Ummar Ziauddin Imran Khan rightly pointed out on a private channel recently that our education system caters to the elite, the middle class and the poor on different planes. He has advocated the case of educational reform for over a decade now. Sadly, from among the mainstream politicians, he is the sole spokesman even today. Education has never been our priority. Pakistans public expenditure on education is among the lowest in the world. In the region, we are second only to Afghanistan. The problem is not just inadequate funds - problems only begin with it. At present, there are numerous streams of the education running side by side in our country. There are government schools, English medium and Urdu medium, madrassahs, elitist private schools and public schools. With only 52 percent enrolment in schools, we can also boast of the second highest number of out-of-school children in the world. There are studies that show a correlation between conflict outbreak and low educational attainment. Countries with the lowest rates of primary school enrolment show a greater incidence of conflict. There is evidence to support this thesis as well. A lions share of recruits for jihadist groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba, Lashkar-e-Taiba and the like come from more than 3,000 madrassahs. Our madrassahs essentially cater to the underprivileged of the society. The education our children receive in these schools provides them with little or no hope for job opportunities in the market. The state patronised the rise of these madrassahs in the eighties and used their students in the Soviet Jihad. In 1971, we had only 900 registered madrassahs. In 1980, the number went up to 10,000 and had more than 2,50,000 students enrolled in them. While the generous Arabs donate handsomely in the Ivy leagues colleges, the same petro-dollars flood our madrassahs. If one could spare a minute to ponder on the problems we face in government schools, it will help us get a hang of what the expanding universe could mean to a physicist or a cosmologist. Our schools are understaffed - lets not get into the facultys merits and qualifications. There is an absence of basic facilities such as electricity, water, libraries, boundary walls and at times even the buildings. Then, there are many ghost schools. And many more have now become unsafe or referred to as sanctuaries. In government schools, rather poor effort is made to enable children learn the English language - a requirement, unfortunately, for most of the white collar jobs. It is a secondary language for almost all the students. Linguists believe that an efficacious learning comes in an internalised language. The focus, however, in our schools, and here is when I generalise our attitude, has never been on learning but simply on English. Even an Aitchisonian friend admits that the school is not the same as it was in the sixties and early seventies. Progressive decay, a trend not unique to Aitchison College only Another premier school Burn Hall - in comparison to its glorious past is in shambles today. In Burn Halls case, it was the military coup of 1976 that catapulted its flight to rock bottom. These schools once had foreign students from Kenya, Morocco, Egypt, Malaysia, UK and USA. In Achebes words, the Umuofia has now changed. Things, we know, are less promising elsewhere. Ironically though, no one questions the very existence of these anglophile elite schools. These colonial schools are the legacy of the British Raj. It is good enough for many. Its hardly a surprise, since we still suffer from the post-colonial complexes. The British realised that in order to break the backbone of India, our spiritual and cultural heritage, they needed to replace our ancient education system and our culture. For if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they would become what we want them: A truly dominated nation - Lord Macaulays address to the British Parliament on February 2, 1885. The idea of societal transformation by education was not new at the time. We can trace back its origins to the Macedonian conqueror Alexander. The starting point of any education system is to develop in a child an understanding of himself, his culture and his values. Even after 64 years, these colonial schools train our children to essentially ape the English and their manners. The awe of these schools inspired a mushroom growth in modern tuition academies or mildly put private schools. These schools are elitist in nature, driven by profit motives. The problem with this rat race is, even if you win it, you are still a rat. Students who pass out from these schools are as alien to Pakistani culture as are foreigners. Incidentally, most of them have affected accents as well - the cherry on the cake No abstracted notion on nationalism, no big ideas - everyone who is born in Pakistan is a Pakistani. That said, a Pakistani student should be as acquainted with Manto as with PG Woodhouse - if not more. Education is not a pure public good. However, the state must do the bare minimum and oversee the standardisation of the education, possibly through public-private partnership. Firstly, these different school systems should be abolished. Even if they have to coexist, there has to be a degree of proximity in the provision of opportunities to all Pakistanis - regardless of the system they are enrolled in or the background they come from. We are the sixth most populous and one of the youngest nations in the world. There are more persons aged 14 and below in Pakistan than in the US. Pakistans only hope is plainly her youth. The potential is huge, no doubt. Before most of this wealth is laid waste or lured by militants, the state needs to wake up. The writer is a freelance columnist and A-levels student.