Standard of Education in Pakistan

[Sachaydino]

After watching this video, the future of Pakistan does not seem to be good. This is showing marked difference between children studying in government institutions and in convent or private schools. I have never studied in elite class institutions like Grammar or American Schools. Most of the time I was student in government or non for profit school system. The standard of education was not that great as compared to elite schools but it was not that bad either. Ultimately we used to compete in professional college with the same students coming form elite institutions.

This video shows the dismal education standard In Pakistani Schools. There is now marked difference between private and government schools. This difference shows that who will be future rulers and who will be future slaves. The disparity is heart breaking. Unless government invests billions in education system, the children of poor people will never become good citizens.

Now look at the same government institution in India and see the difference. How can you beat India in future under such circumstances?

The government and opposition including Imaran Khan have to think about future of Pakistan. This should be no # 1 priority in their election campaign.

http://www.dawn.com/2012/04/05/inequality-in-classrooms-hinders-child-learning.html

[TheRealDeal]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

Until the budget of the country stops going to the Army, and starts going to Education, Development. etc, this sad situation will continue.

[Amal]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

According to WEF report: "The quality of education system and the capacity for innovation shows improvement of 7 points each ranking at 79 and 51 respectively."

[Ali_Syed]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

@TheRealDeal

Until the budget of the country stops going to the Army, and starts going to Education, Development. etc, this sad situation will continue.

I agree with the army part but what ever resources the government has got at its disposal if they are utilized fully (without corruption) that could resolve many problems as well.

[firenze]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

Well generally speaking i don't agree with such videos because we don't know the criteria for picking up the schools for such tests. I didn't went to gov school, so i can't say anything about them.
Given the state of government of Pakistan i wouldn't be astonish that schools are producing vegetable brains.

Fixing this require generations of work, its not about the budget only we need expertise. These days every other NGO is opening schools i wonder what kind a impact they are having.

[Sannan]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

@firenze

Well generally speaking i don’t agree with such videos because we don’t know the criteria for picking up the schools for such tests. I didn’t went to gov school, so i can’t say anything about them.
Given the state of government of Pakistan i wouldn’t be astonish that schools are producing vegetable brains.

Fixing this require generations of work, its not about the budget only we need expertise. These days every other NGO is opening schools i wonder what kind a impact they are having.

Agree
as most of the government school has still some nice standard but in some areas where we ve ghost school and ghost teachers we ve this pathetic situation.

He is “Naveed Asif” from Nahranwali village Okara who scored 919 marks in Matric and got second position in BISE Lahore . His school was 7 KM away from his house and he used to walk 7 KM everyday to go to his school. here are his words :
“Me and my mother were really terrified when BISE Lahore team reached our home late at night before announcement of the result. Actually a few days ago, our cow was stolen at night owing to which we were terrified”.
“You may think it ridiculous but I always said to my mother that I wanted to be like Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah,” he said. “Quaid-e-Azam is a role model for me"

He seated at stairs after receiving his medal and later Mr. Shahbaz Sharif offered his seat to him.

He couldn’t find any seat in Alhamra hall to sit in a function which was arranged to honour position holders

When i passed my matriculation from Multan Board. The First position holder was a son of a very poor man and student of a government school. It depends on the teacher & students. But now a days in most of the schools we have teachers who were appointed on political bases. So they never get serious or unable to study the students. This is the fault of our system who choose these type of teachers and never take any action against them.

I guarantee that in my area a 7th grade student of a government school can write these type of things very easily.

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Restored attachments:

[TheRealDeal]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

@Ali_Syed

I agree with the army part but what ever resources the government has got at its disposal if they are utilized fully (without corruption) that could resolve many problems as well.

You are right, but still the resources allocated are so small, it is not enough to produce a decent education system.

[Mostar95]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

Random picking:

South India!

South of Pakistan and South of Karachi - things are not different in other areas but not that much worse. The Pakistan school seems to a private one - apparently an English medium!

[Sa1eem]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

If Pakistanis want to get educated and prosperous than they have to first put all corrupt thugs in Pakistan on rope (hang them). But since Pakistanis love corruption and nepotism of their leaders and would themselves like to do that if given opportunity, they deserve what they are getting. Future could be bleaker.

As for defence budget and education: Pakistan defence budget as percentage of GDP has continuously decreased over the years and today it is almost half of what it was in late 1990s (as percentage of GDP). To see the true picture, look at Defence budget and compare that with corruption.

The breakdown of the defence budget for fiscal year 2011-2012 is as follow:

Employee salaries: Rs206 billion;
Operating expenses: Rs128 billion;
Physical assets: Rs117 billion;
And civil works: Rs42 billion.

That comes to Rs 493 billion

[Above figures excludes pension that could be ~ Rs 50 billion today. Pension was taken off defence budget by Musharraf and at the time it was Rs 27 billion].

Note: Military employees pay tax on their salary that comes to treasury. Plus, all salaries, pension, operating expenses and civil works expenses come back into economy]

Now come to corruption in last 4 years:

It is estimated by Transparency international that corruption during present government 4 years tenor was more than Rs 8500 billion (that must have increased a lot if last few months corruption is taken into account).

Thus in last 4 years corrupt thugs have looted equivalent to ~ 20 years Pakistan yearly defence budget. Unlike defence expenditure, most what was looted left Pakistan without paying tax or contributing to economy.

[Note: PPP government minister of finance himself confirmed that yearly corruption in FBR alone is over Rs 500 billion and that is more than Pakistan yearly defence budget.

On top of corruption, present government is spending ~Rs 300 billion every year (~60 percent of yearly defence budget) to dole out state owned enterprises so that the thugs government appointed at these enterprises do their loot and plunder of tax-payers money.

So, do not blame defence budget as that is drop in the ocean what political thugs are looting and plundering, and if defence budget would decrease further then nothing positive would happen other than thugs would loot and plunder that too.

Education: We should remember that in 2000 then Musharraf government declared Millennium Development Goals target for Pakistan with approval of UN development programme.
UNDP - Pakistan - MDGs in Pakistan

According to that goal, Musharraf government declared that Pakistan would aim to spend 7 percent of GNP on education. Education budget started increasing (though slowly) until 2007-08 and since then education budget has started decreasing fast (though PPP government still claims that aim of allocating 7 percent of GNP for education has not changed).

[Sannan]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

@Sa1eem

If Pakistanis want to get educated and prosperous than they have to first put all corrupt thugs in Pakistan on rope (hang them). But since Pakistanis love corruption and nepotism of their leaders and would themselves like to do that if given opportunity, they deserve what they are getting. Future could be bleaker.

As for defence budget and education: Pakistan defence budget as percentage of GDP has continuously decreased over the years and today it is almost half of what it was in late 1990s (as percentage of GDP). To see the true picture, look at Defence budget and compare that with corruption.

The breakdown of the defence budget for fiscal year 2011-2012 is as follow:

Employee salaries: Rs206 billion;
Operating expenses: Rs128 billion;
Physical assets: Rs117 billion;
And civil works: Rs42 billion.

That comes to Rs 493 billion

Above figures excludes pension that could be ~ Rs 50 billion today. Pension was taken off defence budget by Musharraf and at the time it was Rs 27 billion].

Note: Military employees pay tax on their salary that comes to treasury. Plus, all salaries, pension, operating expenses and civil works expenses come back into economy]

Now come to corruption in last 4 years:

It is estimated by Transparency international that corruption during present government 4 years tenor was more than Rs 8500 billion (that must have increased a lot if last few months corruption is taken into account).

Thus in last 4 years corrupt thugs have looted equivalent to ~ 20 years Pakistan yearly defence budget. Unlike defence expenditure, most what was looted left Pakistan without paying tax or contributing to economy.

[Note: PPP government minister of finance himself confirmed that yearly corruption in FBR alone is over Rs 500 billion and that is more than Pakistan yearly defence budget.

On top of corruption, present government is spending ~Rs 300 billion every year (~60 percent of yearly defence budget) to dole out state owned enterprises so that the thugs government appointed at these enterprises do their loot and plunder of tax-payers money.

So, do not blame defence budget as that is drop in the ocean what political thugs are looting and plundering, and if defence budget would decrease further then nothing positive would happen other than thugs would loot and plunder that too.

Education: We should remember that in 2000 then Musharraf government declared Millennium Development Goals target for Pakistan with approval of UN development programme.
UNDP - Pakistan - MDGs in Pakistan

According to that goal, Musharraf government declared that Pakistan would aim to spend 7 percent of GNP on education. Education budget started increasing (though slowly) until 2007-08 and since then education budget has started decreasing fast (though PPP government still claims that aim of allocating 7 percent of GNP for education has not changed).

Exactly :k: First stop corruption and bring them on a track, rather start criticizing other units…

But the question is Who will bell the cat ?

[Ali_Syed]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

@TheRealDeal

You are right, but still the resources allocated are so small, it is not enough to produce a decent education system.

The total defence expenditures are 16-17 % of the total budget that leaves around 83-84 % of the budget for the government if they want to use it properly.

[Mirch]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

@Sa1eem

If Pakistanis want to get educated and prosperous than they have to first put all corrupt thugs in Pakistan on rope (hang them). But since Pakistanis love corruption and nepotism of their leaders and would themselves like to do that if given opportunity, they deserve what they are getting. Future could be bleaker.

As for defence budget and education: Pakistan defence budget as percentage of GDP has continuously decreased over the years and today it is almost half of what it was in late 1990s (as percentage of GDP). To see the true picture, look at Defence budget and compare that with corruption.

The breakdown of the defence budget for fiscal year 2011-2012 is as follow:

Employee salaries: Rs206 billion;
Operating expenses: Rs128 billion;
Physical assets: Rs117 billion;
And civil works: Rs42 billion.

That comes to Rs 493 billion

[Above figures excludes pension that could be ~ Rs 50 billion today. Pension was taken off defence budget by Musharraf and at the time it was Rs 27 billion].

Note: Military employees pay tax on their salary that comes to treasury. Plus, all salaries, pension, operating expenses and civil works expenses come back into economy]

Now come to corruption in last 4 years:

It is estimated by Transparency international that corruption during present government 4 years tenor was more than Rs 8500 billion (that must have increased a lot if last few months corruption is taken into account).

Thus in last 4 years corrupt thugs have looted equivalent to ~ 20 years Pakistan yearly defence budget. Unlike defence expenditure, most what was looted left Pakistan without paying tax or contributing to economy.

[Note: PPP government minister of finance himself confirmed that yearly corruption in FBR alone is over Rs 500 billion and that is more than Pakistan yearly defence budget.

On top of corruption, present government is spending ~Rs 300 billion every year (~60 percent of yearly defence budget) to dole out state owned enterprises so that the thugs government appointed at these enterprises do their loot and plunder of tax-payers money.

So, do not blame defence budget as that is drop in the ocean what political thugs are looting and plundering, and if defence budget would decrease further then nothing positive would happen other than thugs would loot and plunder that too.

Education: We should remember that in 2000 then Musharraf government declared Millennium Development Goals target for Pakistan with approval of UN development programme.
UNDP - Pakistan - MDGs in Pakistan

According to that goal, Musharraf government declared that Pakistan would aim to spend 7 percent of GNP on education. Education budget started increasing (though slowly) until 2007-08 and since then education budget has started decreasing fast (though PPP government still claims that aim of allocating 7 percent of GNP for education has not changed).

You conveniently forgot to give the amount spent on education , to be objective you should have provided those figures too.

look at the percentage 50 vs 7 , If need to be strong, hornable , undefeatable nation we need to spend 50 pecent on education and 7 percent on defence specialy after becoming a nuclear power.
We already have power of mutually assured destrucion (neuclear bomb) up our sleaves we do not need to spend that kind of money on traditional warfare.
If we educate our kids we would be able to invent more fast and furious and cheaper alternatives of defending ourselves.

[Sachaydino]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

@TheRealDeal

You are right, but still the resources allocated are so small, it is not enough to produce a decent education system.

I agree with you 100% RD. Education in Pakistan had never been a priority, where as 96% of the world spend more on education than in Pakistan. Even India spends 3 times on education than Pakistan. This article is an eye opener for every Pakistani. If Pakistan is to prosper, and give coming generations a hope, the government has to divert funds from white elephant spendings to Education.

Request to Saleem and others: Please keep this thread out of hatred due to your political affliation. This is really a most important issue which has to be dealth with sound minds, will affect very positively for future generations of Pakistan. Keep your prejudice and hatred for other threads, tons are opned for your throwing up venoms.

**Education drives national prosperity – The Express Tribune

KARACHI: Education has a direct link with a country’s prosperity. Despite the fact that we have the world’s sixth largest population we have not yet been able to truly leverage this huge God given asset to our advantage mainly due to widespread illiteracy.**

All countries larger than us in terms of population (China, India, US, Indonesia and Brazil) have made excellent use of this resource to drive economic growth, improve standard of living and fix fundamentals of their society. This was achieved mainly behind their achieving high literacy rates; a key indicator reflecting a country’s ability to create value. Except for India whose literacy is at 75%, all others have literacy ranging from 90% to 98%. Pakistan is below 50%.

No administration has been able to fix this fundamental flaw in our demographics which is now the very reason why we are in such dire straits. On average, Pakistan government spends less than 2% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) on education.

96% of nations spend more per person on education than Pakistan which spends a paltry $18/person. Countries like India spend three times our rate, Morocco ten times, Malaysia forty times, Singapore eighty times and developed nations like UK, Frances, USA, and Belgium more than a hundred times.

**To see how education can transform a country, let’s take Singapore as a case in point. Singapore obtained its independence 18 years after us, has no natural resources, has a mere 3% of Pakistan’s population but has a GDP size in nominal terms roughly 20% higher than Pakistan and a literacy rate of 96%.

Singapore with a population less than the city of Lahore, is amazingly generating GDP significantly higher than that of Pakistan. Shocking isn’t it.

It all stems from the innate power of education. Education drives progress. Education drives intellectual capacity building, which drives ability to know right from wrong which in turn drives overall governance of a country. Education enhances the ability to think and decide which in turns gives the masses the ability to vote in qualified people. Education drives innovation, values, ability to see the future and solution based thinking, which in turn drives economic growth.

In a recent study it was proven that a 20-30% increase in literacy produces 8-16% gain in GDP. Teaching mothers to read can lead to a decrease in infant mortality of up to 50%.

Unless the government and the people in power realise the true benefit of education and its impact on productivity and economic growth, we will continue to dwell among the illiterate and chaotic nations of the world.**

The writer works in the corporate sector and is active on various business forums and trade bodies.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26th, 2012.

[Amal]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

Y..., If need to be strong, hornable , undefeatable nation we need to spend 50 pecent on education and 7 percent on defence specialy after becoming a nuclear power. We already have power of mutually assured destrucion (neuclear bomb) up our sleaves we do not need to spend that kind of money on traditional warfare. If we educate our kids we would be able to invent more fast and furious and cheaper alternatives of defending ourselves.

I will agree with you. Despite financial constraint, the state of Pakistan should make it a constitutional obligation that a healthy fixed amount — which is not linked to GDP-percentage fluctuation — is spent on education every year.

As Bhutto once said that "we will eat grass but we will make nuclear bomb," I think it's time to make another such pledge: We will eat grass but we will splurge on education.

[Mirch]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

@Amal

As Bhutto once said that “we will eat grass but we will make nuclear bomb,” I think it’s time to make another such pledge: We will eat grass but we will splurge on education.

Well said. :k:

[Sachaydino]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

@Amal

As Bhutto once said that “we will eat grass but we will make nuclear bomb,” I think it’s time to make another such pledge: We will eat grass but we will splurge on education.

:k: Well said Amal. On this I agree with you 100%.

[rangoli]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

whts current expenditure on education?

[superman85]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

@Amal

As Bhutto once said that “we will eat grass but we will make nuclear bomb,” I think it’s time to make another such pledge: We will eat grass but we will splurge on education.

While I’m inclined to agree, I don’t think it will come to this. There is more than enough to go around. It’s just the willpower that’s lacking. Even if they increase the education budget ten folds, they will still have enough money. Heck, they’ll get enough money from the international front. Making a nuclear weapon is a totally different ball game. Iran with all it’s oil/gas money, still is years away.

Education? It’s nowhere near that hard:

1. You just have to make it priority number one.
2. Have a single highest-quality curriculum all across the board, in all schools.
3. And update it once every three years.
4. Initiate teacher training programs every weekend, four times a month to train them.
5. Make use of the multimedia, internet and computer/TV.
6. Start a state run channel for the kids (with split programming in Urdu and English) for educational programs.
7. And not just any educational programs, but interesting ones that will attract kids and teenagers.
8. Buy and dub informative cartoons from US, Europe and Australia.
9. Hold knowledge competitions from all across Pakistan, have an year long season with big prizes for winners.
10. Set up a Science Oasis in every major city and make schools go there to increase their love for science and knowledge.
11. Create relatively cheap Rs. 10,000 tablet and try and give one to every student.
12. And that tablet should only run government authorized (informative) software, from atlases to encyclopedias.

Start doing this, set up teams of passionate and visionary people. Keep a check on any and all corruption in this field, and gradually increase the education budget every year, and you will start seeing results in a decade flat. Tax the private schools depending on their tuition fee, number of students, and education standards (from 10% to 90%) to generate extra funds and funnel them back into the educational programs.

And finally, try and keep your brain here instead of them going abroad to study. Provide as much opportunities as you can.

[Sachaydino]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

@rangoli

whts current expenditure on education?

budgetinbrief_2011_12.pdf

See the page 48 of the document. education is second last in the list.

Education Affairs and Services Rs. in Millions

2010-11 Revised 40,324
2011-12 current 39, 513

[Amal]

Re: Standard of Education in Pakistan

@superman85

1. You just have to make it priority number one.
2. Have a single highest-quality curriculum all across the board, in all schools.
3. And update it once every three years.
4. Initiate teacher training programs every weekend, four times a month to train them.
5. Make use of the multimedia, internet and computer/TV.
6. Start a state run channel for the kids (with split programming in Urdu and English) for educational programs.
7. And not just any educational programs, but interesting ones that will attract kids and teenagers.
8. Buy and dub informative cartoons from US, Europe and Australia.
9. Hold knowledge competitions from all across Pakistan, have an year long season with big prizes for winners.
10. Set up a Science Oasis in every major city and make schools go there to increase their love for science and knowledge.
11. Create relatively cheap Rs. 10,000 tablet and try and give one to every student.
12. And that tablet should only run government authorized (informative) software, from atlases to encyclopedias.

Start doing this, set up teams of passionate and visionary people. Keep a check on any and all corruption in this field, and gradually increase the education budget every year, and you will start seeing results in a decade flat. Tax the private schools depending on their tuition fee, number of students, and education standards (from 10% to 90%) to generate extra funds and funnel them back into the educational programs.

Excellent suggestions :k: … I am sure if these suggestions are implemented, our educational fortunes will turn around fairly soon.

But still these suggestions should have constitutional cover so that they stay in force and are not put not hold once government is changed. Continuity of such a policy is as vital as the policy itself.

I think an APC should be convened on this issue, get suggestions from all political forces and let them go through the scanner of a wide-ranging panel of independent educationists. The fine-tuned policy should be put to a joint session of parliament and be given an iron-clad consituional backup for enforcement and continuity.