Education, Inequalities and a need for change in

Pakistan
Saadiya Usmani
Pakistan is the seventh most populous country in the world, with a
population of over 180 million out of which 50% of its inhabitants
are between the ages of 18-25. It is the worlds third largest English
speaking nation and boasts many well renowned names. However,
the education system in Pakistan faces rather large spectrum
problems, which have fueled conflict and has led to furthering the
gap between various social classes and ethnicities within the
country.
The Pakistani education system is a centralized one, where the
federal government sets the syllabus etc., however, the provinces
have some autonomy on what to teach when it comes to language
and religion etc. The law requires that each individual must receive
high school education, but the government schools lack even the
most basic infrastructure such as classrooms, access to books etc.
The government education system is broken and is marred with
corruption, where those sitting at the helm of school districts often
misappropriate budgets for books and school supplies.
Education or its interpretation by the political leaders has been a
contentious issue as each ethnic group uses the education system
or its lack thereof to its benefit. The most common problem is the

use of religious education for indoctrination as well as using it as a

brainwashing mechanism to fight the so-called Jihad against the
west.
Another pressing issue with the Pakistani education system is the
feudal mentality whereby the people in the farming and agricultural
communities do not get proper education and schooling for their
children and are generally paid minimum wages to work in the fields
for long periods of time. The feudal lords deliberately try to keep the
children of the farmers away from education so that they cannot
question the injustices and inequalities present in the system. The
feudal system is somewhat of a curse, especially in the rural areas,
where a large majority of the population are children or youth, and
the lack of educational infrastructure hinders the growth of those
living in such areas.
A basic problem with the way education is perceived in Pakistan as a
tool, which modernizes people and makes them more liberal or
western. This plays a significant role in womens education and why
certain factions of the Pakistani society are not open to educating
women. This is very much the case in rural and tribal areas in
Pakistan. Women are married off at a young age, and often time
their education is not given enough importance just because of their
gender. This undermines the building blocks of a society i.e. the
women

Due to the conflicts in the country in the past decade or so, and
especially after the war on terror started Pakistan is a country that
has been badly hit by the after affects of 9/11. Where in the year
2000, there was only 1 terrorist attack in the entire country where
12 people died, 14 years later and the war on terror seems to have
done a worst job at eradicating terrorism and reducing conflict to
when it actually started. Over the course of 14 years over 60,000
Pakistani citizens have lost their lives due to external influences and
the influx of the Taliban from Afghanistan and various other regions.
In the year 2000 there were only 2 reported Muslim militant groups
working in Pakistan, that number has drastically increased to over
35 known militant and fundamentalist groups spreading terror and
chaos within the country. The most severely affected are arguably
the youth who have young and nave minds with seemingly no
direction. The Taliban have recognized this and have started using
religion and the after life as a recruitment and training grounds
especially those that are used as suicide bombers. Due to the lack
of knowledge about the religion as well as a social disconnect from
the western world, it has become exceedingly easy to brainwash
and feed indoctrination to the youth, by twisting information and the
sayings of the Quran to the benefit of fundamentalists.
According to Kiesling (Diplomacy Lessons, Page 75) Pakistan is at
this current point in time in the conflict escalation phase of the
conflict curve, where the intensity in the conflict seems to be
increasing on a much faster pace than ever before. The lack of
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quality education also leads to closed and easily influenced minds.

the lack of structure in educational institutions leads to
despondency and despair among the general population.
Need for reforms within the education framework:
An education system reform policy has to be a multi level policy
whereby not only structural but also community building and skill
work is also incorporated into the educational reform. Education
reform can then be used for more meaningful changes across
economic lines, which leads to more innovation as well as
modernizing the workforce. For this essay I have divided the
educational reform policies into four different categories:

Education Reform and the Role of Women.

Education Reform to update and modernize national

curriculum
Education Reform to curb radicalization
Education Reform for Skilled Labor and long-term
employment.

Education Reform and the role of women:

The Pakistani education system has undermined womens education
for a very long time. In provinces such as Baluchistan and Rural
Punjab, womens education is non-existent, number of marriages
involving young teens is very high and the number of women who
bear children before age 18 is around 32% (Dawn 2012). The
undermining and oppression of women is a major problem for the
development of society in Pakistan, as the culture of oppression is

then handed down to the next generation and the lack of education
adds additional burdens. It is a widespread truth that women shape
generations, and hence formulate the way society is shaped, in
progressive countries, the role of women is that of an equal
counterpart, however in countries like Pakistan women are often
overlooked in terms of education, equal rights and sometimes even
basic humanity.
An education reform in Pakistan would need to be on the basis of
giving women priority towards education, not only teaching them
basic curriculum of languages and sciences but also running courses
that teach elements on how to empower themselves and build
communities. Various programs that the government should run
should incorporate various elements of the culture and provide
somewhat of a holistic approach to education, where courses like
home economics, self-empowerment or something more skilled like
midwifery could be incorporated into the system. This can be
beneficial also for young teenage girls in the rural areas who have to
assist in running their homes, since the mother is generally busy
with other children or working outside of their homes to earn a
living. Adding craft programs can enhance the creativity of women
and can allow them to have an additional sustainable income
source. This has somewhat been implemented in the North Eastern
part of the country in areas like Chitral, where the government has
included craft skills in schools, where young girls can learn how to

make handmade local goods, which they can then sell in order to
generate additional funds.
Another important element when dealing with womens education is
the interpretation of the religion, and making women understand
the correct interpretation of the religion as well as explaining their
rights within the sharia as well as common law; this especially
helpful as women become more aware of their rights and are not
undermined because of lack of knowledge.
As part of a large change, perhaps the most important element is to
provide scholarships and grants to young girls and women for
education, as well as providing free books and uniforms. A major
reason why womens education is always so undermined is because
of poverty and the preference of education going to the patriarchs in
the family. If women were provided free education and even
incentives such as grants it would not only give the students but
also their families an added bonus to send their daughters to
schools. This form of funding should be available for education to
high school level, where women can at least get a basic framework
on how to go about living their lives in a more coherent and aware
manner. This also sets up the basic structures of societal
development in place where women are allowed freedom to express
themselves as well as become more independent economically,
adding benefits to the local communities as well as to society as a

whole, while striving to be of purpose to themselves and to those

around them.
Education Reform to update and modernize the national
curriculum:
Pakistan follows a standardized testing method (somewhat similar to
SATs) where the federal government sets the course of study and
the syllabus as well as the grading rubric for each standardized test.
Whereas the national syllabus provides the required courses such as
Mathematics, Local Languages, and sciences, it clearly misses the
mark on providing a good quality education. The syllabus is
outdated and irrelevant to the advances in the world and also comes
across is being totally outdated with the progression in technology.
A reform in the syllabus would mean that old text books and
methods of testing would need a major overhaul, where studying
English language is compulsory from grade 1 onwards and learning
computer literacy is built into the core curriculum. As mentioned
Pakistan is a large country where English is spoken widely, however
the quality of spoken and written English needs to be improved and
enhanced to ensure that the students can then use the language
skills in the workforce arena. Also English language needs to be the
only language in which mathematics, sciences and computer
literacy is taught- teaching these subjects in the local Urdu language
needs to be scrapped and replaced with a more universal English
language.

There should be a monitoring system in place for the educators that

teach the national curriculum perhaps devising a way for credits
towards continued learning and education, where it becomes
mandatory for teachers to keep up with the regular courses and
syllabus as well as refreshing their own knowledge. This leads to
creative generation of new ideas as well as new methodologies of
education and learning.
Education Reform to curb radicalization:
A major problem that the Pakistani education system faces is the
breeding ground of fundamentalism and radicalization through
madrassa education. Madrassa is school, which teaches the Quran
and the interpretation of the religion. The madrassa education is
highly unregulated and the teacher can teach whatever they wish to
in their classes, as the students cannot be graded on a standardized
testing method. A policy reform should be to come up with
Standardized testing methods so that all students undergoing
madrassa education are not only registered by a national database
but also it sets a guideline on what can be taught within the
madrassa education training.
The educators and teachers must take a comprehensive religion
exam if they they are certified to be madrassa teachers, and must
register themselves with the department for education as a certified
madrassa teacher. One of the biggest challenges that Pakistan faces
is the large number of unregistered madrassas that are providing

education to children, these are largely present in the northwestern

parts of Pakistan and add largely to the brainwashing carried out by
the fundamentalist and radicals and students that come out of these
centers in large parts contribute to the growing Taliban army.
Ensuring that the madrassas are registered as well as certifying that
the teachers are well versed in the Quranic teachings, will warrant
some level of quality religious education and may to a large extent
curb the large misinterpretation of the religion which allows for war
mongering and killing those that do not agree with the religious
point of view. A standardized testing system will mean that now
madrassa education can finally be quantifiable in different ways.
Education Reform for Skilled Labour and Long Term
Employment:
It is extremely important for a country to have a large pool of skilled
labor as well as those that work in a specific field for long periods of
time. If a large number of youth can be placed in programs that
works to provide them with a skills set such as a course in
mechanical engineering so that they can repair automotive etc. can
ensure them a quality lifestyle and long term employment. The
skilled labour force in Pakistan need to be given various certification
levels of training so that they train for and find gainful employment,
and incase arent able to find gainful employment then have the
ability to work independently.

Programs that reintegrate youth that were part of the radicalization

process can be very helpful as it not only takes at risk youth out of
the conflict loop but also gives them an alternate and keeps them
busy. It also allows for innovation and people coming up with their
own ideas, to make for an innovative and advanced society. If the
youth can be given incentives to study such programs, and also to
show them that such programs not only enhance skills but also
enhance the quality of life.
Creating skilled labour also contributes to long-term economic
development and benefit and allows for more opportunities for
growth, reintegration of youth from conflict-affected areas allows for
prevention of destroyed generations. Education reform is highly
necessary and extremely important at this point in time in Pakistan,
if it wishes to succeed as a country on a socio-economic and cultural
level.

*Written as an opinion piece

References:
1. Board of Education, Government of Pakistan, www.gov.pk
2. Ayaz, Ahmed, What is Wrong with Pakistan, 2014, Oxford
University Press
3. Keisling, J, Diplomacy Lessons, 2009, Publisher Unknown,
Amazon
4. Dawn News, Newspaper articles from 2012

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5. Wikipedia, facts and figures on Pakistan

www.wikipedia.com/pakistan

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