Education vision - 2010

Now that the world has become a global village, and technological advancements have taken great strides during last the few decades, no country can think of achieving any sustainable socio-economic development, unless its people are adequately educated.
If we glance through the history of developed nations, we will find that they have worked very hard for making their people educated.
They had realised that without imparting education, they cannot expect to achieve sustainable development. It hardly needs to be emphasised that it is the man behind money, machinery and material which makes the difference. If the man, the most important factor of production, is not adequately educated and trained, he can not deploy the other factors of production to the optimum level.
In view of its growing importance, the term 'human resource' has been converged into human capital, which is now considered to be more valuable than all other forms of capital. As the nations' education level grows, its socio-economic conditions also keep on growing at a multiplying rate.
The kind of efforts made by the United States of America in the eighteenth century for primary education, are not even found to be taking place now, in our country.
It is a fact that massive investments made in education by the USA during the last two centuries have made it the only super power on this earth. Behind the development of Europe and Far East, as well, "education" has been at the core of their success.
The literacy rate in Pakistan is miserably low. The situation is pathetic in rural areas. The availability of schools for girls in these areas is less than half of the schools available for boys.
The illiteracy among females adversely affects the upbringing of future generations. Instead of improving, the literacy rate is going down.
While Pakistan was at No.137 in the table of Literate Countries, a year before, it has slipped to No.144 in the latest table of literacy giving ranking of 175 countries. A good number of African countries have by now become more literate than Pakistan.
Amongst SAARC Countries, Pakistan is at the bottom in terms of literacy. Sri Lanka has the highest literacy rate in South Asia.
They have not been charging any amount of fees upto the Higher Secondary level. The course books and copies etc, are provided free of cost. They also provide free lunch to students in primary classes.
Their quality of education is quite good. The teachers are well paid. Their higher education is also very relevant and quite advanced. Due to better quality of education, Sri Lankans are in great demand in foreign countries like the Middle East.
In fact they have replaced Pakistanis and other nationals, in those countries due to better rating of their education.
Since education has a great impact on economic development, Sri Lanka has the highest per-capita income amongst South Asian Countries.
Its per capita income is over US $800. It was US $450 in the early nineties, as against US $430 of Pakistan.
While we have been hovering around $400 per capita income during the last ten years, Sri Lanka has improved by 80%. Bangladesh and India are also better in terms of education when compared with Pakistan.
During the last ten years, Bangladesh has improved its per capita income by over 40%, whereas India has improved by over 30%.
Education also carries great impact on the rate of population growth. The birth rate in Pakistanis at over 2%, is the highest in the region. Bangladesh and India have shown a good improvement by arresting the birth rate to around 1%. It means our population is growing 100% faster than our two neighbours.
The economic growth of Pakistan will obviously be affected due to the higher birth rate. Besides, taking other birth control measures, raising educating levels will also greatly help in arresting the rate of growth of the population.
If we want to survive in the increasingly competitive world, education should be at the core of our planning. We will have to make a firm resolve to make the nation adequately educated within the next few years, at an accelerated pace. To achieve this goal, I would suggest the following measures for serious consideration of the govt.
SHORT TERM MEASURES:
1. PSDP (Pakistan Sector Development Plan) for 04-05 which is expected to be of the order of Rs 200 billion should have a significant allocation for establishing "education related infrastructure."
2. Allocation for education in the Revenue Budget for 04-05 should be increased by at least 50% at the federal, as well as, provincial levels.
The Minister of Science & Technology and Chairman of Higher Education Commission, Dr Ataur Rehman had done a great job when he managed a 50% increase in the allocation for higher education in the Federal budget for 03-04.
Since primary and secondary education is the responsibility of the provincial governments, there is a need that their budget for education should also be increased by at least 50% and efforts be made to ensure that increased allocations are judiciously used by the educational institutions.
The Government of Punjab has recently taken good measures to promote education. Other provinces need to follow the pioneering steps taken by the Punjab government.
Currently, most of the government schools are working without the required number of teachers, and with shortage of furniture, shelter, toilets and other facilities.
The condition of some of the schools are so bad that even clerks and other lower cadres of the society do not want to send their children to these schools.
Some of them sacrifice their basic needs to send their children to private schools. Additional allocation in the revenue budget will at least address the existing shortage of basics in these schools.
LONG TERM MEASURES: A National Education Commission should be established comprising reputable Educationists, Economists and Industrialists who should be assigned to develop a viable "Education Vision - 2010" which should cover all the dimensions of education right from primary education to vocational training.
The vision should encompass the whole of Pakistan and the education in private sector, as well as, public sector.
The vision should be backed by volumes of the blue prints necessary for the implementation of the vision.
Development and implementation of such visions have met great success in other countries. We may seek technical assistance/guidance from friendly countries like China to complete this daunting task.
Since education should undoubtedly be our priority No.1, I would, in all eagerness, suggest that either the President or the Prime Minister of Pakistan should take personal interest in making the Pakistani nation educated, so that it could be reckoned with respectably, in the emerging high-tech global village.