“Education is a matter of life or death for Pakistan. The world is progressing so rapidly that without the requisite advance in education, not only shall we be left behind others but we may be wiped out altogether.” Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1947)
It seems like these words are quite able to predict our future if the current situation of education remains the same in our country. Education is considered one of the basic needs of people living in a society. The government of every country tries to make those education policies which turn out to be the best for the advancement of that country. Every nation promises to be the finest among others on basis of educating the young generation and achieving the highest literacy rate.
Quaid-e-Azam being the Founder of Pakistan also dreamed of a country that will be full of peace, loyalty, faith, unity, discipline, and education but unfortunately, Pakistan being the 6th most populous country in the world still has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world.
Pakistan Economic Survey 2014-15 reported that under the United Nation’s millennium development goal (MDG) target, Pakistan was required to raise its literacy rate to 88% by 2015 but Pakistan’s literacy rate remains at 58% and the country missed the millennium development goal (MDG) for education.
It’s a huge failure of governments and administrations that
ruled Pakistan right from its independence till today that Pakistan is unable
to meet the UN’s MDG targets and to remove illiteracy from the country. In
the Article 25-A of the constitution of Pakistan it’s beautifully written that;
“The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 5 to 16 years in such a manner as may be determined by law.” But the sad part of the story is that it’s just written in the constitution but is not in practice. The situation is going worse as the government was spending 2.1 percent of its GDP on the education sector and is fully committed to enhancing education spending from 2.1 percent of GDP to 4.0 percent of GDP by 2018. As of comparison, neighboring countries like India are spending around 4.5 percent of GNP and 12.7 % of the government budget, while Bangladesh was spending 2.1 percent of GNP and 14.1 percent of the total government budget on education.
According to the EFA report 2012, India is densely populated than Pakistan still possesses a 75% adult literacy rate which is 6% more than Pakistan’s adult literacy rate and it is ranked as 113th among 120 nations regarding literacy rate.
It’s not that Pakistan has become inactive on the path of
prosperity, the government has made very positive and energetic educational
policies but the problem persists as “implementation” of these policies. There
is a need for courage from government officials and legislators to overview the
priorities of country and nation and work for actual betterment of society that
can only come from the education given to each child.
A report by UNESCO revealed in 2013 that Pakistan possessed the second largest number of out-of-school children in the world. The only other country bypassing Pakistan in this notoriety was Nigeria. It’s a miserable fact that 5.5 million children are out-of-school in Pakistan and millions are more whose schooling is not worth much.
Education plays a vital role in the development and prosperity of any country. The high literacy rate of a nation guarantees its sustainable economic development, labor productivity, and economic prosperity, the more the literacy rate is higher the more the state will be stable and progressive. But all that is needed is good governance to rule and implement the laws on a state properly.
We must ensure that we shall not be “left behind others or maybe wiped out altogether” and it’s only possible to educate not only ourselves but our sons and daughters too who are the actual future of Beloved Pakistan.
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