It’s educational

Let’s try something new this time. Instead of jumping on whatever topic-of-the-week is holding our headlines hostage, let’s try to focus in on just a single topic for a slightly extended period of time. Consider it an exercise in defeating the Attention Deficit Disorder that Pakistani news events are intent or inculcating within us all. So no article from me this week trying to find strength or anger in the overwhelming tragedy surrounding the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti (Shaheed). Nor will I attempt to make sense of whatever decision-making led to Kamran Akmal being allowed near a wicket. I shan’t even comment on the fact that apparently President Zardari knows the meaning and correct usage of the word ‘existentialist’ as evidenced by his letter to the Washington Post. Instead, I’m going to try to continue the theme I set forward last week: Education. More specifically, how we don’t have it and desperately need it.

I was going to make an impassioned plea to your collective conscience using all the meager wit and charm at my disposal. Then I read the Education Emergency report published by the Pakistan Education Task Force. The entire report and the petition to push it into the public eye is available over at http://educationemergency.com.pk/ and I highly recommend you go ahead and read through it. If my recommendation isn’t enough to convince you though, then allow me to sacrifice what little column space I am allotted here to reprint some of their more sobering findings. Formatting issues in newspaper printing prevent me from using a point-by-point layout, so please excuse the ugly technique I use to cram it all in here.

One in 10 of the world’s out-of-school children is a Pakistani. That is the equivalent of the entire population of Lahore. There is a zero per cent chance that the government will reach the millennium development goals on education by 2015. On the other hand, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are all on their way to achieving these goals. But, despite this gloomy situation, determined efforts can show results in only two years. What is required is an additional spending of Rs100 billion, a 50 per cent increase over current spending. Pakistanis have a constitutional right to universal education, a little discussed or known fact of the law. Article 25-A sets up a possible scenario where a citizen can take the government to court for not providing access, and this could even be the grounds for a suo motu action. Pakistan spent 2.5 per cent of its budget on schooling in 2005-06. It now spends just 1.5 per cent in the areas that need it most. That is less than the subsidies given to PIA, Pepco and Pakistan Steel. Thirty thousand school buildings are in dangerous condition, posting a threat to the well-being of children. Whereas 21,000 schools have no building whatsoever.

There is more to be found over at the website, which I cannot stress the importance of reading enough. As our country continues its headlong tumble towards irrecoverable damage, the airwaves and print media have been full of agonised debate over how to stop the problems that ruin us. We seem to be seeking that single fix-all solution that will blunt terrorism, create tolerance, curb corruption and develop civic and social virtue. The answer has been there all along, we just don’t want to look at it because it isn’t sexy. Revolutions are attractive, mobs can be inspiring. But without education, even they cannot be constructive. The Egyptian revolution worked as well as it did because it was led by educated youths who had the knowledge and tools to articulate their needs. If we want change, let’s craft the tools to create it with books and learning.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2011.