Dealing with an Education Emergency

Newly released report on education predicts collapse of system.

FAISALABAD:

Punjab Colleges Education Director Prof Riffat Iqbal disclosed that a recently conducted Education Emergency Report by the USAID and other NGOs depicts a collapse of the public education system.

Speaking at a farewell party held at the local Punjab College for Women on Friday, he said that a comprehensive strategy was the need of the hour to overcome the educational problems prevailing in Pakistan.

“If policy makers continue to ignore this crucial issue then our national security will be at risk. “Pakistan’s future rests with its ability to wield a pen not a gun,” he said. Iqbal said that the economic cost of ignorance was bigger than corruption and other cash outflows but that the narrow-minded establishment had failed to realise the sensitivity of the issue.

On the occasion, Principal of Punjab College for Women, Ayesha Riffat said that the 69th position of the Quaid-e-Azam University in the International Ranking List was a good omen. She said that the record ranking was also a message for the international community to take Pakistan seriously. “It shows that we have potential and that we aren’t composed entirely of extremists and terrorists.

The only way to refute public perception against this country is to improve education,” she said. She also thanked Punjab chief minister for declaring the Punjab College for Women, Faisalabad as the best college of the province for the fourth time consecutively.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2011.