Two-fold loss

When one talks about education, but ‘event’ becomes the reason to shut schools, no moral high ground left on any side.

A few months before the 2013 general elections, a political party, with little history of election campaigning and still defining its political image and vision, created history. The said party came up with, and published an educational manifesto. This was a first in a nation that has historically ignored all signs of crisis in the education sector and continues to put all faith in an external conspiracy. The document by the PTI was a breath of fresh air. It was a document that laid out the plan to improve the struggling educational infrastructure, a way to reinvest in resources and a plan to move forward. While there was debate on the details and the strategy, the fact that someone started this conversation was a huge step in the right direction. It was a shock to the system. The document was also contagious, as it forced other parties, particularly the PML-N, to come up with something that had the semblance of an education policy, though it was much more broader and did not have the necessary details needed for a country like Pakistan. Other parties, true to tradition, continued to ignore education.

This initial excitement was also followed, although very briefly, by a discussion on the creation of new institutions and a revamped education policy when the PTI came to power in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). Again, this was exciting and received with enthusiasm in education circles.

During the early days of the PTI government in K-P, when the polio crisis was only getting worse, initiatives by both the party and the government showed a clear resolve to tackle the problem head on. Initiatives like Sehat ka Insaf were interesting innovations, where the government and the party’s base, in a complex province were determined to change the status quo. Most recently, with the crisis of the IDPs, the PTI took up the issue of IDPs and while no clear approach was presented, the discussion itself was important in a country where the bar on the discussion of problems of the poor is exceptionally low.

Unfortunately, today, all of these initiatives, ideas and approaches seem actions of a bygone era. An era where real issues facing the country — that of education, health and poverty — had some importance. Those good days have now been replaced by a shocking level of ego, self-interest, and ‘my way or the highway’ and ‘I-before-the-country’ policy.

This change of discourse is tragic. It is sad on two fundamental levels. Firstly, it is sad because health, education and poverty are far bigger determinants of our development, national crises and security issues than appreciated by those in power and those outside power. Ignoring them has gotten us nowhere in the past 60-odd years and with the current pace of the world, any delay in focusing our efforts in these arenas is going to cause damage beyond repair. These problems are also interconnected. Poor education often leads to poor health choices and a number of problems at the societal level. The issue of IDPs in the context of possibilities of emergence of disease and lack of educational facilities have to be addressed both at a humanitarian level and a national security level.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the fact that we can change course, with such ease and without any remorse, is shocking. All of us are complicit in this. It includes those who made the policy and created hope and aspirations and then backed out simply because of political expediency and pragmatism, those within the party who did not call the leaders on ignoring the grand challenges of society, those who control the debate in the media and ignore the pressing problems of the country, and biggest of all, those of us who are on the sidelines and do not speak about the real issues affecting the nation and its future.

There is a discrepancy and a pretty large one between hope and action. When one thunders about the importance of education, but the ‘event’ becomes the reason to shut down schools, or when one puts health high on the agenda, but the essential medicines cannot reach the most vulnerable due to the politics of the capital, there is no moral high ground left on any side.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2014.

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