Our education system needs more than a new syllabus

Pakistan's education crisis is not simply a crisis of outdated textbooks. It is a crisis of an outdated educational philosophy. While the world is moving towards AI, automation and knowledge-based industries, too many of our classrooms remain organised around memorisation, rote learning and examination scores. We have modernised the language of education, but have we modernised the way we teach children to think?

The question is simple: are we preparing students to reproduce information, or to understand, question and apply it?

The problem becomes clearer when we look at countries that have built stronger learning systems. Countries like Japan, Singapore and Israel offer lessons worth examining not for blind imitation, but for understanding what Pakistan is missing.

Japan's experience highlights the importance of strong foundational learning. The latest completed OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted in 2022, placed Japan among the world's highest-performing education systems in mathematics, reading and science. In mathematics, more than 85% of students in Japan and Singapore achieved at least the baseline Level 2 proficiency, compared with 69% across OECD countries. Japan also had 23% of students at the highest mathematics proficiency levels. These figures are not evidence of a flawless system, but they demonstrate what sustained attention to foundational knowledge and problem-solving can achieve

Singapore offers another powerful lesson. It ranked highest among participating countries and economies in PISA 2022 in mathematics, reading and science. In mathematics, 92% of its students reached at least Level 2 proficiency, compared with 69% across OECD countries. Its experience suggests that high performance requires more than a demanding curriculum. It requires sustained investment, strong teacher development, clear learning outcomes and a system that continuously evaluates whether students are actually learning.

Israel presents a different lesson: the importance of connecting education with knowledge, research and innovation. According to the OECD's Education at a Glance 2025, investment in education from primary through tertiary level in Israel stands at 6.1% of GDP, compared with an OECD average of 4.7%. This demonstrates a national willingness to treat education as a long-term investment in human capital.

In contrast, Pakistan, per UNICEF, has historically allocated around 1.5% of GDP to education, while the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024–25 puts current spending at 0.8% of GDP. This is far below the 4–6% benchmark endorsed under the Education 2030 Framework for Action. Pakistan, which does not participate in PISA, lacks the same internationally comparable benchmark for its school-age population. UNICEF also notes that nearly 90% of education expenditure is absorbed by recurrent costs, leaving limited fiscal space for infrastructure, teacher development, learning materials and strengthening the education system.

But money is only one part of the problem.

Pakistan must also confront its examination culture. A student can memorise an entire chapter and still struggle to explain its central idea. A child can achieve high marks in mathematics yet fail to apply mathematical reasoning to an everyday problem. This is precisely the kind of gap modern education systems are increasingly trying to address.

Our assessment system must therefore reward analysis, creativity, communication, collaboration and problem-solving alongside knowledge. Curriculum reform must reach the classroom, not remain confined to policy documents.

Pakistan does not need to copy Japan, Singapore or Israel. What Pakistan needs is the courage to learn from their underlying principles: invest consistently in human capital, strengthen teachers, measure actual learning, encourage inquiry and connect education with the demands of the real world.

The real reform, therefore, is not simply to replace one textbook with another. It is to redesign the entire chain: from curriculum and teacher training to examinations and classroom practice.