EDITORIAL: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has reiterated his government’s resolve to transform Pakistan’s education system into one that nurtures knowledge, innovation and employable skills suited to the demands of the modern job market.
In his message on World Teachers’ Day observed on October 4, he stressed that revamping the education sector to align with contemporary scientific and technological standards remains a foremost national priority, essential to prepare the country’s youth to compete globally.
He also underscored that Pakistan’s economic well-being, ultimately, depends on a cadre of well-qualified, forward-looking teachers capable of shaping minds for a rapidly evolving future.
It is worth noting that this statement comes over a year after the prime minister had declared an “education emergency”, promising greater investments in education, as well as a decisive action to bring Pakistan’s 26 million out-of-school children — roughly 38 percent of its school-age population — into classrooms.
Since then, even a cursory look at budgetary allocations reveals the government’s indifference to the steadily declining standards in public sector education. As has been noted previously in this space, education spending between July 2024 and March 2025 fell by a staggering 29 percent, betraying both the spirit of an “education emergency” and the government pledge to raise education funding to four percent of GDP by 2029. The gulf between word and deed, then, remains vast, undermining the one sector that holds the key to Pakistan’s future prosperity.
It goes without saying that no education system can function effectively without a qualified, technically proficient and well-trained teaching cadre. However, the lack of respect accorded to teachers is reflected in the frequency of strikes over unpaid and often meagre salaries and pensions, which recently shut down many government schools in Sindh for days.
Meanwhile, bureaucratic red tape continues to paralyse teacher recruitment. The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government, for instance, recently approved the hiring of 3,000 temporary teachers to fill vacancies in public colleges, as the process of appointing permanent staff remains mired in administrative inertia. These temporary hires alone will cost K-P an estimated Rs3 billion.
Pakistan must recognise that genuine prosperity is impossible without a robust, future-oriented education system. Building a workforce capable of succeeding in a world driven by artificial intelligence and digital innovation requires education standards — particularly in public sector schools — that meet modern demands.
India, despite its imperfections, offers us a profound lesson: even as a largely closed economy from the 1950s to the early 1990s, its consistent investments in scientific and technical education was able to produce a world-class, globally competitive talent pool.
This meant that when liberalisation arrived, the country was poised to capitalise on new opportunities and surge ahead in a variety of fields. Pakistan, by contrast, has too often allowed its commitments to education to remain limited to empty slogans and hollow promises.
Far from solving the deep-rooted crises afflicting our education system, we have yet to even fully identify them before attempting reform. Public sector schooling remains mired in decay characterised by under-qualified teachers, staff shortages, crumbling infrastructure marked by absent electricity connections, lack of toilets and even missing boundary walls, and curriculum that belongs to the last century.
Consequently, pathways to quality higher education and meaningful employment remain scarce. Unsurprisingly, enrollment under foreign education boards such as the Cambridge International Examinations continues to rise, making Pakistan one of its major global markets.
In a country where public schools are collapsing and private education is a luxury for the few, the rot in our education system should shock no one. Until education becomes a genuine national priority rather than a political slogan, Pakistan will remain trapped in a cycle of ignorance that stifles both progress and potential.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025