The Height of Higher Education

The education policy, as stated, will not produce the desired result. Getting rid of subjects or reforming them to make them better is a dead-end in Pakistan. Pakistani students cannot have any critical thinking or reasoning skills as long as they have to ``inculcate Islamic ideology, moral values and preservation of our religious and cultural heritage`` under duress from the state.

Our cultural heritage is 5,000 years old and does not start from 711 AD.

Are we prepared to preserve that truth? I do not think so.

I agree, with the recommendations made by the author, but also hasten to add that these recommendations are wishful, because no government in Pakistan is interested in the quality of education in Pakistan. Our governments like illiterate people, who are prone to excesses of emotion and can be easily swayed. Our governments do not like and neither do they wish to govern a population, which is intelligent enough to ask probing questions and hold its leadership accountable.

The amount set aside for the education in Pakistan`s budget is around 2 percent and now the government is boasting that it will be increased to 4 percent. In real terms, the educational budget needs to be spiked to nearly 30 percent of the total budget and this percentage needs to be sustained, and increased, for the next 25 years without fail. Then, maybe, we will see some improvement in education in Pakistan. Pakistan has to invest in the education of its youth and unless, it does not understand the truism that an educated population is a better security of national interests than all the arms in the world combined, education in Pakistan will never progress beyond lip-service and false promises.

There is no hope for Pakistan, because this nation is incapable of learning from its mistakes. In this nation, we hide and we lie about our past mistakes and we seek scapegoats to blame, but we never accept responsibility. Politics and religion, which should and must be removed from our educational curriculum, will make sure that education in Pakistan remains mired in politics and religion.

This educational policy is a good example of a tale told by an idiot full of promise and hope, but it will amount to nothing in the future, as everything in Pakistan has amounted to nothing in the past.

Ciao