While affordability is an issue, a lot of girls do not go to school because of lack of basic facilities. PHOTO: FILE
There are noticeable differences in gender literacy and in the level of literacy in different parts of Pakistan. This is a cause for worry. It is extremely important to educate the girl child because no education policy can work efficiently without gender balance. The government should know that the reason developed societies have made progress is because they realised the worth of education and gender equality. As it is, Pakistan is struggling with its literacy rate. Add to it, lack of gender equality in the education sector and we are doomed.
Pakistan’s education sector has been given inadequate budget allocations in the last many decades. Now that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is all set to form the next government, it must make headway in education reforms by allocating more money to the education sector and taking the issue of girls’ education quite seriously. Since the provision of quality education has not been on any government’s priority list, the education system stands compartmentalised into private and public education. This has resulted in a class-based society despite the fact that education has always figured prominently in the manifestos of every political party. It is hoped that the PML-N will ensure quality education across the country. The next government also needs to address the issue of child labour, which is a result of the poor economic conditions of the country. The government should take concrete steps to ensure equitable distribution of wealth and provide quality education to all and sundry.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 15th, 2013.
COMMENTS (6)
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@Usman: KPK has lower literacy rate than Punjab. SO your hypthesis is not supported by data. @Murthy: Actually there is a huge ROI of female education in the areas of improved health outcomes as well as lowered fertility rates.
Well said! It is education that must take precedence over everything else, especially in the case of those who can't afford to go to private schools. The money invested in education may not bring any returns in the business sense, but it is the duty of a govt to ensure that everybody gets minimum education.
What you say is so true, but the timing is not right. There is hardly any mainstream party that addresses the most burning issues in the society: the class contradictions and exploitation. Not even a single mainstream party claims to be a ‘party of the poor’. Since the problem of education affects poor most, we should not be surprised that no attention will be paid on education, and here I mean real education and not madrasas.
The religious and the conservative, right-wing parties are overtly aggressive towards the so-called secular and liberal parties. But liberals did not do much about this burning issue, as they all belong to privileged classes. But it is great that Tribune talks about such issues.
An education emergency should be declared on the subject of Islamic studies. The objective of teaching this subject should be to nurture creative, intellectual, intuitive and socially responsible human beings so that the syllabus and books are changed. In its current form it is just like a car without an engine because it ignores the "core" message of Islam.
Not a word about the hate curriculum being taught now? Surprising. If u improve the literacy rate without changing the hate curriculum, you will have a bigger problem in hand down the line. Like what you have now because of the hate syllabi taught over 65 years.
Will PMLN invest in education? Knowing that the most educated citizens voted for IK in the elections? Lets wait and see.