Education

While going through some of the articles on Chowk on the educational system in Pakistan, I was not very-surprised to notice the standard criticism and even more standard solutions that were on offer. The outdated courses / the lack of properly trained teachers / the apathetic stance of the government are issues that have been raised time and again when it comes to the issue of the dismal standard of education in our country. The solutions on offer too, have been very basic. “You, corrupt matric-passed members of the national assembly, spend more money on education, please” and of course the other favorite solution given by the more intellectual class “teach them to think! Don’t make them into robots! Educate them for the sake of education!”

Frankly speaking, my stinking third world materialistic ass doesn’t give a shit. I don’t want to think, I don’t want to question and I don’t want to philosophize. I don’t care about the great sages that lived in the 15th century in upper-east Turkey and Persia and I have no qualms about how the educational system is turning me into a competent slave instead of the true thinker that I should have been. All I care about is a piece of paper, that I’ll laminate and stash away in my closet once it gets me a job in any random bank. Who knows, maybe if I work really hard at this confounded-education-thing I might land up earning in dollars too.

That’s all I can really afford to think about anyway. My parents have always had this problem of not being able to keep their legs crossed. The result is seven brats running about half-naked in our two bedroom-one-bathroom luxury bungalow. I don’t blame my parents for their version of family planning either, you know. What other entertainment IS there for a lower-middle class couple living in this city? Both of them even went to some local urdu-medium school. Fat lot of good that did them.

Seriously, the local education system sucks. Who can get a decent job with this kind of education nowadays? If I go looking for a job anywhere with my resume telling everyone that I did BCom from one of the local colleges here they’ll probably pat me on the back and show me the door all in one swift motion. If I tried really really hard I might even be something as HOLY AS AN MBA from any reputed institution that could even be affiliated with Northwestern Central University of New Brunswick. But what good would that do? I’d still be out of work, sitting around swatting flies at the nearest juice corner, while my kid brother makes paper planes out of my carefully drafted one page resume.

And then these educational-activists and these NGOs, they just kill me. They keep on talking about quality of education and all that crap. They keep on demanding better course books, structured courses and more money for the advancement of education in this country. They keep on saying that educated youth is the future and investment in education is necessary to solve the problems that our society faces nowadays.

All I ask is that, okay, so I get the fanciest education from all sorts of fancy course books and I even do really well. Will I still get a job here? Like hell I will. There just aren’t any opportunities in this wretched country. Okay, maybe I’d find a job doing some clerical work somewhere in Karachi. But what about this friend of mine who lives in Jhang? What is he going to after he gets all this mummy-daddy education?

The way I see it, its all about supply and demand. I remember being taught this concept of ‘inferior goods’ in economics in matric. Well, education is an inferior good here. The average person just doesn’t demand education at all. And why should there be any demand? It’s not as if there is a new industry being setup everyday here and they require qualified personnel. If you doubt me, just take a look at how many companies got listed in the stock exchange here over the last ten years. I can promise you that you’ll be able to count them on your fingers.

If I were in one of these goddamn NGOs, I’d stop complaining about the lack of funds in education and start asking the government for proper economic reform. Industry in our country is so unprofitable it isn’t even funny. The cost of all basic factors of production is so high that only a complete idiot would think of trying to set up new industry here. The government has made it policy to artificially inflate the price of all raw materials that could be used for industrial purposes. Just compare the prices of furnace oil, sugar cane, cotton-seed, steel amongst others, in Pakistan with the prices that prevail in India. What this means is that our industry over here can only hope to sell anything locally, with the help of government duties and quotas and finds it impossible to sell anything internationally, missing out on the world market.

So you’re probably thinking that how is all this related to education. Well, it’s simple. If industry is unprofitable here then no one will set up any sort of industry. If there isn’t any industry being set up then there will be no demand for qualified technical personnel. If there isn’t any demand for qualified people then why would there be a demand for education? And if there isn’t any demand for education, why would any body bother supplying it competitively and efficiently? It’s basic bloody common sense!

Think about it. This has already happened in the financial services industry here. Since financial services is a field which does not rely on factors of production, we already have a lot of institutions springing up that offer quality financial education in this country. What sucks is that the demand from this sector of the economy is really small and it is catered by taking in these spoilt private-school-educated brats who can cough up a lot of money for the degree. I’m telling you, if there was enough demand, then the quality would filter through to all areas of education, first in higher education and then down to the lower level secondary education. Just create the demand, it’s the only way I can get a job and get a good education at the same time.

And that’s what I’d say if I were in an NGO. What do they know anyway?