According to the Alif Ailaan campaign, Pakistanis will vote for a party that prioritises education. PHOTO: FILE
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is currently viewed as the party most concerned with state of education. This perception, coupled with the fact that 73% people prioritise education policies when deciding who to vote for, can have wide-reaching political ramifications during the forthcoming polls.
This is according to the Alif Ailaan campaign’s first annual survey. It interviewed 1,536 Pakistanis – all aged 18 and above, from rural and urban areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh.
Although the survey highlights the education crisis plaguing the nation, the data collected is also reassuring – it shows that Pakistanis are aware of the importance of education, for men and women, and want to see an improvement this time around.
Change in the offing?
According to the survey, Pakistanis today understand the power of the vote to bring about change. People are more engaged with the political process than ever before and over 60% of the respondents plan to vote.
Furthermore, almost 48% of the interviewees agree that education should be the top priority of the government, and 73% percent claim that they will vote for the party that can ensure that each child receives quality education.
The data collected indicates that the PML-N is considered most likely to make significant strides in education, because of which it may be strengthening its vote bank by the day.
PML-N is followed by the PPP and the PTI. Only 2% of the respondents think positively of Jamaat-e-Islami’s educational vision, and even less for that of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional.
Trust deficit
However, the survey shows that people still deeply distrust politicians.
More than half of those interviewed believe that politicians will not live up to the spirit of their manifestos, and 68% hold the government solely responsible for the abysmal state of education.
Unfortunately, this harsh trust deficit is not unfounded. According to the report, most Pakistanis are aware that the nation spends far less than India on education, and a large chunk of the population has been exposed to the inefficiency of the government school system.
The survey also reveals that many people are not aware of their constitutional rights. While Pakistan’s constitution guarantees a free education to each child aged 5-16, only 6% of the people surveyed were aware of this.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 28th, 2013.
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Only EDUCATION is the single most important thing that will bring about the biggest positive change in multiple ways like good governance, good economy, good jobs, good, proper population growth and much more. Till now all political parties and leaders have lied and mislead people of Pakistan. All the money meant for education has been allocated and used for buying votes and keeping poor into slavery.
These surveys are meaningless and manipulated because they are conducted from a sample of almost 5000 respondents and 5000 respondents don’t necessarily reflect the views of 180 million people or 81 million registered voters for that matter. 5000 respondents may not even reflect the view of one district as the average district size of Pakistan is over 1 million in terms of Population and there are over 100,000 registered voters averagely in each district. Suchsurveys are often conducted and these are without any result for a country like Pakistan. Election results will decide the final outcome.
A person needs to be self-educated to educate the lot! The gimmicks will not do any good. I would suggest everyone to start thinking out of the box, read the western style of governance in-detail. I promise you will chase them down the streets of lahore!!
Imran Khan and all his reforms are a reflection of the western style of democracy, 11th May shall be the start of a new era. Pakistan will be touching peaks in no time, In sha Allah!!
This survey is 100% paid by PMLN. Stop fooling the nation. Its like saying Namal university was build by nawaz sharif and he is a honorary vice chancellor of Bradford university. What a joke. Our vote is for PTI
@Zain: thank you so much Zain.. i had been looking for the link...
Thos questioning what PMLN has done for education should read this http://www.reform.co.uk/resources/0000/0688/ThegoodnewsfromPakistan_final.pdf Great work acknowledged by World bank, foreign govts and Press.
Now everything is fake/lie for pti trolls. Now they will start abusing the writer. They can only do that.
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics
@Maddy @ali and other Khanistas
Here is the recent report on education reforms in Punjab by Sir Michael Barber http://www.reform.co.uk/content/20419/research/education/thegoodnewsfrompakistan
If you ever know of any of the programs mentioned there, you can email me and I'll give you Rs 1,000.
Punjab's education reforms have been widely praised. Unless it's renowned educationist Michael Barber doing paid propaganda, noora kushti, muk muka etc as you people like to call it.
Please don't talk about issues you don't know of. PEF, PEEF and other programs are not for people who goto Beaconhouse.
PTI education policy is too idealistic. Imran's kids are in UK whereas he wants same education system like O/A levels for everyone. Fools dream. PML-N has done better than many states of India in education. They are much realistic and wants to improve education.
I guess the question is if PML-N has had 2 terme in power and they didn't increased education spending then why is it a priority now? There was money available for yellow cabs, cutting taxes for industrialists and numerous other pointles schemes but not one iota more was spent on education during their years in power even though there was a population youth bulge then.
They're just hungry for power and will say whatever it takes to get it. Because the PTI has started talking about youth and health snd education they have been forced to follow suit.
Its not about the policies only, but political will too. I have serious reservations on PML N's commitment, i think they are going to do a lot of corruption in Pakistan if elected again. So I will go for PTI. and vote for Imran.
We have seen PML before and result is zero plus zero equal zero. No more status quo parties
For once, I feel that PTI has not done a good job in promoting their education manifesto, specially because PTI is much more likely to bring about educational reforms as well bring up the educational spending to 5% of GDP
Just like yelow cab, YELLOW education....free test papers to all...
What has PMLN done in the last 20 years for Education? Most importantly, what were their achievements in Punjab in the last 5 years of governance? What are the condition of Gov school in Punjab? what about the ghosts school? what about the net enrolment rate?
I don't know who are these people that honestly think PMLN can bring a change and if it's true then shame on us and we deserve another 5 years of destruction.
Whatever your surveys indicate,, My Vote for PTI, Only IK can bring change.