Problems of Education in Pakistan Historical Bakcground a) Pre Partition b) Post Partition Education System of Pakistan a) Primary Education b) Secondary

Education c) Higher Education Problems in Education System a) Medium of Instruction b) Unhygenic School Environment c) Unskilled Teachers d) Phantom Schools e) High Dropout rate f) Low Enrollment rate g) Inadequate Physical and other facilities h) Flaws in Examination System i) Politics in Education i) Student Organizations ii) Teachers' selection and posting iii) Curiculum iv) Examination j) Female illiteracy k) Lack of diversification in Education l) Stratification of Education m) Unemployment Suggestions to Meet the Challenges a) Quality Education for all b) Public-Private partnership c) More allocation of funds d) Destratification of education e) Decenteralization of education with strong monitoring system f) Improved Teachers' selection criteria and skilled teachers g) Examination system - to check learning not cramming Some countries which were free with Pakistan and have been much developed in the field of finance, industries and education field that our thoughts are only thoughts when we deeply review them. I want to appreciate those educational experts and policies makers. But in Pakistan, educational experts do not pay attention to this matter or there are many mistakes in our Govt. system from which we are developing. When any new Govt. came in Pakistan then all policies are changed. Similarly, our educational or health policy is changed with the passage of time. Our all running projects

are stopped and majority of funds are destroyed. Every new govt. made his new policies, but after short time or with its take over charge many parties start to point out present Govt. The govt. can not start any project with strategic planning. These are main hindrances which are disturbing our development process. The majority of our public do not access to qualitative education or health facilities. Due to lack of Govt. attention a large number of private and uncertified schools are open in many streets and towns. These schools are not providing quality education because they have not qualified staff. The under matrix teachers are proving educational facilities who are receiving 700/- , 1000 till maximum 3000/- pay. With this, Educational department is full with many problems from high authority to low level because their management and monitoring, system is not better. Because many schools are working in front of Distt. Educational department with out any hesitation. Similarly, political involvement is affecting our educational system because every new Govt. change policy and students are mindly disturbed, particularly; students of low level community are more affected and high level familys students are taking education national level institutions, where a low level family children thoughts are inn vain. According to my experience, only high familys children are receiving scholarship because other are not aware/reach about this. Govt. has affected our educational system due to introducing many meaningless slogans as Mar Naheen Piyar and hand over all system to many institutions with out any monitoring. They establish only board in streets and towns. It is great petty that every year syllabus is changed near the examination. National Education foundation gives funds or promote to that institutions which use their own laws. They awarded to the owners/principles that were not educated /skilled. So funds are not distributed to correct people who have emotion to do some thing. Similarly, we can see only boards of Punjab education foundation and they awarded only to their lovers. I am not pointing out any one these are in fact conditions which can reviewed by every one. So majority of school age children are working at Hotels or other hardworking process. Some of them have become criminals in this society. In Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan areas as Lodhran, Ahmed pur, D.G.Khan, Faisalabad, Rajan pur, Muzafer Gerh, Dadu, Shehdad Kot, Nawabshah, Naseerabad, Tamboo, Khuzdr, Usta Muhammad, Sibi, Bhag Nari, Pisheen and Lora Lai including many other areas are deprived from qualitative education and some are fully deprived from schools. All donors, social institutions, Social worker, Govt. institutions should pay heated attention to this serious matter. United Human Rights Development Organization and some other NGO,s are working properly. UHRDO has been established nearly, 19 schools with selfsupport. Majority of students are taking directly relief from those schools. But noncooperation of Govt. institutions and donors this process in not future sustainability. High level political personalities should cooperate to Govt. in education field so that solders of Pakistan can take education with good process and may support to Pakistan. The Govt. institutions and donors should pay their attention towards rural areas so that we can save

the rural children from being criminals of society. UHRDO has been through first stone in stop water and invite to all donors for cooperation and long term changing in society. Respected Editor I am greatfull thanks to you for kind cooperation. please published it with my full designation. I shall send you regularly Artical. M.B.Malik General Secretary UHRDO , Pakistan & Associate LEAD Pakistan. State of Education in Pakistan Some countries which were free with Pakistan and have been much developed in the field of finance, industries and education field that our thoughts are only thoughts when we deeply review them. I want to appreciate those educational experts and policies makers. But in Pakistan, educational experts do not pay attention to this matter or there are many mistakes in our Govt. system from which we are developing. When any new Govt. came in Pakistan then all policies are changed. Similarly, our educational or health policy is changed with the passage of time. Our all running projects are stopped and majority of funds are destroyed. Every new govt. made his new policies, but after short time or with its take over charge many parties start to point out present Govt. The govt. can not start any project with strategic planning. These are main hindrances which are disturbing our development process. The majority of our public do not access to qualitative education or health facilities. Due to lack of Govt. attention a large number of private and uncertified schools are open in many streets and towns. These schools are not providing quality education because they have not qualified staff. The under matrix teachers are proving educational facilities who are receiving 700/- , 1000 till maximum 3000/- pay. With this, Educational department is full with many problems from high authority to low level because their management and monitoring, system is not better. Because many schools are working in front of Distt. Educational department with out any hesitation. Similarly, political involvement is affecting our educational system because every new Govt. change policy and students are mindly disturbed, particularly; students of low level community are more affected and high level familys students are taking education national level institutions, where a low level family children thoughts are inn vain. According to my experience, only high familys children are receiving scholarship because other are not aware/reach about this. Govt. has affected our educational system due to introducing many meaningless slogans as Mar Naheen Piyar and hand over all system to many institutions with out any monitoring. They establish only board in streets and towns. It is great petty that every year syllabus is changed near the examination. National Education foundation gives funds or promote to that institutions which use their own laws. They awarded to the owners/principles that were not educated /skilled. So funds are not distributed to correct people who have emotion to do some thing. Similarly, we can see only boards of Punjab education foundation and they awarded only to their lovers. I am not pointing out any one these are in fact conditions which can reviewed by every one. So majority of school age children are working at Hotels or other hardworking process. Some of them have become criminals in this society. In Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan areas as Lodhran, Ahmed pur, D.G.Khan, Faisalabad, Rajan pur, Muzafer Gerh, Dadu, Shehdad Kot, Nawabshah, Naseerabad, Tamboo, Khuzdr, Usta Muhammad, Sibi, Bhag Nari, Pisheen and

Lora Lai including many other areas are deprived from qualitative education and some are fully deprived from schools. All donors, social institutions, Social worker, Govt. institutions should pay heated attention to this serious matter. United Human Rights Development Organization and some other NGO,s are working properly. UHRDO has been established nearly, 19 schools with self-support. Majority of students are taking directly relief from those schools. But non-cooperation of Govt. institutions and donors this process in not future sustainability. High level political personalities should cooperate to Govt. in education field so that solders of Pakistan can take education with good process and may support to Pakistan. The Govt. institutions and donors should pay their attention towards rural areas so that we can save the rural children from being criminals of society. UHRDO has been through first stone in stop water and invite to all donors for cooperation and long term changing in society. On International Literacy Day, a look at Pakistan's state of education shows it lagging behind other countries of South Asia. There are fears that if nothing is done, the illiterate population of the country may rise to 52 million by 2015. Islamabad: International Literacy Day is being observed today (Monday) across the world with the theme Literacy and Health but the state of education in Pakistan paints a dismal picture. Education is the main vehicle for socio-economic development but unfortunately about half of adult population in Pakistan cannot read and write. Pakistan is spending 2.4% of its GDP on education against the UNESCO-recommended norm of a minimum of 4%. Pakistan is sixth most populous country of the world. Due to rapid population growth and inability of the formal education system to bring all children into school, illiterate population has increased from 22 million in 1961 to 48 million by 2005. It is feared that by 2015, illiterate population in Pakistan may rise to 52 million. In the area of education, Pakistan is lagging behind other countries of South Asia, even lower than Nepal, Bangladesh and Maldives. Less expenditure Pakistan has been spending less on education as compared to other countries in the region. According to Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2008 by UNESCO, Pakistan is spending 2.4% of its GDP on education against the UNESCO-recommended norm of a minimum of 4% and against 3.8% spent by India, 7.5% by Maldives, 4.7% by Iran and 3.4% by Nepal. Out of 2.4% only 1.93% of GNP is being spent on education in real terms and only 11% of the total education budget is allocated for the higher education sector.

September 8 was proclaimed International Literacy Day by UNESCO on November 17, 1965. The total education budget is needed to be increased to a minimum of 6% as recommended by UNESCO for developing countries with at least one-third of it going to the higher education sector. The reason behind the current state of affairs is lack of political will and half-hearted efforts by the government which can be gauged by the fact that the portfolio of the education ministry is vacant since the PML-N ministers walk out from the cabinet on the judges issue. Though, 16 major political parties of the country on February 5 this year had committed in a Joint Declaration on Education For All in Pakistan to increase the present allocation of the education budget from 2.4% to 4% of the GDP within the next three years. But the ruling coalition contrary to its claims after coming into power slashed 5.7 billion from the fourth quarter of the last years budget of Higher Education Commission (HEC. Global education scenario According to UNESCO, some 774 million people, roughly one out of five adults in the world, can still neither read nor write; 75 million children remain excluded from the educational system. In this context, many countries will be unable to reach the target of increasing adult literacy by 50% by 2015. This is one of the six Education For All (EFA) goals set by countries during the 2000 World Education Forum in Dakar. Research has repeatedly demonstrated the direct correlation between peoples level of literacy and their chances to maintain good health. Notable progress has nonetheless been made. Over the last few years, the number of illiterate adults has dropped from 871 million (1985-1994) to 776 million (2000-2006). Over the same period, the global literacy rate rose to 84%, from 76% in the previous period. Current estimates place the world literacy rate at 90% by 2015, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. These increases are relative, however, because in countries with rapid demographic growth, they do not necessarily indicate a decline in the number of illiterate people. In sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, literacy has increased by 8% but at the same time the number of illiterate adults has gone up from 133 to 163 million people. Education and health

Research has repeatedly demonstrated the direct correlation between peoples level of literacy and their chances to maintain good health. For instance, a study conducted in 32 countries shows that women with secondary education are five times more likely to be informed about HIV/AIDS than women who are illiterate. Another example: the rate of infant mortality is higher when the mother can neither read nor write. An illiterate person is simply more vulnerable to ill-health, and less likely to seek medical help for themselves, their family or their community, notes the Director-General of UNESCO, Kochiro Matsuura, in the message he will issue for Literacy Day. Literacy is a powerful yet too often overlooked remedy to health threats, with the potential to promote better nutrition, disease prevention and treatment. September 8 was proclaimed International Literacy Day by UNESCO on November 17, 1965. It was first celebrated on 1966 to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies. International Literacy Day, 2008, has a strong emphasis on literacy and epidemics with a focus on communicable diseases such as HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria, some of the worlds most important public health concerns. Education: tool for oppression In its recently released State of Human Rights 2008 report the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has devoted considerable space the most number of pages to the education sector in the country. It is not a coincidence that the most backward, underprivileged and impoverished people who are denied their basic rights also happen to be illiterate and uneducated. Not that the rights of educated people are not abused in Pakistan given the autocratic dispensation of the state. But the educated have avenues to seek redress. The uneducated dont and the mere fact that they have been denied education itself proves how vulnerable they are. The HRCP has been publishing these reports since 1990 without fail and it has drawn public attention to the state of education in Pakistan and its impact on human rights. Although Pakistans constitution and all other human rights instruments recognise education as a basic right of every citizen, people are not getting what is their due. From the information collected mainly from the media and the reports of UN agencies, the

HRCP report tells us that Pakistan spends only 2.3 per cent of its GDP on education and 6.5 million children five to nine years of age are out of school with the drop-out rate being a high 50 per cent. The HRCPs focus is and quite rightly so on the expansion of education and its accessibility to all children in keeping with the education-for-all concept. A state that recognises the right to education of all its citizens also universalises primary education. The absence of political will is reflected in the limited resources allocated to this sector, the inadequacy of facilities and the failure to formulate an appropriate education policy to provide this basic right to the people of Pakistan. The HRCP has highlighted these deficiencies and its recommendations also attempt to address the issues it has focused on. There is, however, a vital dimension of education that the HRCP report has failed to note. This is the inequity that characterises education in Pakistan today and that has emerged as a tool of oppression. It promotes the class divide and perpetuates economic disparity in society. The easiest method of subjugating people is to deny them an education. If that is found to be too brazen, governments adopt the next best method. They deny the people education of good quality and thus marginalise them effectively. So serious is this problem that Unescos Global Monitoring Report for 2009 is titled Overcoming Inequalities. It observes, 'The distribution of educational opportunity plays a key role in shaping human development prospects. Unequal opportunities for education are linked to inequalities in income, health and wider life chances.' Our education system is blatantly a two-tier one. On one side is the state-of-the-art education for children of the privileged elite. On the other is the decaying system that provides no education at all. On which side will one land depends on the accident of birth and inheritance. The fault line lies along the economic divide. Public-sector school education is free but of deplorable quality. Private schools are allowed to charge fees that touch the skies and thus exclude the majority from their fold. And it is the state which connives in perpetuating this barrier. To further ensure that educational excellence doesnt touch the poor, our curricula, textbooks, exams and pedagogy are so tailored that a student from a public-sector school

can never hope to benefit. Students of the five-star educational institutions get the best books and the best teachers while their examinations are conducted from London/Cambridge. The unkindest cut comes in the form of the language of instruction. After having prevaricated for decades, our educational planners have in their profound wisdom now reached the conclusion that since English is the international language of the day our children must also be taught English. If it was to be taught as a second language one would not have quarrelled with the approach though inflicting a foreign tongue on the child as the medium of instruction from class one is the worst kind of cruelty he can be subjected to. How can young children be taught the concepts of mathematics, science or even history and geography in a strange language they cannot even understand? Yet our policymakers insist that English it will be and right from class one. Obviously the elites children benefit for they are familiar with the language which they have heard their parents speak at home. As a result the poor who cannot understand or speak English the clever ones memorise it gain no proficiency in it or in the subject they are being taught. Had their mother tongue been the medium of instruction they would have at least comprehended the subject they were being taught. And had they been taught English as a second language they would have been fluent in it too. But then they would have been in a position to compete with the children of the rich which is not acceptable to the privileged elite. As Dr Tariq Rahman, the educationist and linguist, says, English is the language of power in Pakistan. And power is not to be shared. It has to be concentrated in the hands of a few. Hence the need to exclude the majority from the system. That is why the language of governance is English. Court documents are in English. Bills and ordinances are in English. Trade and economic activity is documented in English. Since the poor have not been taught the English language as they should have been, they are denied access to political power. The economic turf, especially the employment market, also has to be kept as the rich mans preserve. A low standard of education ensures that. By holding on to these two key areas of power, the elite perpetuate the cycle of poverty and disadvantage.

Thus education becomes a tool of oppression for the rich to subjugate the poor. The HRCP should note this as it is the most blatant violation of human rights we are witness to. Education policy AT long last, the National Education Policy (NEP) is out. But many education NGOs which were part of the reform process are not pleased as a number of their suggestions have not been included. It appears that the policymakers decided to adopt the political approach and worked out the draft in a way that satisfied the various partners in government rather than the professionals. The NEP can still be retrieved if it is placed before the National Assembly for an honest debate to elicit public opinion. The media should also be encouraged to take up the issue. There is no reason why changes cannot be made even now. The policys analysis of the education scene in Pakistan is fine. It identifies most of the ills that beset this sector inaccessibility, disparity, quality and so on. But it is a pity that it fails to find the right solutions. Political expediency appears to have won the day. Two aspects that will have profound implications are highlighted: one, the ideological undertones that have been injected into the NEP belatedly; two, the implementation mechanism. A new chapter titled Islamic Education has been added to the draft that lauds the infusion of religious teachings in the curriculum. Past experience has shown that we can expect the further spread of obscurantism in view of the NEPs failure to adopt an enlightened approach. For instance, the stress is on memorisation and there is no mention of promoting understanding and debate on what is taught in the name of religion. Qaris will be training the teachers and there is no assurance that minorities and non-majority sects will be spared what this prescription of ideology imposes on them. The provision for Ethics as a subject for non-Muslim students in lieu of Islamiyat notwithstanding, they will have to submit to the infusion of faith in the curricula for all subjects. Another serious cause for concern is that no effective independent monitoring authority has been provided for. The policy speaks of the Inter Provincial Education Ministers Conference acting as the mechanism to oversee and guide implementation of this policy. In effect the task of monitoring will be left to the education departments in every province. Has that not been done since 1947? The NEP speaks in a low key of the corruption and ineptitude that characterise the education sector. Who will check this? Can those who

siphon off funds to line their own pockets really check the misappropriation of the amounts involved? In view of this the seven per cent of GDP that the government hopes to inject in this sector could well enrich more people. Only inspectors men and women of integrity who are independent of the education department and can be held accountable should constitute a mechanism to ensure that education funds are well spent. Budget or burden? The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. Diogenes Laertius Education is a crucial ingredient for a persons professional development. Not only this, but it also helps a country in raising its standard of human resources, which could lead a country towards a path of success in the future ahead. But this could only be possible if a country provides quality training and education facilities to their young generation. An annual budget 2009-10 that outlines expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year of Pakistan has been announced and it has broken all the expectations of the people of Pakistan. The people were expecting lots of things from the new government but our voices were unheard once again. The current budget has taped our lips to raise our voices regarding the rise in the price of even the basic commodities. The current budget, 2009-10, has not satisfied most of the ministries. The Education Budget, especially, is very low. The teachers, educators, writers and researchers are not satisfied with the decision taken by the government of our country and it has thrown our intellectuals in a phase of shock. Every teacher has expressed grave concern over the allocation of an inadequate budget for the education sector in the new fiscal year. The insufficient budget has exposed the priorities. Education funds are more focused on higher education rather than primary and secondary education.Every one was expecting that this time, the education budget will see some improvement, but quality education is not the luck of the citizens of Pakistan. The government says it is stepping up its allocation to deliver personalised learning for every child, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The government also claims that they will work for womens education, especially for early childhood development but despite these tall tales, it is yet to be achieved by our country.

Academicians, scholars and all teachers are shocked once again and are in doubt about whether our country will ever look into the current situation of our education system? Our neighboring countries are trying their level best to provide good and sound education to their citizens but even primary education in Pakistan is not available free of cost to the poor class, even though, it was the mandate of our national education policy 1998-2010. Despite a great deal of effort since the day of independence, academic achievement among students in Pakistan continues to lag behind. It is true that if we prepare quality human resources in our country, they will definitely serve Pakistan and help us sustain in the world. But what is education for our government? I believe that it is an icon of burden. It looks like they dont want our country to survive and make any progress. Although we know that the solution to all the problems of our country is the provision of quality education, the wish cannot be fulfilled if the budget for education will not be increased. We have no proper resources, no stable human resources, no quality education how can we even expect to survive? There are funds being provided to our government for setting up schools, printing quality books, working for womens education, primary education, etc., but what have we got to show in these areas to date? Our country is far more deprived in terms of providing quality education; not only because of the lack of serious attitude of the new generation towards this profession, but also because certain policies, methodologies, and restrictions are playing a role of binding force behind our education system. Above all, the current budget is the basic reason for the depriving situation of education. Private schools in our country have become a necessity for contemporary Pakistani society since the government has failed to provide quality education for its population. The condition of government schools all over the country and the quality of education being imparted there are going from bad to worse. Thousands of government schools exist as ghost schools. We used to blame the private schools and college management for adding to the families expenses but what about the conditions of our government schools? Just visit there once, and you will appreciate the decision taken by you for entering your child to a private school even though making both ends meet is close to impossible. It is indeed shameful that our defense budget is always more than our education budget. Our countrys progress is based on the younger generation but it seems as if our government is not interested in the progress of our country.

We couldnt expect any changes in the development of our country until and unless our future generation is provided quality education. Yes, the current budget is more than last years budget but the increment is very less, which shows that education is not a priority. The government claims that Pakistan currently has a literacy rate of 47 per cent. But I believe that it is less than 10 per cent. According to the Ministry of Education, a literate person has been defined as one who can read the newspaper and write a simple letter in any language. If this is the definition of literacy then I fail to see how we can move ahead in this world. Poor Schooling Hampers Anti-Terrorism Efforts Poor schooling slows anti-terrorism effort in Pakistan ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN -- With a curriculum that glorifies violence in the name of Islam and ignores basic history, science and math, Pakistan's public education system has become a major barrier to U.S. efforts to defeat extremist groups here, U.S. and Pakistani officials say. Western officials tend to blame Islamic schools, known as madrassas, for their role as feeders to militant groups, but Pakistani education experts say the root of the problem is the public schools in a nation in which half of adults cannot sign their own name. The United States is hoping an infusion of cash -- part of a $7.5 billion civilian aid package -- will begin to change that, and in the process alter the widespread perception that Washington's only interest in Pakistan is in bolstering its military. But according to education reform advocates here, any effort to improve the system faces the reality of intense institutional pressure to keep the schools exactly the way they are. They say that for different reasons, the most powerful forces in Pakistan, including the army, the religious establishment and the feudal landlords who dominate civilian politics, have worked against improving an education system that for decades has been in marked decline. "If the people get education, the elite would be threatened," said Khadim Hussain, coordinator of the Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy and a professor at Islamabad's Bahria University. "If they make education available, the security establishment's ideology may be at risk." That ideology, Hussain said, involves the belief that non-Muslim nations are out to destroy Pakistan and that the army is the only protection Pakistanis have from certain annihilation. Those notions are emphasized at every level in the schools, with students focused on memorizing the names of Pakistan's military heroes and the sayings of the prophet Muhammad, but not learning the basics of algebra or biology, he said.

The nature of the education system is reflected in popular attitudes toward the Taliban, alQaeda and other Islamic extremist groups that in recent months have carried out dozens of suicide bombings in Pakistan, many of them targeting civilians. Although the groups in many cases have publicly asserted responsibility for the attacks, a large percentage of the population here refuses to believe that Muslims could be responsible for such horrific crimes, choosing to believe that India, Israel or the United States is behind the violence. When Hussain challenges graduate-level students for proof, they accuse him of being part of the plot, he said. "Telling students they need to use evidence and logic means that you are definitely an agent of India, Israel and the CIA," he said. "They don't understand what evidence is." The madrassas have multiplied in Pakistan as public education has deteriorated. But madrassas still educate only about 1.5 million students a year, compared with more than 20 million in public schools. If Pakistan is to improve its dismal literacy rate and provide marketable skills to more of the estimated 90 million Pakistanis under the age of 18, it will have to start in the public schools. The United States plans to spend $200 million here this year on education, the U.S. Agency for International Development's largest education program worldwide. The money comes from the Kerry-Lugar aid bill, which was passed in late 2009 and promises Pakistan $7.5 billion in civilian assistance over the next five years. The funds are intended to signal a substantial shift from earlier years, when U.S. assistance to Pakistan was overwhelmingly focused on helping the military, which is battling the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the nation's northwest. U.S. officials say the money will be spent on a combination of programs, including infrastructure improvements, teacher training and updates to the curriculum. Unlike in past years, the money will not be filtered through non-governmental organizations and contractors but will be given directly to Pakistan's government, officials say. The idea is to improve the capacity of the nation's fledgling civilian-led administration, and to promote trust between the two nations. But there is also the risk that without adequate monitoring, much of the money will go to waste. Pakistan's current spending on education -- less than 3 percent of its budget -- is anemic, and far lower on a relative basis than in India or even Bangladesh. Much of it never reaches students. Pakistan's public education system includes thousands of "ghost schools," which exist on paper and receive state funding. But in reality, the schools do not function: A local landlord gets the money, and either pockets it or dispenses it to individuals who are on the books as

teachers, but in fact are associates or relatives who do nothing to earn their salaries. School buildings are often used for housing farmworkers or livestock, not for education. Those buildings that do operate lack basic facilities -- a 2006 government study found that more than half do not have electricity and 40 percent have no bathrooms. About a third of students drop out by the fifth grade. Teachers, meanwhile, earn as little as $50 a month, less in many cases than that of a domestic servant. The low pay mirrors teachers' perceived value in Pakistani society. "The social status of teachers is low, compared with other professions," said Rehana Masrur, dean of the education department at Allama Iqbal Open University in Islamabad. "If someone is doing nothing and has no future, people say, 'Why doesn't he become a teacher?' " Top government officials have little incentive to change that, experts here say. Although the vast majority of Pakistanis must choose between the public schools or madrassas for their children, Pakistan's well-to-do can send their kids to private schools, many of which are considered world-class. Javed Ashraf Qazi, a former Pakistani education minister, said the United States has not helped by frittering away much of its assistance budget on poorly defined programs, such as conflict-resolution training, which he said leave no enduring impact. What Pakistan really needs, he said, is a network of vocational training institutes that can prepare students for the workplace. "What would help is something that is lasting," he said. "The U.S. is spending more money, but spending it in a way that it does not leave any impact." But Pervez Hoodbhoy, a noted nuclear physicist at Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University and a longtime proponent of education reform, said Pakistan needs something more fundamental. "I don't think it's a matter of money. The more you throw at the system, the faster it leaks out," he said. "There has to be a desire to improve. The U.S. can't create that desire. When Pakistanis feel they need a different kind of education system, that's when it will improve." Education System and Links to Extremism EXCERPT: "Pakistan's poor education system has increasingly become a matter of international concern. Lack of access to quality education, which in turn limits economic opportunity, makes young Pakistanis targets for extremist groups, some experts say. The World Bank says nearly half the adult population of Pakistan can't read, and net primary enrolment rates remain the lowest in South Asia. Experts say the system suffers from inadequate government investment, corruption, lack of institutional capacity, and a poor curriculum that often incites intolerance. In August 2009, chief counter-terrorism adviser to the White House John Brennan, summing up a concern held by many U.S. terrorism

experts, said extremist groups in Pakistan have exploited this weakness. 'It is why they offer free education to impoverished Pakistani children, where they can recruit and indoctrinate the next generation,' he said. There have been some efforts by the Pakistani government, Western governments, and the World Bank to reform the system, but serious challenges remain. According to the Pakistani government's National Education Policy 2009, three parallel streams in education--public schools, private schools, and Islamic religious schools, or madrasas--have 'created unequal opportunities for students.' Of the total number of students going to primary school (grades 1 to 5), 73 percent go to public or government schools, 26 percent to private schools, and less than 1 percent to madrasas, according to the Karachi-based policy research institute Social Policy and Development Center. Within the public and the private sector, there are elite schools catering to a small minority of students. The majority of students attend low-quality private and public schools with poor curriculum, limited teaching materials, and inadequate number of properly trained teachers, or in many cases absent teachers."

Introduction Pakistan's poor education system has increasingly become a matter of international concern. Lack of access to quality education, which in turn limits economic opportunity, makes young Pakistanis targets for extremist groups, some experts say. The World Bank says nearly half the adult population of Pakistan can't read, and net primary enrollment rates remain the lowest in South Asia. Experts say the system suffers from inadequate government investment, corruption, lack of institutional capacity, and a poor curriculum that often incites intolerance. In August 2009, chief counterterrorism adviser to the White House John Brennan, summing up a concern held by many U.S. terrorism experts, said extremist groups in Pakistan have exploited this weakness. "It is why they offer free education to impoverished Pakistani children, where they can recruit and indoctrinate the next generation," he said. There have been some efforts by the Pakistani government, Western governments, and the World Bank to reform the system, but serious challenges remain. A 'Dysfunctional' System According to the Pakistani government's National Education Policy 2009 (PDF), three parallel streams in education--public schools, private schools, and Islamic religious schools, or madrassas--have "created unequal opportunities for students." Of the total number of students going to primary school (grades 1 to 5), 73 percent go to public or government schools, 26 percent to private schools, and less than 1 percent to madrassas, according to the Karachi-based policy research institute Social Policy and Development Center. Within the public and the private sector, there are elite schools catering to a small minority of students. The majority of students attend low-quality private and public schools with poor curriculum, limited teaching materials, and inadequate number of properly trained teachers, or in many cases absent teachers. "[N]o Pakistani leader has had the courage to implement serious [education] reforms"Pervez Hoodbhoy The government-mandated curriculum is a major concern for Western observers who say it encourages intolerance and a narrow worldview. Except in some elite private schools,

which do not follow the government-prescribed curriculum, all public schools and registered private schools have been required to teach Islamiyat, or Islamic studies, for nearly thirty years. In addition to Islamiyat, "many scholars have noted that the government curriculum uses Islam for a wide array of controversial ideological objectives," writes C. Christine Fair in the 2008 book The Madrassah Challenge. A 2003 report on the state of curriculum and textbooks by the Islamabad-based independent Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) said that for over two decades, the curricula and official textbooks in subjects such as English, social studies, civics, and Urdu "have contained material that is directly contrary (PDF) to the goals and values of a progressive, moderate and democratic Pakistan." It says the curriculum and textbooks include hate material and "encourage prejudice, bigotry and discrimination" toward women, religious minorities, and other nations, especially India. In 2004, Pervez Hoodbhoy, professor and chairman of Islamabad-based Quaid-i-Azam University wrote in Foreign Affairs: "Pakistani schools--and not just madrassas--are churning out fiery zealots, fueled with a passion for jihad and martyrdom." CFR Senior Fellow Daniel Markey also notes the concern over textbooks. "Rather than actually serving to moderate public views, the education system is exacerbating the problem of extremism," he says. The government, in its new national policy, concedes that access at all levels to educational opportunities remains low. Few people educated in public schools are able to move up the ladder of social mobility, it notes. There also remains a gender gap in schools; the net enrollment ratio (PDF) for girls at primary level is 59 percent as compared to 72 percent for boys. At secondary level, girls enroll at 21 percent as compared to 27 percent for boys. Government Reform Plans Since the early days of Pakistan's formation in 1948, "there was an insistence that Islam was to inform the education system," the SDPI report notes. After assuming power in a coup in 1977, military ruler Muhammad Zia ul-Haq made Islamic studies compulsory at all levels of education through college, and declared madrassa certificates equivalent to normal university degrees. Several successive governments made efforts to tackle curriculum reform through new education policies, but Hoodbhoy says "no Pakistani leader has had the courage to implement serious reforms." The National Education Policy 2009 says Pakistan's weak education sector results from a lack of commitment to education and poor implementation of policies. It recognizes pervasive corruption in the system and notes that the government's current spending on education, 2.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), is far from adequate. The NEP proposes the following policy actions: o Increase spending on education to 7 percent of GDP; o Increase public-private partnerships; o Introduce subjects taught in regular schools in madrassas; o Increase teacher training, enact curriculum reform, and improve teaching aid materials; o Introduce food-based incentives to increase enrollment and improve retention, especially for girls. However, some experts remain skeptical of real reform taking place. Markey says the plans on paper may not be translated into action. Hoodbhoy also notes the gap between policy

and implementation. He says new textbooks written as a result of curriculum reform in 2002 have not yet been printed. Since then, there have been two more education policies (in 2006 and 2009). There are also doubts about the government's ability to spend the allocated money on education. The national education policy notes that 20 percent to 30 percent of all government funds allocated to any sector remain unspent. Reforming education in Pakistan's restive regions, where the government's writ runs thin, may be even more difficult. According to official data, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), male literacy is 29.5 percent as compared to the national average of 54.8 percent and female literacy is only 3 percent compared to the national average of 32 percent. There are nine colleges which teach the intermediate and degree levels, but they only accept males, notes a 2008 research study (PDF) by a Peshawar-based independent nonprofit organization. This report, based on a survey of 1,050 FATA residents, found that nearly 45 percent of the respondents thought illiteracy was the main factor responsible for the current religious extremism. The 'Madrassa Myth?' The 9/11 Commission report (PDF) released in 2004 said some of Pakistan's religious schools or madrassas served as "incubators for violent extremism." Since then, there has been much debate over madrassas and their connection to militancy. For almost one thousand years, madrassas have been centers of Islamic learning that produce the next generation of Islamic scholars and clerics. In Pakistan in the 1980s they underwent a complete change under Zia's Islamization efforts, but it was Pakistan's leading role in the anti-Soviet campaign in neighboring Afghanistan during this time that radicalized some of these madrassas. New madrassas sprouted, funded and supported by Saudi Arabia and U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, where students were encouraged to join the Afghan resistance. The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 1990s, and reports that many of the group's leaders were educated in Pakistan's madrassas, fueled concern regarding these schools. Actual numbers of madrassas in Pakistan remain a point of contention among scholars. Several recent reports have suggested that earlier reports exaggerated their numbers. A 2005 World Bank study looking at religious school enrollment in madrassas (PDF) found they comprise a very small share of the full-time education market, as low as 1 percent. Even in the Pashtun belt bordering Afghanistan where they are most popular, the study says madrassa enrollment is less than 7.5 percent. Experts say there is no credible information for the number of unregistered madrassas, but estimates of registered madrassas range from ten thousand to twenty thousand. Some experts have also challenged assumptions of these schools as major militant hubs. One of them, Fair, writes in her book The Madrassah Challenge, that the madrassa market share has remained stable or even declined somewhat since 1991. She cites studies which disagree about the direct ties between madrassas and militancy. However, she admits even if few militants come from madrassas, they are still a matter of concern as they possibly produce students who are more likely than students in mainstream schools to support militancy. There has also been concern that madrassas in Pakistan's tribal areas provide suicide attackers in Afghanistan. A 2007 report (PDF) by the United Nations Assistance Mission in

Afghanistan found that suicide attackers in Afghanistan "draw heavily from madrassas across the border in Pakistan." The report noted the recruits were also drawn from Afghan refugees settled in Pakistan. Analysts also point to the role of madrassas in sectarian conflict. Madrassas, Fair says, were founded on sectarian lines and their primary objective is to produce students and religious scholars capable of defending the virtues of a particular school of thought. Reforming Madrassas There have been some measures by recent Pakistani governments to reform madrassas, but they have had little success so far, experts say. In 2001, former President Pervez Musharraf promulgated the Pakistan Madrassa Education Board Ordinance to establish three model madrassas that would include regular school subjects such as English, math, and computer science in their curricula. In 2002, he followed up with a Voluntary Registration and Regulation Ordinance that promised funding to madrassas that formally registered with the government. The current government led by President Asif Ali Zardari also vowed to review madrassa curriculum. Yet only five hundred madrassas (Dawn) have reportedly accepted curriculum reform since 2002. Eliminate the madrassas that are used for training and recruiting militants, but the solution is really in creating alternatives to madrassas through public or private schools that deliver better quality education - Daniel Markey Some experts advise against madrassa reform. CFR's Markey says "madrassas have never been intended to be more than seminaries and to violate that tradition in the name of an education program seems to be misplaced." He promotes the elimination of madrassas used for training and recruiting militants, but says that the solution is really in creating alternatives to madrassas through public or private schools that deliver better quality education. However, others disagree. Saleem H. Ali, visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, argues for curriculum reform at madrassas as well as international support for such programs. For instance, he says indirect U.S. support "could be offered through capacitybuilding programs for teachers across all sectors, including madrassas." The Washingtonbased International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, which has been working with some Pakistani madrassas since 2004 training their leaders and faculty in religious tolerance and human rights, says reform of these madrassas is possible. Douglas M. Johnston, the organization's president, urges USAID and international donor support for madrassa reform, saying: "To prevent Pakistan's slide toward a failed nuclear state, broad educational enhancement of the madrassas will be essential." U.S. Policy Implications Since 2002, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has invested over $682 million to reform Pakistan's education system. In September 2009, the U.S. Congress approved a new bill authorizing $1.5 billion a year in nonmilitary aid for the next five years starting in 2010. While the bill does not earmark a specific amount for education, it is authorized to provide assistance in educational reform including programs for "development of modern, nationwide school curriculums for public, private, and religious schools" and "support for the oversight of all educational institutions, including religious schools."

However, concerns remain in how best to disburse the aid money for maximum impact. Some experts say a large portion of development assistance is spent on international consultants and overhead costs. Most worry that the Pakistani government, with its poor record on transparency and distribution of aid, is an ineffective partner. Lack of coordination between the central government and the local authorities who are in charge of implementing educational reforms adds to the problem. CFR Senior Fellow Isobel Coleman says international donors must work with local partners to assist in educational reform. An increasing number of experts point to the growth of low-cost private schools that are generally more efficient than public schools and recommend boosting the private sector to help reform the system. Public-private partnership models are also recommended. Fair says understanding parental choice is critical for any meaningful educational reform. She writes many parents opt out of the educational market rather than send their children to madrassas for full-time instruction. Factors such as physical distance to schools and presence of female teachers are usually considered an important determinant for girls' education. In other cases, stipends can help to encourage parents to send their children to school when incentives other than quality of education are a determinant in enrollment. There are already some ongoing efforts in this regard. The World Bank started a program in 2003 of paying a stipend to families to ensure they send their daughters to school. Other institutions like Canadian nonprofit International Development and Relief Foundation have also partnered with nongovernmental organizations such as the Zindagi Trust to set up programs to encourage education among working children by paying them stipends as a supplement to their daily wages. Lack of basic education fuels rise in Taliban and extremism in Pakistan Judged even by the lowest standards, education in Pakistan is a disaster and most adults are illiterate. David Blair visits often makeshift schools in a nation where far more is spent on bullets than on books. The last lesson for the children of Gharayband elementary school in Pakistan covered arithmetic and English. Sixty girls sat in a spartan, whitewashed classroom, overlooked by a stern portrait of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of the nation, and recited the eight times table. They moved on to learning the names for parts of the body: nose, eye, lips, head, hand. Afterwards, their teacher left and never returned. This school in southern Punjab shut down and became an empty, cavernous shell: a 'ghost school' where the teacher's name still appears on the books and she continues to draw an official salary, but without the inconvenience of appearing for work.

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At a stroke, 60 girls were deprived of their education, joining countless others across Pakistan with little chance of ever going to school. That was six years ago. Today an old blackboard, laced by a cat's cradle of silver cobwebs, preserves that last lesson inside a silent classroom. Whatever desks or benches may once have been here were carried off long ago; Jinnah's portrait lies on a filthy floor strewn with litter. 'The teacher left when she was married,' says a woman from Gharayband village, a cluster of homes made from sun-baked mud. 'Nothing has happened here since she went away.' There are thousands of 'ghost schools' across Pakistan, one symbol of the calamitous state of the country's public education system. In a nation of 170 million people almost half of whom are under the age of 18 only 50 per cent of girls and 60 per cent of boys go to primary school, despite the absence of any fees for public education. When it comes to secondary schools, the attendance rate plummets to 23 per cent for boys and 18 per cent for girls. Even by the standards of the world's poorest countries, these are pitiful figures. Zimbabwe has suffered 29 years of Robert Mugabe's rule, but 90 per cent of the country's children still make it to primary school and almost half go on to secondary education. As for Pakistan's neighbours: in India more than 80 per cent of children go to primary school and 60 per cent to secondary school; Sri Lanka, after years of conflict, achieves close to 100 per cent and 90 per cent respectively. Even Afghanistan, ruined by decades of war, does better than Pakistan in one vital respect: it gives primary schooling to a higher proportion of boys 66 per cent than its far more developed neighbour. What are the consequences of Pakistan's singular failure to educate its people? About half of all the nation's adult men and two-thirds of women are illiterate, even though the authorities have set a notably low bar for judging literacy: the ability to sign one's own name. In a country that deploys nuclear weapons, most adults cannot even manage this elementary task.

This is a failure almost without parallel. One desperately poor nation after another has achieved better literacy rates than Pakistan: two thirds of Indian adults can read and write; in Congo, Africa's most troubled and war-ravaged country, 67 per cent of adults are literate. People who cannot read or write are easier to control and this provides part of the explanation for the absence of a viable state education system. Yet the illiterate are also more vulnerable to the beguiling simplicities of Islamic radicalism. If Pakistan has become the epicentre of global extremism, the fact that basic education is not on offer to tens of millions is a big part of the reason why. Today the Taliban have burst out of their stronghold along the north-west frontier and penetrated much of the rest of Pakistan. Punjab, the most populous and developed province, is home to much of the military and political elite. Yet the Taliban have now made it the epicentre of their terror campaign, conducting a series of strikes in Punjab's main cities. In the last month alone, gunmen and suicide bombers have raided the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi and police training centres in Lahore, the provincial capital, killing at least 40 people in five separate incidents. The area around Gharayband in southern Punjab was once virtually immune to the Taliban's brand of Sunni zealotry. Its people traditionally observed a moderate strand of Islam, merging orthodox piety with a deeply ingrained belief in local saints and shrines that pre-dates the arrival of the Muslim faith, but the Taliban have now turned this area into a key recruiting ground, and southern Punjab is steadily succumbing to violent extremism. The Chenab river gives life to a verdant landscape of emerald fields laden with rice, cotton and wheat. To the people who live alongside its waters, one of five great rivers flowing through Punjab, its swirling current brings hope and dread. Every few years the Chenab bursts its banks and inundates many villages. From one flood to the next, however, people must live with one certainty: their children are very unlikely to go to school. While elsewhere in Pakistan there are schools but no teachers, here there are scarcely any schools. Along the banks of the Chenab in Muzaffargarh district, the government provides only four for a population of almost 750,000. Officials offer a simple explanation: if we build schools near the river, they could be flooded. But not everywhere risks being swamped and, in any case, secure defences against the Chenab's waters can be constructed. The reality is that neither the money nor the teachers can be found. In the village of Jotianwala, life revolves around the eternal cycle of planting and harvesting. Rab Nawaz farms two and a half acres of fertile soil. He owns four water buffaloes and three cows, placing him among the village's more fortunate inhabitants.

A flat-roofed home, built from sun-baked mud and swept perfectly clean, houses three generations of his family: Nawaz, his wife, Amna, their four children, and Nawaz's mother, Bheeran. None of their births was registered, but Nawaz looks about 40, Amna seems roughly the same age and their youngest daughter, Mervish, is still a baby. Their two older girls, Samina and Rosina, are both teenagers, while their son, Mohammed, is a toddler. Bheeran, the grandmother, looks about 60. Little has changed, let alone improved, over these generations. Nawaz's mother never went to school, nor did he, and nor did his wife. Today none of their children goes to a government school; two occasionally attend an informal 'community school' in a nearby village, where local people teach some children themselves. But it is tiny, has few books and so cannot provide a real substitute. Consequently, none of Nawaz's children can read or write. Bheeran has no doubt that life is harder for her son and his children. 'I cannot read anything, not even the holy Koran,' she says. 'I have the holy book in the house, but this is just for blessing, not for reading. Once, I had hoped that my son's life and then my grandchildren's lives would be better than mine. But life is worse for them because there are more people today and the same amount of land. I feel helpless because nothing is within our control.' When Nawaz was a boy, he did not envy children who went to school. 'My only ambition was to have some animals, some cows and water buffaloes, and that we would take them to our fields,' he says. But he has higher aspirations for his own children: Nawaz desperately wants them to go to school. 'We want our children to be like you,' he says suddenly. 'You are educated, you are working, you are seeing the world. Our children will live and die here.' He adds, 'Everyone has a strong desire to see their children educated. But the problem is there is no school here. Where do we send our children?' The nearest government primary school is more than 10 miles away on the far side of the Chenab. Even if they could get a place there, his children could not walk that distance every day nor find the money to pay a boatman to carry them across the river. His daughters appear resigned to spending the rest of their lives in the village. When I ask Samina what she wants to do when she grows up, she seems baffled. 'I never think about it,' she says. 'But I want to go to school.' Her sister, Rosina, has thought about life beyond Jotianwala. 'I want to study and then find a job. I want to be a teacher,' she says. In this village of 47 families, there is only one literate adult and only one child who occasionally attends the government school. Yassin, who does not know his age but looks about 14, can make the journey because he owns a secondhand bicycle worth about 4. His

attendance, though, is erratic at best and impossible when the monsoon rains fall. Why does he go to the trouble at all? 'Because I want to be a teacher,' he answers. There are villages blessed with both schools and teachers. But those who follow the career that Yassin aspires to often question why they bother. 'We are like the divorced wives of the government,' one teacher tells me. 'We have no rights and no one pays any attention to us.' Primary school teachers often earn as little as 30 per month not much above the World Bank's definition of absolute poverty of 20 per month and they are largely untrained: many did not complete secondary education. They face the overwhelming temptation to give up and lead the relatively easy life of an absentee teacher, collecting their salaries without ever appearing for work, with corrupt officials turning a blind eye in return for a share of the spoils. Those who are dedicated enough actually to do their jobs endure working conditions that almost defy belief. Many rural schools do not possess lavatories, not even pit latrines. In the village of Basti Nawab Shah, the government school has no lavatory and no running water, beyond an untreated trickle from an old handpump. There are two classrooms for 180 pupils. The authorities provide textbooks, but children must buy their own pens and exercise books a burden that many families cannot afford. Children are not given any food by the school; many come to classes without having eaten at home. Some children are taught in the open air, others are crammed into the crumbling, bare, baking-hot school building. Asghar Ali Shakar, a 37-year-old teacher, makes ingenious use of the available space by conducting two different lessons in one classroom at the same time. On his right, four rows of seven-year-olds are perched on wooden benches. On Shakar's left, there are 25 more boys and girls, all aged about 11. 'There is no other way,' he says. 'I give one class some task to memorise, and then I move on to the other class. Then I swap over.' The seven-year-olds are learning English by reciting a passage from their textbook. 'Ahmed is a postman, he wears a khaki dress,' they chant. 'He brings letters, cards and money orders.' Meanwhile, on the other side of the classroom, Shakar is leading the 11-year-olds in a handwriting exercise. Tiny hands trace Urdu and English characters on wooden tablets shaped like cheeseboards. Examples of the best handwriting are posted on the wall. One boy, Abid Sattar, has succeeded in mastering joined-up handwriting in English. His painstakingly drawn passage from a textbook is proudly on show: 'The scene of the crime was a goldfish bowl. Goldfish were kept in the bowl at the time. That was the scene. And was the crime.'

Thin, barefoot and dressed in a grubby blue salwar kameez, Abid tells me, 'I was doing a lot of practice with pencil and paper. Then I moved to using the wooden slate. Then I tried with the big sheet of paper that's on the wall.' Yet his achievement is not the only one commemorated on the wall. A stone plaque solemnly records that this shell of a school was opened in 1991 by the local member of the National Assembly, Shah Mahmoud Qureshi, who now serves as the foreign minister. Qureshi's background could scarcely be more different from Abid's. A scion of the Punjabi elite, he went to Aitchison College in Lahore, Pakistan's imitation of Eton, which counts three prime ministers, one president and Imran Khan among its alumni, and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he read law. Abid is uncertain of his age, but looks about 10. What might he achieve if his teacher were not forced to conduct parallel lessons in a single, sweltering classroom? And for the price of the foreign minister's plaque, Abid's school could have built some latrines. In the morning respite before the midday heat, scores of boys parade in orderly rows. The sun's rays flicker behind the green leaves of mango trees as they stand to attention beneath the flag of Pakistan and sing the national anthem. Morning assembly at the government elementary school in Sunakhi village seems to offer a rare picture of hope. Their school received a complete overhaul earlier this year when the authorities provided a new building with five clean and functional classrooms, electricity and safe water from a handpump. Ubaid Ullah, the brisk and efficient headmaster, is proud of his refurbished school. But not everything is quite as good as it looks. The school has sanitation in the form of two lavatories, but these are kept padlocked so that only teachers and not children are able to use them. This apparently is common practice in schools lucky enough to have facilities at all. There are 271 boys on the register, but only 150 have appeared for this assembly. The cotton-picking season has begun and many families need their children to work in the fields, meaning that attendance of about 50 per cent is pretty standard. Wheat is the most commonly grown crop here, and during its harvest in May, school attendance falls still further, often to as low as 20 per cent. 'This is a poor area and the children are needed in the fields,' Ullah says. 'We have been trying to persuade parents to send their children to school. But because of poverty, some people are not interested in education.' To grasp why Pakistan's state education system has become such a wreck, you need understand only a few figures. This year the central government will spend 66 per cent of its budget on defence and debt servicing, and only 2.5 per cent on education. Throw in the immense burden of corruption and there is precious little money for schools. The central

education budget is only 478 million, or about 6 for each school-age child in the country. Defence, by contrast, receives 2.6 billion according to the official figure and probably more in reality. Some countries have an army, but in Pakistan the army has a country or so goes the rueful joke. Thanks to the nation's confrontation with India over Kashmir and the constant turmoil on the Afghan frontier, the army comes first on Pakistan's list of priorities. The debt repayments that consume most of the budget are mainly the legacy of past loans taken out to buy weapons. Mohammed Aslam Kambo serves as the state secretary for schools in Punjab. Polite and businesslike, he holds court in a spotless, air-conditioned office in Lahore, surrounded by deferential functionaries. He is anxious to deny the existence of any serious problem. 'In Punjab, we don't have ghost schools. I'm sure there's not a single one,' he airily assured me a day before I visited the husk of the school in Gharayband. 'We have a sufficient level of primary schools,' he added. 'It's next to impossible that you will find a population of 100 houses and no state school.' Those who are passionate about the problem, though, have no doubt about the consequences of this national failure to build a viable education system. If the government does not provide schools, the wealthy few will either emigrate or send their children into private education; the rest will look to madrassas, the Islamic colleges that have sprung up across the country and offer free education from the age of five to 18, mainly for boys though some admit girls. The number of madrassas has climbed exponentially, from a few hundred at independence in 1947 to more than 10,000 today. 'Parents will want to send their kids somewhere and if the madrassa is the only thing that's functioning, then that's where they'll go,' Mohammed Qazilbash, the country director of Save the Children, says. The Taliban movement was born in Pakistan's madrassas, giving these institutions a reputation as factories for extremism, dedicated to brainwashing their pupils and turning out terrorist recruits. That image is indelible, but deeply unfair none the less. A minority of madrassas radicalise their students, but most are innocent if austere places where poor children get their only chance of an education. The danger is not so much that madrassas deliberately brainwash their charges. The key problem is that memorising the Koran is about the only skill they impart. All madrassas have one advantage: they offer free meals to their children and often lodgings, too, while most state schools are incapable of providing their pupils with any food at all. But the average graduate of a madrassa will not have the ability to hold down a normal job in the formal economy. The religious colleges simply add to the legions of Pakistanis who are unemployable by anyone except the Taliban.

President Asif Ali Zardari's government has officially recognised the problem and promised to treble the total education budget to seven per cent of national income by 2015. Others are also trying hard. Britain's Department for International Development has made education a key priority and will spend 250 million over the next five years on training teachers and restoring schools. But this money will go through the government, raising questions over whether it will be spent effectively. Save the Children has been trying to improve state education for years and Qazilbash is incensed by the consequences of its neglect. 'Our economic, social, cultural and political growth is retarded,' he says. 'How can you expect to build a nation when you treat the future of the nation with such disdain, such disinterest?' Recommendations for Improving Education in Pakistan Asif Iftikhar

Given below are some recommendations to the government for improving education in Pakistan. The recommendations follow a brief mention of the problems they might be helpful in tackling:

I. PROBLEMS A. Low literacy level and low standard of education These are general problems and need no elaborate comment here. B. Inappropriateness of curricula and pedagogy The curricula and related pedagogy are usually inappropriate or at least inadequate for the set goals in many disciplines. Furthermore, there is no integrated system in which one step leads to the next to enable a student to develop a truly sound base for the discipline he or she is interested in. Moreover, even at the higher levels of education, there is no mechanism worth its name to help a student in gauging his or her potential or in deciding on a suitable academic career.

C. Multiplicity of educational systems There are many systems working here, resulting in not synergy but social division and conflict. For example we have English medium schools, Urdu medium schools, and religious madrasas. Students coming out of English medium schools, especially good private sector schools, have little or no awareness of their religion and culture whereas those passing out from Urdu medium schools are usually destined to work in clerical and lower level positions. Religious madrasas churn out yet another class that are usually unaware of the world outside their own and, with their strong sectarian bias and little or no training in modern disciplines, are usually ill-equipped to interact meaningfully with the larger society and are also monumental at times in spreading sectarianism. II. RECOMMENDATIONS A. Declare educational emergency The present government should declare a national educational emergency and involve the whole nation, including the army, in waging a war against illiteracy. Some steps that the government might consider taking in this regard are: 1. Declare education as the highest priority of the government. Explain that unless the impediments of illiteracy and lack of education are removed, the road to democracy will remain fraught with the danger of exploitation of the masses by the select few, and that in the absence of political will in the ruling classes to do something tangible in this arena, it seems that it is up to the army to defend the country against illiteracy and lack of education, for there is no factor more important to the well-being of a nation than human resource and no negligence worse than ignoring its development. 2. Make it mandatory for government and army officers at all levels to do stints at various educational institutions in relation to their skills and national requirements. 3. Make it a mandatory requirement for various degree programmes that the candidates, after taking their exams, shall spend a specified period of time [for specified hour(s)] in teaching at assigned institutions. (These assignments should be given in a judicious and practical manner). 4. Ask for volunteers with specified qualifications to contribute their services in their areas of work or residence under organised bodies that can be formed for this purpose by the government. 5. Ask the public to contribute financially for this purpose. Modern marketing and fund raising techniques can be adopted for this task.

6. Many government school buildings can be converted into commercial schools of good level. The government can consider offering many of these schools to private sector organisations in the field of education on the condition that a specified percentage of bright students from the lower and middle classes will be granted admission and scholarships. Tax benefits/exemptions may also be made part of the deal to encourage entrepreneurship in this area. 7. Offer tax benefits/exemptions and other such incentives to private sector groups to invest in education in rural and less developed areas. 8. Make it mandatory for each industrial unit/agricultural estate of an area above a specified limit to provide for a school within the premises/area. Alternatively, the owner can be asked to share costs with the government for setting up such school. Another option is giving various financial/tax incentives. 9. Introduce standardisation of curricula and licensing and certification of teachers to improve standards (as is done in the USA). 10. Introduce high quality selection procedure for higher level teachers and offer the candidates better incentives. 11. Use electronic media more extensively for educational purposes. A channel could be devoted to just education. In this regard, a. teachers of high calibre can take classes for different subjects at various levels, b. these lecturers can be telecast as well as recorded, c. the lectures can be delivered by telecasting them or by playing recorded cassettes even in schools in far flung areas where quality education is usually not available, d. later on computers can also be used with sufficient data banks and with internet and email facilities for more interactive education, and e. if an appropriate system is designed, more students can be taught in one school using cassettes, discs, etc. with relatively less teachers. 12. In rural areas, provide each school with at least one army man to ensure that people face no resistance from the feudals in educating their children. 13. Provide people with incentives to educate their children. This can be done in various ways. For instance a. even lower level government jobs as for clerks, peons, constables can be linked to a minimal level of education and entrance tests. b. various loans (e.g. agricultural loans) can be linked to whether an applicant has educated or is educating his children. 14. Link agricultural loans/tax benefits to feudal landlords with a specified number of people they have helped in obtaining a required level of education. 15. Similarly, link industrial loans to education. 16. Similar linkages can be made in relation to adult education programmes

B. Improve, update and form curricula, texts, pedagogy, and examination and evaluation techniques There is no need to say that improvement, updating and new work needs to be done in these areas. Again, some steps that the government might consider taking are: 1. Give more importance to language education and mathematics at the primary and secondary levels. The unfortunate fact is that usually even our postgraduates lack basic skills in these areas. Language and mathematics are the foundation on which acquisition of other skills depends. Though much of the problem is due to poor teaching, yet curricula, texts, pedagogy and examination techniques also have a lot to do with the current situation. 2. Various teams of experts should be involved in performing the above mentioned task of improvement and formation. 3. Instruction in science, history and social studies should be incorporated in language teaching at the primary and secondary levels through activities and projects. 4. Computer education should also be introduced gradually right from the elementary stage in education. 5. At the proper stage, instruction in foreign languages (especially Arabic for closer cultural and economic ties with the Arab world, for curbing sectarianism and fanaticism, for greater unity in the Ummah, and for better understanding of Islam in the educated classes) and social skills (for enhancing Emotional Intelligence) should also be encouraged (Goleman,* 1996). Both these areas have gained immense importance in the wake of globalisation. 6. More emphasis should be given to the development of educational institutions for some unconventional disciplines as fashion designing, art, music and literature. There is a lot of talent in the country in this field and a great, high return international market for the products and services of skillful people in this area. 7. Similarly, a system of continual vocational training should also be introduced for workers in different fields. 8. Interesting and informative documentaries and activities should also be designed for the education of students. Similarly, institutions as museums, internet clubs, libraries, etc. should also be developed. Contributions from the public can also be sought for this purpose. 9. Various bodies of academic experts should also be formed to monitor, standardise and develop all the above mentioned programmes (1-8). C. Eliminate multiplicity in education gradually

A uniform system of education should be introduced gradually to eradicate the problems multiplicity of systems creates as pointed out earlier. Two important things that the government should attempt in this regard are: 1. Introduce one medium of instruction. In the international environment of competition today, English has assumed unprecedented importance. Although Urdu will perhaps remain a language of our people for a long time to come, English has to be given preference if a choice is to be made (as too many languages undermine instruction in any one). 2. Religious education should be incorporated in the mainstream education. For this purpose, the most important thing is introduction of Arabic as a second language at the appropriate stage. This may not be as difficult as it seems. Some work may be required in forming the curricula and pedagogy, but the rest can be done just by including good level Arabic in Civil Services and Army entrance examinations. Similarly, good Arabic can be made a prerequisite for entrance into a number of other professions and for promotion. (For example in the judiciary it makes sense to have a judge who has a sound base in Arabic deciding about Islamic law). Demand will create its own supply, and it is expected that schools, institutions and parents will also be important contributing factors. (Other advantages of Arabic have already been pointed out; see B.5).

Importance of education in economic development Education, a strong correlation with economic development Islamabad, Oct 12: Education is considered to have a strong correlation with social and economic development. In contemporary times when the focus is on the 'knowledge economy' the role of education becomes all the more important in the development of human capital. After all, a society of literate and skilled citizens has more chances of development at the economic and social levels. Education can reduce poverty and social injustice by providing the underprivileged resources and opportunities for upward social mobility and social inclusion. Yet, until the National Education Policy (NEP) 2009 was unveiled, the budgetary allocation for education in Pakistan was on the decline. The lack of political commitment of the state has resulted in multiple educational systems which are inherently discriminatory and biased in nature. A large number of students are unable to attend schools. According to the Education For All Global Monitoring Report (2007), almost 6.5 million children in Pakistan do not go to school. Countries like India, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ghana, Niger, Kenya and Mali are placed in relatively better

positions. The only country that has a worse situation than Pakistan's is Nigeria, with more than eight million children out of school. A large number of students who make it to schools, however, drop out by class five. According to NEP, about 72 per cent make it to grade five which means a dropout rate of 28 per cent. This significant figure further brings down the chunk of the population that makes it to school. Such a large number of students outside school means that they are deprived of the opportunity to learn and acquire skills for playing a meaningful role in society. Social exclusion is a great loss at the individual and societal levels. Most of these out-of-school children experience poverty and unemployment and some get involved in criminal activities as well. Constitutionally, the provision of basic education to citizens is the state's responsibility. Is the state carrying out its responsibility? The state needs to analyse the reasons be hind the number of out-of-school children. They come from poor families and cannot afford the luxury of education despite their desire for it. The real issue of educational apartheid comes to the surface only after joining a school. Enrolling in a school does not ensure the provision of quality education. There is one question which is central to quality: what kind of school is it? The answer to this question may include the state of the building, faculty, management, curriculum, textbooks, examination system and medium of instruction as well as the socio-economic background of the children. The reference to socio-economic background is crucial as schools - like social classes - are stratified in terms of social status. So social exclusion is not only at the access level but also at the quality level. The widening difference between private and public schools is responsible for the gaping chasm between resources and opportunities given to the poor and the rich. Children from elite schools have enhanced chances of employment and social integration whereas children from public schools, no matter how bright they are, are disadvantaged in terms of getting exposure to quality education. The famous slogan 'education for all' needs to be revisited. Is it sufficient to enrol every child in school? The continuance of disparity and exclusion goes on depending on the quality of the school. Thus the slogan needs to focus on 'quality education for all'. It is the quality aspect which is missing in disadvantaged schools. Instead of taking some constructive measures to improve the conditions the state is taking the easy route of offering private schools as an alternative. Government officials publicly give statements that public schools have failed and the only alternative left is private schools. I do not intend to underplay the significant role private schools can play in the uplift of the educational system in Pakistan. My only contention is that they are there to complement the system and should not be presented as an alternative to public education.

Education has failed miserably to reduce poverty gaps, social injustice and oppression. The education policy suggests that "the educational system of Pakistan is accused of strengthening the existing inequitable social structure as very few people from publicsector educational institutions could move up the ladder of social mobility". What action plan has been given in the new education policy to ensure that this won't happen in the future? Simply referring to a problem does not mean that it has been taken care of. The education policy should have given a clear and concrete blueprint to combat social exclusion, inequality and social injustice. The existing discriminatory educational systems are not only perpetuating the socio-economic gaps between the haves and havenots, they are also responsible for further widening these gaps. The writer is director of the Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Lahore School of Economics and author of Rethinking Education in Pakistan. -Shahid Siddiqui Why is girls' education important? There are several compelling benefits associated with girls education, which include the reduction of child and maternal mortality, improvement of child nutrition and health, lower fertility rates, enhancement of womens domestic role and their political participation, improvement of the economic productivity and growth, and protection of girls from HIV/AIDS, abuse and exploitation. Girls education yields some of the highest returns of all development investments, yielding both private and social benefits that accrue to individuals, families, and society at large by

Reducing womens fertility rates. Women with formal education are much more likely to use reliable family planning methods, delay marriage and childbearing, and have fewer and healthier babies than women with no formal education. It is estimated that one year of female schooling reduces fertility by 10 percent. The effect is particularly pronounced for secondary schooling. Lowering infant and child mortality rates. Women with some formal education are more likely to seek medical care, ensure their children are immunized, be better informed about their children's nutritional requirements, and adopt improved sanitation practices. As a result, their infants and children have higher survival rates and tend to be healthier and better nourished. Lowering maternal mortality rates. Women with formal education tend to have better knowledge about health care practices, are less likely to become pregnant at a very young age, tend to have fewer, better-spaced pregnancies, and seek pre- and post-natal care. It is estimated that an additional year of schooling for 1,000 women helps prevent two maternal deaths. Protecting against HIV/AIDS infection. Girls education ranks among the most powerful tools for reducing girls vulnerability. It slows and reduces the spread of HIV/AIDS by contributing to female economic independence, delayed marriage, family planning, and work outside the home, as well as conveying greater information about the disease and how to prevent it.

Increasing womens labor force participation rates and earnings. Education has been proven to increase income for wage earners and increase productivity for employers, yielding benefits for the community and society. Creating intergenerational education benefits. Mothers education is a significant variable affecting childrens education attainment and opportunities. A mother with a few years of formal education is considerably more likely to send her children to school. In many countries each additional year of formal education completed by a mother translates into her children remaining in school for an additional one-third to one-half year.

Girls education and the promotion of gender equality in education are vital to development, and policies and actions that do not address gender disparities miss critical development opportunities.