with deep gratitude the contribution of HEC in presenting the statistics that increased number of degree colleges (one thousand) and universities (163) with 0.80 million and 1.8 million enrollment respectively in 2015, which is really useful for all stakeholders to gauge the progress in spreading higher education. But is this the whole picture or there is more to it?
In an attempt to unveil an overall picture, I went for results of Pakistan Economic Survey 2014-2015 (Population Statistics) which indicates that estimated population of age 15-24 in 2015 is 39.92 million and estimated enrollment at higher education (Education Statistics) is 2.6 million. My calculation of the statistics revealed ‘hidden-truth’ that follows only 6.51 percent Net Enrollment Rate (NER) at higher education level in 2015 in Pakistan. Who is responsible for this predicament where only 6 out of 100 of the official age group get opportunity to enter the gates of higher education? Such an alarming situation calls to redress current practice and demands a pressing need to remove pertinent obstructions and widen the access to long neglected higher education sector in Pakistan.
But who cares? Those who govern have perfect statistics to produce cheap clerks to run their administrative routine and to prepare silent unskilled personnel ready to fit in anywhere in the labour category that elite class needs rather than skilled labour force that the country needs.
IRFANA OMAR
Lahore
