The government-run mainstream education system is failing because our nation’s elite are largely disconnected from it.
LONDON: This is with reference to Mehnaz Aziz’s article of September 22 titled ‘Literacy and citizenship’. The government-run mainstream education system is failing because our nation’s elite are largely disconnected from it. Which general’s, bureaucrat’s or politician’s son or daughter attends a government school? Apart from attending a prize distribution ceremony where they are the chief guest, the powers that be have little interest in mainstream education in Pakistan.
This failure to understand the social benefits of education, while overemphasising the private benefits of education, has meant that elitist over-priced private educational institutions are offering nothing more than what one education expert has described as “fast-food standardised” education.
A rural school somewhere in Punjab or Sindh cannot continue to function while dealing with provincial bureaucracy, budgeting and the whims of local administrators.
Syed Nadir El-Edroos
Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2010.
