
While one cannot blame parents for their apprehensions about sending children to school due to security reasons, they must realise the benefits of education — as should parents who send their children to work instead of to school. It should partially be the government’s responsibility to help poorer families obtain that education for their children and it should be strictly mandated. Parents must also be made aware about family planning based on socioeconomic capabilities as they must understand that a child’s education will cost money. However, education is the best gift they can give to enable their children to be self-reliant, think independently and make life decisions based on sound reasoning.
There is no doubt that Pakistan’s youth has talent, as we have seen in the past with Arfa Karim, Pakistan’s computer prodigy and Shadab Rasool Abro, a scientist in the making from Khairpur, who won a $250,000 US scholarship for his work on modern biochemical research. The reported statistics are not merely numbers; they are a breadth of wasted potential that could fuel Pakistan’s advancement from a developing country to a First World nation.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 21st, 2012.
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