higher education in pakistan css essay

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Education: fixing higher education.

Every year, the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) conducts a competitive examination, commonly known as CSS, for recruitment of officers at the starting stage in the civil services of Pakistan. The academic requirement for this examination is graduation from a university, duly recognised by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). The examination is usually attempted by the brightest university graduates.

The result of the last CSS examination, announced on September 18, reflects the quality of graduates being produced by our higher educational institutions (HEIs). As per the FPSC, at least 20,000 candidates attempted the written part of the examination, of whom only 393 candidates, or 1.94 percent, passed.

The FPSC has been continually complaining about the falling standards of our education over several years. One of its reports states that many of the candidates were not even familiar with elementary mathematics. Then it states that many candidates “did not even know the direction of a simple compass, confusing north with south and east with west.” Almost all its reports complain about the absence of analytical skills among the candidates who mostly reproduce “crammed knowledge.”

It is not only the CSS examination where the poor quality of our graduates, produced by our HEIs, is visible. Their performance is even worse in international assessment tests, such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) etc. No wonder that Pakistani HEIs are either absent from or in the bottom section of international rankings, such as the Times Higher Education (THE), the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).

Many developing countries, which were far behind Pakistan decades ago, are now emerging as regional hubs of higher education, while our standards continue to fall. Where did it all go wrong and can something be done to repair the damage?

How did we get here and what can we do to improve the situation?

A BRIEF HISTORY OF HIGHER EDUCATION

While ‘informal’ higher education has been there for centuries, its formal version, with a structured academic programme culminating in a degree or certificate, is a relatively recent phenomenon. “A great teacher like Socrates gave no diplomas,” wrote the mediaeval historian Charles Homer Haskins in his 1923 book The Rise of Universities. “If a modern student sat at his feet for three months, he would demand a certificate, something tangible and external to show for it.”

The modern universities were born in Europe during the Middle Ages. They reached India through British rule several centuries later, where the first three universities started working in 1858 at Calcutta, Bombay (now Mumbai), and Madras (now Chennai).

In due course, the British identified three “characteristic defects of the Indian intellect”, which were the “development of the memory out of all proportions to the other faculties of mind, the incapacity to observe and appreciate facts, and the taste for metaphysical and technical distinctions,” noted the Indian Educational Policy of 1904.

At Independence, present- day Pakistan inherited two universities: the University of Punjab at Lahore, established in 1882, and the University of Sindh, established at Karachi in April 1947. A few months later, on November 27, the Quaid-e-Azam shared his vision of education, stating: “There is [an] immediate and urgent need for giving scientific and technical education to our people in order to build up our future economic life, and to see that our people take to science, commerce, trade and, particularly, well-planned industries. We should not forget that we have to compete with the world, which is moving very fast in this direction.”

But with his passing away, this vision too was forgotten.

KICK-STARTS IN PAKISTAN

Things changed a little in the 1970s, during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s five-year rule, when the number of universities in Pakistan doubled. The budgetary allocations for education too witnessed a sharp rise, and the students’ enrolment in HEIs increased by 56 percent. It was also during this time that the University Grants Commission (UGC) was established, to regulate the affairs of HEIs at the federal level.

After a deep slumber, the ball started rolling again in the higher education sector and, by the early 2000s, a think-tank of Pakistani-Americans — known as the Boston Group — produced a detailed report and suggested a set of reforms.

Almost simultaneously, the government too constituted a 19-member ‘Taskforce on Improvement of Higher Education in Pakistan’ with Syed Babar Ali of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums) and Dr Shams Kasim-Lakha of the Aga Khan University (AKU) jointly working as co-chairs. The funding came from the World Bank.

The taskforce concluded that Pakistan’s higher education system was unable to “provide the skills necessary, in the quantities necessary, to achieve the dual objectives of nation-building and global competitiveness.” The report, presented to President Pervez Musharraf in January 2002, suggested a comprehensive set of recommendations, which, had they been followed in true spirit, could have completely changed the higher education landscape in Pakistan.

ENTER THE HEC

However, the one recommendation that was promptly acted upon was the establishment of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), as its chairperson held the status of a federal minister, and there were quite a few aspirants for it. This new organisation was to play a leadership role for the higher education in the country and was entrusted with a very broad range of regulating, monitoring and evaluation functions and operations.

As fate would have it, the sector witnessed unprecedented cash inflows, in the wake of 9/11, as the world’s attention turned to Pakistan and its education system.

The last two decades of higher education in Pakistan can be termed as the ‘HEC era’, as the institution has played the most significant role in shaping the state of higher education we are in.

This era has witnessed a steadfast surge in the numbers: the number of universities increased from 59 in 2002 to 244 at present (145 public and 99 private); students’ enrolment rose from about a quarter of million to almost two million; the number of PhDs rose almost six times, and so on. It is also true that a lot of infrastructural development has taken place, in the shape of new campuses, buildings, laboratories, libraries etc.

But on the downside, it is also a reality that most of these new HEIs were substandard and never met the basics of international benchmarks. The exponential growth of HEIs in the name of “access”, when adequately qualified and competent faculty was in short supply all over the country, turned them into degree-awarding machines, breeding half-baked graduates.

On the other hand, the mushrooming of substandard universities also consumed a big chunk of national financial resources, which otherwise could have been used for promotion of research and teaching at quality HEIs. The result was that, even after spending billions of dollars, the creation of Pakistani versions of India’s prestigious IITs and IIMs (institutes of technology and management), essential for reaping the fruits of the ‘knowledge economy’, still remains a dream.

THE REFORM AGENDA

Any reform agenda should begin with the HEC itself. The organisation has been in operation for 21 years and has yet not been able to establish its image as a professional body. It is a sad commentary on the state of affairs at the HEC that it has not been able to fill the pivotal position of its Executive Director, on a regular basis, since 2018.

Then, the HEIs are the building blocks of higher education. Unfortunately, in the absence of any input or effort on the part of the HEC, they are working on obsolete, in fact, degenerated ancient models. Due to the constraints of space, I will discuss only a few issues here.

Governance: Over the passage of time, the governance models of universities the world over have completely changed. There was a time when the “universities were run by their academic communities, but as mass higher education has taken root, as university research has become a critical element in national economies and as the demand for more accountability, both financial and in academic performance, has grown, pressure has mounted for a ‘modernisation’ of governance structures,” writes Michael Shattock in his book, International Trends in University Governance.

At present, some globally acclaimed models of HEI governance are the so-called Humboldtian model (operational in Germany, Norway and Finland), the Napoleonic model (France and Italy), the Japanese model, the Chinese model, or the historic ones of the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States.

The basic premise of all these models is the separation of the functions of governance and management. The governing bodies formulate policies, set targets, and fix timelines to achieve them. The buck is then passed on to the management to implement them, which reports back to the governing bodies with the implementation status. The governing bodies don’t manage but hold the management accountable.

This is the same model that works well in other sectors too. In Shattock’s words: “Governance is [as]… important in universities… as it is in the wider world of commerce and banking.”

However, in our HEIs’ outdated model, both governance and management functions are entrusted to the same bodies. In a mockery of the system, the governing bodies, such as the Syndicate and the Senate in our HEIs, formulate policies, set targets, fix timelines, and then assume the role of management, to implement — finally reporting to themselves about their performance and accountability.

If that were not bad enough, these bodies are mostly comprised of the employees of their HEIs, which creates a clear case of conflict of interest.

Financial Sustainability: Presently, the biggest source of funding for our public-sector HEIs are the grants released by the federal government through the HEC, with a component coming from the provincial governments. The HEIs’ own contributions are mostly smaller, making them dependent on the government.

Ideally, the government should enhance its spending on education, with corresponding increases in allocations for higher education, as is being done by most of the countries in the world. Nevertheless, in addition to government funding, the HEIs need to supplement their share, on the pattern of other countries, such as China, Turkey and Malaysia.

This could be done by rationalising the fees structure in public sector HEIs, and then subsidising it for the poor — not for everyone, as is currently the practice. It would be a good idea if the fee bill also mentions the amount of subsidy provided by the state, so as to inform the students of the true worth of their subsidised academic programme.

Another area in the realm of financial sustainability that requires due attention is ensuring extreme prudence and transparency in the utilisation of financial resources. Both these commodities are in short supply at present.

Institutional Autonomy: The last few decades have seen the shrinking of institutional autonomy in the higher education sector, both at the level of the HEC as well as at HEIs. During this period, most of the powers to govern and manage the institutions have been progressively usurped by the political and bureaucratic classes, shifting the power centres outside the institutional domains. This has been happening despite the fact that the global trend has been towards granting HEIs more autonomy.

In addition, there are, of course, many other issues in higher education in Pakistan, such as the politicisation of the faculty, staff and students, the appointment of inappropriate persons as HEIs leaders, low quality research, outdated curricula, and the inefficient use of available resources etc.

But I believe they are ‘symptomatic’ in nature and are a manifestation of the diseases we have just discussed. If we correct the governance in HEC and HEIs, bring financial sustainability and ensure institutional autonomy, they all should eventually disappear.

Let’s conclude with the notion that a vibrant and quality-oriented higher education holds the key to several of Pakistan’s economic and social problems. Countries such as China, Turkey and Malaysia are now reaping the fruits of the initiatives taken by them decades ago.

Many countries, even in Africa and the Middle East, which were far behind us a few decades ago, are fast on their way to emerge as new regional hubs of higher education. It would be a tragedy if we allowed this great source of economic and social development to slip away from us.

The writer has been associated with education for over three decades and has served as a university vice-chancellor for over eight years. He can be reached at [email protected]

Published in Dawn, EOS, October 1st, 2023

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Higher education in pakistan: ills and remedies | css 2018 essay | outline.

1: Introduction

2: ills in pakistan's higher education, 3: remedies & way forward, 4: conclusion.

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Higher Education in Pakistan Ills And Remedies – CSS Essay

The essay cover topics such as “Higher education in Pakistan ills and remedies. Higher education in Pakistan issues, challenges and the way forward. Problems and issues in higher education in Pakistan. Challenges in higher education in Pakistan. Issues of higher education in Pakistan.”

Higher Education in Pakistan Ills And Remedies

The value of college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of mind to think – Albert Einstein

Reforms in Examination System

In today’s knowledge based economy, higher education is very important for the development of a country and its economy. It plays the role of leadership in a society. All over the world universities and colleges, which are the centres of higher education, are guiding and cooperating with the agricultural and industrial development organizations and they are developing their economy and agriculture rapidly and meaningfully. There is a direct link between education and development. Contrary to this, in Pakistan, unfortunately after passing more than seven decades higher education could not show any fruitful results. Even the rate of participation at higher education is low comparatively to other countries of the region. There are many reasons of this failure which have been discussed in detail in below paragraphs.

Meaning And Purpose Of Education

Before discussing challenges in higher education, it is important to know what higher education is. It means differently for different people. This difference in meaning from person to person depends upon individual relation with it. For example; for a student, higher education means the acquisition of a degree that makes him eligible for a professional job. Similarly for a college professor higher education means professional certificate while for a lay man it is the continuation of a formal learning process after secondary education. Generally it is the highest part of learning process that enables a student to become a professional member of the society.

Effects Of Globalization On Education

The primary aim and objective of higher education is to convert ordinary people into human capital by teaching them professional knowledge. With educated citizens and skilful labour force government want to achieve socio-political, socio-economic and socio-cultural development. Higher education contributes in many ways in the development of a society. It turned ordinary people into highly skilled professionals, changes economy by introducing new forms of investment and earning and changes society by bringing changes in art, literature and norms and traditions. It promotes the passion of respect and self-dependence among people. It also promotes the character of deep observation in people and enables them to choose between right and wrong rightly and not to follow traditions blindly. 

Education Of Freedom

Higher education has played an important role in the development of advance countries. It is basically an agent of change but unfortunately it could not do so in Third World countries generally and in Pakistan particularly. In Pakistan, despite of passing more than seven decades, the standard of higher education is very low. According to some critics, higher educational institutions of Pakistan only produce graduates and not professionals. There are many reasons of this failure, some of which have been discussed in detail in below paragraphs.

Higher Education is An Agent Of Change

The first and foremost basic problem is the lack of requisite number of higher education institutions in the country. Though with the establishment of Higher Education Commission (HEC) in 2002, a significant increase in the number of universities and degree colleges, country wide has been observed but still the figure is far below the required level. There are total ninety four (94) Higher Education Commission’s recognized universities (HEC website data) in the country. Every year thousands of students complete intermediate and are ambitious for higher education but they failed to continue due to limited number of seats available for students in public universities.

Role Of Education in Economic Development

Gender discrimination and quota system is another major problem faced by our higher education system. In co-education institutions, generally limited number of seats is available for female students. Similarly, no or low interest of parents in girls schooling is making the situation worse. In rural areas of Pakistan, female education is not considered as a social friendly custom. In these areas, most families did not like education of women at all, while some parents allowed only primary education.

Low standard of education is another major problem of our higher education system. Out-dated learning and teaching methods and more focus on theory rather than on practice by the teachers and institutions are some of the problems that fall under this category. The condition of our education system is such that the universities of some of the develop countries, sometimes did not considered the degrees of our students up to the mark for admission in graduate and post-graduate programmes.

Co-education – Merits And Demerits

Similarly, some educational institutions, especially those of rural areas,face the problem of lack of required infrastructure and facilities. This is one of the main reasons for students’ unrest in such institutions.  Likewise the teaching of untrained and incompetent teaching staff, misuse of the students’ political federations and ignoring of the students concerns and demands, regarding academic disciplines, by the institution’s administration, all are the major reasons that lead to the students’ unrest and their deviation from learning process.

Education plays a vital role in the development and grooming of students’ personality. It broadens students’ scope of learning and instils in them the spirit of oneness, unity, nationalism, patriotism, tolerance and sacrifice. Education made them responsible and vigorous members of the society. Education also plays a major role in social and emotional integration. Unfortunately, the schooling system of third world countries did not provide such learning. Due to corrupt education system, the students also sometime fell into corrupt and immoral practices.

Failure of proper management by the educational institutions’ administration is another major problem in higher education system of our country. The two basic management problems of such type are fund and duty corruption. Most of the time it has been observed that despite of having huge funds education centres sometimes are not performing well. The main reason behind this is either the management staff is incapable to utilize the fund fully or the amount of money is used by the high management personnel for personal use. In both cases institution suffer in the form of lack of required facilities. Duty corruption is another major management problem. The unwillingness of the universities and college staff to perform their duties whole heartedly affect the institutions badly there by creating many problems.

Education For Varied Talents

Since independence, the government of Pakistan has adopted five education policies but unfortunately none of them could bear fruitful results. The main reason behind this is either the partial or even non implication of the policies in some, especially in remote areas of the country. Non seriousness on the part of Ministry of education of the country makes the situation worse. It is very unfortunate fact that the last education policy was adopted by the government in 1998 and its duration ended in 2010 but despite of passing more than four years after the due time of the end of policy, the government could not adopt a new policy. This shows the incapability and impractical attitude of the government.

Out-dated course books and degrees’ curricula are other big problems of the higher education system of Pakistan. Because of this reason our students lag behind in practical field. The degrees’ course combination and syllabus are usually not designed to meet the need of the time.

Education Produce Thinkers Not Followers

The inadequate allocation of budget by the government for the development of education sector has always been remained one of the major reason behind the poor performance of this sector. Pakistan’s education spending is lowest in South Asia. The country spends only 2.5% of its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) on education whereas the other countries spend double of that percentage on education. Unfortunately the country has never considered education as the basic step for the development of the nation and so no serious attempt for its development has ever been made by the government.

To counter these challenges and improve the standard of education, the government should take steps for the development of this sector on emergency basis. In Twenty-first century, where economy is knowledge base, it has become important that the government should quit its impractical behaviour in this regard. Below are given some of the suggestions for the improvement of education sector.

The first and foremost important step that the government should take is to improve the quality of education. In this regard help and guidance should be taken from developed educational institutions of various countries such as Oxford and Cambridge universities.

Next important step that the government should take is to bring administrative reforms in educational institutions administration department. The administration staff of each university and college should be thoroughly scrutinized and the corrupt members should be immediately fired. Similarly a system of thorough investigation of the staff performance should also be devised so that future corruption cases could be minimised.

The course and curricula combination should be made in such a way that it meets the needs of time and trained student’s multi dimensionally. Degrees course combination should also be devised in such a way that it provides a variety of formal and non-formal knowledge to the learners.

The government should also make sure the availability of equal opportunity of education for all citizens of the country, irrespective of their gender. In this regard, serious steps should be taken in rural areas where education ratio, especially of women is very low. The government should also make education in the reach of every countryman. 

It is now need of the time that the government should allocate sufficient fund for the development of this sector. The government should now realise that the real investment in twenty-first century is investment in human capital. Due to lack of sufficient fund and improper usage of the available resources, most of the higher education institutions of the country do not possess required facilities. The allocation of enough funds and its proper usage is the only solution to this problem.

The population of Pakistan is increasing at an alarming rate and so does the number of students but unfortunately the number of higher education institutions in the country is increasing at a very low pace. The government should increase the number of higher education institutions in the country so that it could consume all aspirants of higher education effectively.

Now it is time for the adaptation of a dynamic and professionally planned education policy. The government should give-up all the previous policies and adopt such a policy that could solve all these major problems of our higher education system.

The condition of higher education system in Pakistan, no doubt is very dim and there are a lot of challenges that the country is facing in this regard, mainly because of the impractical attitude of the government towards education sector. The education system of many other countries of the region, which got independence in the same decade in which Pakistan did,has improved much more over time than ours and unfortunately we still face the same problems of infancy period of the country. No doubt the higher education system of Pakistan has many problems but the government now seems serious towards its improvement as many positive steps have been taken by the present government in this regard.

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Higher Education in Pakistan Ills and remedies

March 22, 2018 Essay , March 2018 Leave a comment

1. Introduction 2. Types of Education

• Formal education
• Informal education

3. An Overview of Higher Education Setup in Pakistan

• Statutory position
• Administrative system

4. Ills Prevailing in Higher Education System of Pakistan A. Infrastructure-related Ills

• Lack of institutes
• Missing necessary facilities
• Overcharging by private-sector institutions

B. Human Resource-related Ills

• Meagre strength of faculties
• Lack of motivation in members of faculty
• Lack of skills and expertise
• Meagre strength of support staff
• High dropout ratio at elementary level

C. Curriculum-related Ills

• Curriculum not in consonance with domestic needs
• More focus on mere theories
• Presence of mistakes and errors
• Lack of analytical approach
• Uninteresting and monotonous descriptions
• No focus on character-building

D. Teaching Methodology-related Ills

• Promotion and encouragement of cramming
• No focus on conceptual study
• Monotonous style of teaching

E. Examination-related Ills

• No testing of analytical skills
• Use of unfair means in examination halls
• Inconsistent style of grading

5. Factors Responsible for the Presence of Ills

• Budgetary constraints
• Myopic vision of the policymakers
• Distracted attention of the government
• Bureaucratic hurdles
• Poor growth of economy
• Commercialization of education
• Missing element of morality in the society
• Persistently-rampant corruption
• Incapacity of concerned HR departments

6. Impacts of Flawed Higher Education System

• Unemployment and underemployment
• Lack of talent and skills
• Devastating impacts on different sectors of economy
• Deteriorated image of the state
• Social degradation
• Increase in lawlessness and crime

7. Recommendations for the removal of Ills of the Higher Education Sector

• Devising sharply-focused, meticulously-planned and thoroughly-integrated policies
• Allocating reasonable budget to higher education
• Tapping of indigenous mineral, geographical and human resources to enhance the availability of funds
• Introduction of civil service reforms to improve the bureaucratic structure
• Mature, responsible and objective role of media for the upgrade of moral standards of the society
• Tightening the monitoring and regulatory mechanism to curb the commercialization of education
• Devising pragmatic policies for maximum utilization of available resources
• Focus on skills development of education- related human resource
• Annual revision and upgrade of curriculum
• Use of technology to improve the examination standards
• Attracting best brains to education sector by improving perks

8. Conclusion

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Higher Education Systems and Institutions, Pakistan

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Pakistan is the fifth most populous country in the world with a population of 207 million GDP of 278,913 billion. The country is divided into four provincial territories, namely, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan, and regions including the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu Kashmir. The national language spoken is Urdu along with English, the official language, by majority of the population.

Higher Education System Development

In 1947 at the time of independence, Pakistan had one teaching university – Punjab University in Lahore – that had a student enrolment of 644. At this time, the National Education Conference formed several committees including adult education directed toward higher education (HE). This committee aimed to make all adults literate and establish a permanent system closely linked with compulsory primary education. The second university established was the University of Sindh functioning as an examining body...

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Bengali, K. n.d. History of educational policy making and planning in Pakistan. 34.

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Shakil, S. (2019). Higher Education Systems and Institutions, Pakistan. In: Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_578-1

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Pakistan’s Poor Education System Implications | Daily Writeups | Opinions

The following article, “What Would be the Implications of Poor Education System in Pakistan?” , is written by Tehreem Zafar , a student of Sir Syed Kazim Ali . Moreover, the article is written on the same pattern, taught by Sir to his students, scoring the highest marks in compulsory subjects for years. Sir Kazim has uploaded his students’ solved past paper questions so other thousands of aspirants can understand how to crack a topic or question, how to write relevantly, what coherence is, and how to include and connect ideas, opinions, and suggestions to score the maximum.

Education is undoubtedly one of the most crucial aspects that can make or break a country’s fortune. It serves as fate’s chandelier, playing a significant role in shaping a nation’s future. Education undeniably impacts individuals’ physical, psychological, and social development, and it is a fundamental pillar for a country’s socio-economic growth. Education is not merely a means of acquiring knowledge but also critical in transmitting cultural heritage to future generations.  Pakistan’s founding father, Quaid-e-Azam, recognized the importance of education when he emphasized, “The importance of education and the type of education cannot be over-emphasized. There is no doubt that the future of our state will and must greatly depend upon the education we give our children and how we bring them up as future citizens of Pakistan. We should not forget that we must compete with the world, which is moving quickly in this direction.”  However, Pakistan’s education sector is not encouraging, as the country has witnessed many disparities. These disparities have led to severe implications, such as national disintegration, threat to sovereignty, and identity crisis. The education system in Pakistan requires immediate attention, and the government must take a responsible and pragmatic approach to address the issues. If the government fails to take the necessary steps, putting Pakistan on the path towards prosperity will be challenging. This article aims to provide a detailed account of the implications of Pakistan’s poor education system and suggest ways to rescue the country’s fragile education sector.

Currently, Pakistan’s education system has grappled with many challenges. Pakistan’s poor education system-unfortunately- exists within the line of crucial factors, like inconsistent policies, multilingualism issues, minimalist education funds, stratified curriculum, and outdated examination and assessment patterns. All these factors place the country’s education system in the lowest rankings. According to the Education for All’s Development Index (EDI), Pakistan ranks 130th out of 146 countries. As a result, t he aftermaths of these challenges and issues come forth in Pakistan’s lacklustre development in the economic, political, and social arena, exhibiting the worst consequences: poor literacy rate and failing democratic practices, and, above all, exacerbating terrorism, extreme hunger and poverty, and threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty. 

Moving ahead, poor education in Pakistan may have grave implications for the country. First, the poor education system in Pakistan would not only trouble the identity of the child who is the product of such a system but also harm the cultural identity of the whole nation. Sorrowfully, outdated curricula have been taught in Pakistan’s education institutes, which has caused the students to feel alienated in the rapidly changing and modernizing society. As a result, they always remain confused and feel disassociated and inferior to others in the highly technical era. Due to these sub-standards, Pakistan’s education institutes have never reached the height of their glory at the national and international levels. According to the Time Higher Education Report, no Pakistani universities made up the top 500 international universities due to outdated teaching patterns . Therefore, students cannot find the ever-lasting purpose of seeking education in the rotten system and fail to maintain their individual and national identity and ideology.

Next, the poor and stratified education system in Pakistan may lead the country towards total national disintegration. Indeed, the existing education system in Pakistan is inherited from the pre-partitioned Indian British era, which is deeply rooted in the class difference between the elite class and lower-middle class. Due to this very reason, today’s country’s education system is divided into multiple categories: privately owned, government-run, elite-based, and madrassa. This kind of educational stratification has resulted in disrupting nationalism by encouraging public mistrust and boosting discriminative factors in caste, creed, religion, race, language, lineage, and politico-economic affiliation. To illustrate, the Baloch’s sentiments on the violation of their rights and the demand for a separate province by the people of South Punjab are the most evident examples of national disintegration. Whenever aggravated in the aggrieved state, all these differences would plunge the civil war into it. All in all, the spoiled, stratified education system of Pakistan may become the real enemy of effective nation-building in the country. 

Further, the deterioration of the health sector in Pakistan could be another significant implication of the failing education system, as education and health, the essential elements of human development, always go hand in hand. The first and foremost thing is that an educated, literate mind will only understand the importance of having a healthy lifestyle, which is impossible without better health care in the country. Unfortunately, Pakistan’s education system is worsening, directly impacting peoples’ mindsets, and so is the health sector, halting the country’s human development. According to the UNDP Report 2022, Pakistan’s Human Development Index (HDI) is 161st out of 192 countries whereas India’s HDI rank is 132, which is far better than Pakistan. It means due to the low literacy rate as a result of the prior discussed situation of Pakistan’s education system, the masses have become so dull they never rely on seeking proper professional help -be it physical or mental health- whenever they face an issue, so identifying the health sector’s loopholes have become a far cry. If the situation remains the same, the country’s sectors may collapse, leaving human development a dream, not a reality.

Moreover, the poor education system may make dictatorship the fate of Pakistan by overthrowing democratic leadership. Verily, the democratic rule always prevails in the world of literate citizenry. Contrary to this, the uneducated, unaware citizens who neither have political education nor know the worth of the Constitution always become the pawns of the power-hungry political leaders. Undoubtedly, Pakistan has already observed the imposition of martial laws in its political history. Not only in history but also in the present, the political unrest episodes from Imran Khan’s ouster till now in the country seem to be the major setback to its democratic rule as the masses are not educated enough to take a stand against the ongoing political repression in Pakistan. Hence, if the country’s condition at the hands of illiterate masses and unscrupulous politicians remains the same, Pakistan’s democracy may rest in peace entirely.

Besides this, the degree-holder youth have impractical, outdated theoretical knowledge about their field due to Pakistan’s poor vocational and skill-based training institutions. In this case, importing a foreign labour force has become mandatory for the state to run its reigns, which may further paralyze the youth’s creativity and capability. Woefully, suppose the government of Pakistan does not invest in its youth by offering them skill sets. In that case, its condition would be similar to 2021’s Saudi Arabia.  According to one of the studies of Harvard University in 2021, “The kingdom faced one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world, as over 80 per cent of its private sector consisted of foreign labour.” In a word, Pakistan can also face heights of poverty and terrorism in its society at the hands of its frustrated, unemployed youth if its education system remains stagnant like today.  

Lastly, the rising threat to Pakistan’s sovereignty can also be another significant implication of the impoverished education system. At present, Pakistan is struggling with the sovereignty issue owing to its massive dependence on foreign aid and loans. According to the famous IR Professor Dr Moonis Ahmar, “Sovereignty would remain at risk as long as Pakistan is on the dole and heavily dependent on the external powers for providing loans and aid.” This is because the country’s stakeholders have always given poor attention to the research and development units of the education sector. Due to this, there is a shortage of technicians and economists in the fields who actively put the country out of the crisis. As a result, the sovereignty dilemma has become the country’s constant pain, which may become real in the shape of the external powers’ total subjugation.

Regarding recommendations, Pakistan can only save itself from these severe implications by taking pragmatic measures. The first measure is engaging the Ministry of Education to open an independent think-tank to analyze and examine problems in Pakistan’s education and offer innovative, well-researched solutions to these problems. Further, these solutions must be aligned with globalized educational norms. Also the educational practices in Pakistan are nationalistic, so the think-tank must be able to integrate nationalized educational practices with global ones, thus helping policymakers revise educational policies. 

Adding more to it, imparting technical education in Pakistan’s education system is also a significant solution to polish Pakistan’s poor education system. By doing so, the youth will be equipped with an essential skill set, and this crop of labour force will also contribute to improving and flourishing the country’s social gradients and economy. Hopefully, Pakistan’s ranking and statistical values will also rise after this, which is essential for building its good image on the international platform. Thus, skill-based training in Pakistan must be included in its curriculum to strengthen the country socio-economically. 

Finally, a robust accountability system should hold the significant entities from the education sector accountable, like educationists, the teachers’ community, and policymakers. It would create a sense of responsibility and boost the chances of free, fair transparency in all affairs. To achieve this, the accountability benches must be settled at the district level nationwide. Along with this, expert recommendations must be considered to address the mindset and needs of students, hence making the country’s education sector a healthy institution.

To conclude, dancing around the fire is not the solution to a problem. Instead, the government should try to see beneath the surface to understand the fundamental issues. Despite a stream of solid words by successive governments, nothing concrete has been done to cure the problems in the spoiled education system of Pakistan. Undoubtedly, the worst condition of the country’s education system lies at the heart of multiple challenges, which can put the country into quagmires of implication. However, the state should revise its educational policies, hold the policymakers and the educationists’ community accountable, conduct research, and many more to prevent the state and citizenry from their anathema. Thus, through the collaborative efforts of concerned authorities, Pakistan will surely reach the heights of social, moral, political, and economic development and prosperity.

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