Education in Pakistan

Pakistan is predominantly a Muslim community and Muslims [irrespective of gender] are obliged to get the education. Although reasonably good educating opportunities available in the society, however, the education system needs reforms. At present Pakistani society has four (in fact these four are further subdivided) educational system. It is a matter of shame that as a nation (knowingly and willfully), we have divided the whole society into four classes. I remember from my history course, I have gone through somewhere during my high schooling that at the time of Muslim invasion, Indian society was divided into four classes including Brahman, Khashtary, Wesh and Shudder. What name I give to our four classes of citizens produced in official (legal) educational system of Pakistan. 
First is the class produced in costly western schools (existing in almost every mentionable city), where even it is difficult for a middle-class person to admit children. Sometimes, some of these schools are totally foreign and not teaching even the geography of Pakistan, because their course pack has nothing to do with Pakistani society. They are not going through local boards for testing, rather their exams are held under foreign boards. These graduates do not have any exposure to local literature. They have gone through Shakespeare and harry porters. They have no exposure to Shah Wali Ullah, Iqbal, Mowdoodi, Hijazi, Qudsia, Nasir, Faraz, Faiz or any other Socio-religious-political writer. There world is different from rest of Pakistan. Unfortunately majority of ruling class come from this sect of society.
Second class citizens are produced in private schools (a mixture of Urdu-English medium with a focus on the English language), following national curricula with some extensions. These are schools which providing education better than government schools, however, testing is done in regional boards of intermediate and secondary education. A large majority of children come to these schools from the middle class, sincere and patriot Pakistanis, having no option except to live and work for the development of Pakistan. This class (middle class) is under extra stress as their knowledge about the world and Pakistan is a source of continuous headache for them. They know about the developed world and wish to have discipline, justice, rule of law and system in place at home. They cannot sleep properly and carries the burden of pain of the whole society in their minds. At the same time, they feel their helplessness. 
“Khanjar Chaley kissee pa tarraptey hain Ham Ghareeb
Saarey Jahn ka dard Hamarey Jiger main hey” 
(We feel the pain of sufferings of the whole world as whenever someone is slaughtered, our hearts cut into pieces). I salute you, my countrymen, my eyes are dropping tears of blood, I wish… I pray… I beg to my lord for your health, peace, safety and pleasure… I pray that your loyalty, patriotism and sincerity may increase with the passage of time… you are Pakistan… you are the heart of our society… this society runs due to you… keep on doing good work and hope for reward from your lord in this world and hereafter… Insha Allah your sincerity and dedication will bring fruit for you and your next generation…. Have you noticed things have changed much…. These were uglier in past than now…. Darkness is about to end…. Whatever length a night has… its end is in the daylight….graduates of these private schools usually progress in their career successfully and become able professionals including doctors, engineers, accountants, businessmen, computer professionals, higher education teachers and form the major part of Pakistani middle class.
The third type of citizens is produced by government schools. They do attend the schools but the success ratio is questionable. When you have above 40 or 50 kids in a class…. With minimum wages of eight to ten thousand for a teacher…. even if one wants to pass on knowledge…S/he could not….few exceptional talented students could progress to higher education and growth in career, otherwise large majority has to work for lesser salaries…. Hand to mouth…and bear the truth of life with patience… and life goes on… salary differences of first-class and last class workers are up to 25:1…. Knowing that both are living in the same city…. Both are responsible to feed and provide shelter to their families… but still, such a vast difference exists…. You will not find this huge difference in so-called Dar-ul-Kufars (western societies)…. But this injustice prevails in many parts of OIC region…. A practice not matching with Islamic teachings at all… but still, we claim as we are the most favoured and chosen nation on the planet….
Conditions and circumstances of the fourth class of citizens produced in religious education schools is worse than others except few well managed Madaris (religious education schools). Lack of infrastructure, equipment and earnings of teachers…. No regular source of income… but still doing a very good job according to their capacity… providing food, shelter and clothing to the economically weakest section of society… a large majority of children comes from the poverty-ridden section of society… parents are not even able to provide food, shelter and clothing, let aside spending on education.. the large majority of these schools run by sincere Hafizs and Qaris… they are Imams (leading prayer) without any regular salary or source of income… few kind-hearted people make little donations and these schools are run on those donations… they display patience and teach patience to their pupils… they trust in Allah and teach trust in Allah to their pupils… they hope rewards in the hereafter with their Lord in the form of paradise and teach the same to their pupils. They eat lesser and share with their pupils, given lesser supplies..however, they do not compromise in reading and memorising Qur'an… they are very successful in producing Hafizs (who learn Qur'an by heart) and they are the source of provision of a large number of Imams… but a vast majority of Imams in Pakistan is low paid…these Imams have not learned any other professional education and generally do not carry any economic activity.
Hence it is proven that in Pakistan basic educational system is in place and a reasonable opportunity to get the education is available, even if the family background is financially weaker. I was born in a very far border area in a financially weaker family. My grandfather migrated from Kapwara (Indian occupied Kashmir), and instead of shifting to a city stayed on the other side of hights, in the hope of immediate return, which could never mature till 3^rd generation and who knows whether it will mature ever. My father became orphan when he was less than ten years of age.  After completing high school from my village government school (at that time there was no concept of private education in my village--my teachers were very dedicated)I shifted to Lahore and completed my education up to Master level in commerce from the best (at that time) College 1990-1997. I was meeting my expenses of education as well as cost of living without financial support of family. I was working as well as studying. Many kind-hearted people helped me in the achievement of this endeavour. After all, it was Pakistani society who provided me with an opportunity to achieve my goal, given the unfavourable family financial circumstances. It means things are favourable within this society to achieve your goals even if personal circumstances are unfavourable. Can you imagine goals achievement in a broken society? Hence Pakistani society deserves praise and appreciation instead of hate and insult. It is a very vibrant society, having an interest in achieving and promoting knowledge, wisdom and technology.
Pakistan has done a very good job in the area of higher education sector in the first decade of the twenty-first century. One of the most appreciable efforts of successive army rules is the building of Pakistan through infrastructure, mechanization, education and defence. Gen-r- Musharraf converted university grants commission into Higher Education Commission and appointed an able Pakistani, Fellow of Royal Society and renowned researcher Dr Atta ur Rehman as chairman. Furthermore, budgetary allocation was increased manifold and commission planned and executed appreciable projects and efforts. University infrastructure up-gradation, PhD scholarships for getting education internationally (Europe, North America and Australia) as well doing PhD nationally. The international scholarship covers all expenses including travel, cost of living and university fee etc. National scholarships cover university expenses as well as a stipend to the scholar. Thousands of Pakistanis completed/completing their education through these scholarships at home and abroad. Those who completed education abroad have come back (because of the bond) and serve locally in academia as well as industry. Simultaneously higher education took drastic steps to improve salary structure in public universities to make the job attractive. There was a tax rebate of up to 75% in earnings of a non-commercial university teacher. Another scheme known as travel grant is designed to fund research presentation in international conferences. Package includes travel cost, hotel stay, conference registration and Daily allowance. Thousands of Pakistanis have taken benefit of this scheme and presented their research globally. They got exposure through this scheme and an opportunity for interaction with their global colleagues. Many other schemes including funding for conference/seminar organization, writing of a book, best university teacher awards, best researcher awards etc were launched by HEC to motivate and attract best people to contribute in higher education. Results are awesome. At present we have 137 universities [74 &63 public and private]^[1], we have above one hundred thousand higher education teachers, we produced 4,209 ISI indexed research articles, while thousands un-indexed in 2009 only (HEC), we produce 6500 PhDs^[2], we got enrolled above 1.8 million students in higher education during 2010^[3], 18 million have command in English (the language of science), the literacy rate is 58% [male 69% & female 46%]^[4]. This happened due to will, sincerity and budget allocation for promotion of higher education. Which another country of the region is ahead or even matching with Pakistan on the higher education front? Educational activism will definitely bring fruit to Pakistan. In Pakistan admission in universities is granted through open merit, irrespective of colour, race, language, region and religion. Even many students from China, central Asia, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Middle East and Africa are studying in Pakistan.
There are two accounting bodies in Pakistan, known as Institute of chartered accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and Institute of Cost and management accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP), established in the 1960s. Anyone who qualifies exams and with certain years of experience can become a member of the accounting body. There are two types of membership; Associate and Fellow. Both accounting bodies are active members of IFAC-New York & South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA). Qualification of accounting achieved in Pakistan is recognized worldwide. Some accounting and auditing bodies including USA, Canada, UK and Australia are offering membership to our graduates with few papers (while the major portion of subjects is exempted). This is recognition of the Pakistani education system. Thousands of our graduates in accounting and finance are serving in UK, Australia, Canada, USA and the Middle East.
Written in 2013


[1] http://www.hec.gov.pk/ourinstitutes/pages/default.aspx accessed on July 9, 2012 figures updated on 09/11

[2] http://www.ilmkidunya.com/edunews/hec-complies-information-of-phd-degrees-awarded-by-pakistani-universities-5259.aspx accessed on July 9, 2012, figures updated 10/10.

[3] Economic Survey of Pakistan 2011-12

[4]  Economic survey of Pakistan 2011-12