Regulations should be strict and institutions should be banned for such marketing
KARACHI: Gone are the days when people in our society used to teach students for the purpose of spreading knowledge and awareness and to remove illiteracy from society, with a clear goal to educate people. Now, education has become a business, and people are only seen to teach if it helps them make money. Not only that, students also only take interest in learning subjects that they believe will help them make more and more money. In recent years, a vast majority of small-scale private institutions have extended their businesses with the sole objective of making more money. Teachers, with no solid background, are hired on meagre salaries, a huge amount of money is spent on advertisements, and all the focus is on inducting more students, rather than improving the curriculum and ensuring that the best kind of education is made available to them. Interestingly, and embarrassingly, the names of well-known teachers are often found printed on billboards and brochures to attract more and more students. This is quite an unethical marketing practice.
In my opinion, teaching should be a profession which is above and beyond such trivialities. Regulations should be strict and institutions should be banned for such marketing. Opening small-scale private institutions to meet rising education needs is a good idea. But even these should be following international standards of imparting education.
Amna Sultana
Published in The Express Tribune, November 29th, 2014.
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