Ameliorating the grounds (Primary education development)

Ameliorating the grounds

(Muhammad Shahid Imran)

Reforms are crucial in our primary education which is simply socialization and the soul of a civilized society.

Education is a basic human right according to religious teachings and UNO human rights declarations. Providing basic education to its people is the duty of state and depriving them of this right and making them ignorant is an open terrorism. As in dance we don't all of a sudden do a grand jete and pirouette, rather we start with first position, second, third so with the education we need to start from very basics, grounds.

Pakistani society observes most diversity on ethnic and religious grounds than any of other communities in the world. Our policy makers and legislators failed to address this diversity rather making it worst with every passing day. Mustafa Nazir senior editor of The Nation resented on education condition in Pakistan and said that we are wrong from its roots, when west was busy establishing revolutionary educational institutes and universities we were building minarets and splendid buildings. “We are ranked 159 at literacy among countries of world. Actually our priorities were changed over time now our priorities are good hotels, theatres and big mass transit roads not an educated nation” he maintained.

Our public sector is victim of bad policies and mismanagement. On the other hand Private Education Sector is totally commercial-based and the educationists emphasize on the maximizing of profit instead of educating the nation. Tahir Mahmood an activist of rural educational reforms said that our policy makers looked confused their self, we have 51% private primary educational institutes in urban area and 49% public or government institutes but in rural area 80% of institutes were public so a policy is needed for uniform curricula and well designed structural reforms. We were failed to decide our dimensions. The curricula of both paradigms were different and outcome is so diversified even among both types’ institutions.

Federal penny allocation were just used in ghost schools or eaten by teachers resting at homes. “We may easily find that some of the major factors that keep children uneducated are limited access to education, teacher absenteeism, low quality of education, poverty, corporal punishment and a high student-to-teacher ratio” said  Mansoor Malik a working journalist and critic of educational policies of both Indian and Pakistani primary educational reforms. Further he said that limited access to school is the cause to illiterate half of rural children, it means we need more schools and more teachers.

Primary school teachers lack training, dedication, motivation and interest in their profession which develop distance in students with education. Vacant teacher posts were also a big hurdle achieving goals. According to a survey Pakistan have 1 teacher for sixty student ratio which is lowest in the world. Our Curricula, too, are mostly non-relevant to the present day requirements. Also the teachers of primary level are the first one to introduce a student with education. Javed Balangeria a teacher of rural area of Punjab said that “I am a teacher, I have had an enthusiasm and concern for children for almost as long as I can remember. “We have reformed our school with raising funds but still we have to announce leave on rainy day, so that with the rest of picture? What would you expect with such low school funds? he questioned.

NEC shows 9% schools are without blackboard, 24% without textbook, 46% without desks. Moreover only 36% public schools have electricity facility. The shape and structure of a society largely depends on the type of knowledge it is exposed to. Primary textbook information directly impacts a young budding mind.

Poverty is also another factor that restricts the parents to send their children to public or private schools, so, they prefer to send their children to madressahs where education is totally free or to work to earn for family. Noreez Khan father of a labor child said in gloomy tune that every parents want their children’s bright future, no one want them to collect garbage of others but high prices and low income forced them to withdrawn. “I have four daughters and one son, and like any other parents want their schooling but my low income is not sufficient for family so my son worked too to earn livelihood” he said it with watering eyes.

Primary level education is facing most of the major educational problems. Ms shafiq numbered the causes of high illiteracy saying that we are bit confused of the Mediums of education as they were also different in both public and private sectors. This creates a sort of disparity among people, dividing them into two segments English medium and Urdu medium language. There were regional disparity also as schools in Balochistan are not that much groomed as that of Punjab. Moreover the ratio of gender discrimination is a cause of low literacy which is projecting the primary school ratio of boys & girls to 10:4 respectively. Also the lack of technical education at primary level is a biggest flaw in the educational policy that has never been focused before. Therefore, less technical people mean less progress.

Moreover, she said that allocation of funds should be made easy from provinces to districts and then to educational institutes. Workshops must be arranged for teachers. Technical education must be given to all the classes. Teachers, professors and educationists should be consulted while devising any plan, syllabus or policy. The state seems to give up her responsibility and totally relying on private sector. The need of time is to bring education in its original form to masses. 
Education is not an option for progress of any nation rather it was a foremost priority. For underdeveloped countries like Pakistan education is the life line for survival. Basics of education are primary education which developed thrust for knowledge inside the children. Policy makers, legislators and education experts would think not only about universal primary education but also its qualitative aspects.