For any society or country to be called a developed nation has one and just one condition to meet at most, and that is the provision of quality education to its masses.
Pakistan, over the past many decades, has been fighting against many menaces in attempts to overcome a lot of troubles of the society but has succeeded in attracting even more. If we look over the troubles of Pakistan and with the speed at which it’s facing a civic deterioration we may develop a consensus that there must be no responsible educational institutes in the country any more, since they are the ones shaping our generations.
But to speak the truth, we still have educational institutes ranked among the world’s top institutes. Institutes like LUMS ranked as the best business school in Pakistan and among the top most of South Asia. Punjab University, ranked as the top most university of Pakistan. Microsoft’s 13% graduates belong to FAST University. LSE & IBA take responsibility for producing the best business graduates who then serve and at times steer the boat of the best companies of the world.
Even in early education, institutes like Aitchison are considered as holy places for the kids' best nourishment. Beaconhouse that grooms the kid to think & act differently from the society and the likes of LGS, Saint Anthony and Sacred Heart producing resilient citizens.
Yet, this anarchy. Still the confusion over who will take the responsibility of all the failures. Every human act in the country is corrupted. Every state affair is a monument of misrepresentation. Everyone takes their bite when an opportunity comes. From violating the traffic signals to grabbing the land of orphans with power are such acts we have mastered. All the while our notable institutes argue that they are producing big brains.
What we have not been able to produce are humans who could use brains as tools. The problem is our priorities not being straightened up from the childhood. Our educational institutes don’t want us to be good humans but the focus is on developing a crammer who would rewrite/reproduce the book on the paper sheet sitting in the examination hall and claim the maximum marks scored. Resultantly, we are constantly caught up in the struggle to produce a nation where kids aren’t inspired to become great leaders and find out their ways in life but follow the footsteps already laid by the previous ones and follow blindly.
The western schooling teaches their kids to find their natural talents at a younger age so that they can carry on with it and do justice with the gifts given to them by nature. For instance, they are taught music and from the class where Pakistani students are asked to remember the tally of two, a western child is busy finding a musical tone that pleases his ears the more.
The question isn’t to fight and win any war that’s put upon us but to do justice to our own lives and fulfill the objective of coming in this world by contributing and giving back to it. Conscientious education is the only answer to all our worries. Producing more educated children is not the struggle here, but inculcating the power of actual realization under the umbrella of a thoughtful process is. Removing them from any religious, cultural or caste-based riots and asking them co-exist with a variety of people while acknowledging the differences is the obligation educational institutes must fulfill.
