The learning ladder

The writer is a freelance columnist and former newspaper editor.

Perhaps a mathematician could work out a formula which reflects the precise equation: as Pakistan’s educational standards have declined over its 70-year history, the language used in official documents to describe the failures has grown increasingly flowery – and increasingly stripped of substance.

At the same time promises made for the future have been more bombastic with each five-year plan spelled out. Had even a small proportion of these pledges been met, notably the extravagant claims made from 1979 onwards, we should have a country crawling with PhD-holders and populated by a 100 percent literate population.

Of course we do not. Barely 60 percent of our people are literate, according to official figures, and of these multiple surveys have shown a shocking number lack anything resembling functional ability to read, write or perform simple arithmetical calculations. The Millennium Development Goals we should have achieved by 2015 are not even in sight from where we stand.

The report by the Quacquarelli Symonds global rating organisation, which puts Pakistan at the very bottom of nations around the world in terms of the structure of higher education, access to it and the quality of graduates it turns out should not then be especially surprising. But we possess a rather stunning capacity to delude ourselves. The survey’s verdict that Pakistan stands behind nations which include Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh, as well as Saudi Arabia and the UAE will no doubt be put down in some circles at least as a conspiracy theory.

Instead of doing that, we need to recognise the fact that we have instead been conspiring against ourselves. We have conspired by writing out elaborate documents laying out future plans, which undoubtedly even the clerk tapping out the keys in a government office knew would not and could not be met. We have failed our people by not showing anything resembling real commitment to education and the change it could bring. Successive governments have focused instead on making the right impression in particular circles or presenting themselves in a grandiose light while criticising the policies of those who have come before. There has been no logical effort to build on the rungs laid out in the past and move on from that platform, reaching first one level and then the next.

It is in so many ways easy to set up bodies, committees, organisations etc and attempt through these to take shortcuts which can lead to something resembling at least cosmetic success. However, nothing but diligent effort will lead to genuine achievement. In the context of higher education, one example is the Higher Education Commission, established under a new amendment by Gen Pervez Musharraf in 2002 as an apex body for learning at the higher levels.

The body was given large sums of money by the government and also by donors from foreign countries to whom appeals were made about the excellence this organisation would bring. The Quacquarelli Symonds study suggests the HEC has, in a decade and a half of existence, achieved very little in real terms despite the extravagant claims it has made and which the government has made on its behalf. Today, the devolution of powers through the provinces makes its role still more complex.

The fact is that higher education, including the HEC, is now striving for a 25 percent share in the minuscule budgetary allocation for education which for 2015-2016 stood at 2.1 percent of GDP, the lowest in the region. This is despite the fact that only around five percent of 12 to 23 year olds in the country attend an institute of higher education. Over 90 percent of 5 to 9 year olds are enrolled in primary learning. It would seem logical that a larger share should go to cater to the needs of those who stand at the bottom of the educational pyramid.

When the base of the pyramid, or in other words primary level and then secondary level education, is so weak there can be little hope that the triangle on the top will stay balanced. The fact that we retain one of the world’s highest drop-out rates within the first five years of schooling – and this pattern continues to the top – explains why so few reach higher education levels at all.

The dismal quality of learning children receive from the moment they first enter school also contributes to the terrible standards seen at colleges and universities. Studies show that our levels of research and ability to reach academic landmarks are poor, leaving us lagging far behind countries like Iran, Turkey, India and others in the region.

The latest findings, which come soon after the HEC released its list of top-ranking universities in the country, should make us think. It appears that these universities – led by the Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad – are not really centres of excellence at all. We have been duped all along by being told lies and assured that higher education has improved markedly over the past decade or so. We have been told of better standards having been set and more monitoring put in place for these institutions.

We need to stop fooling ourselves and assess what our education system truly needs. Of course it needs more funds; that much is obvious. But it also means a degree of thinking and commitment to improve its output and stop the rot that has melted away layer after layer. One problem appears to be the lack of qualified people to embark on a task of repair. Those who were around into the early and mid-1970s have apparently been replaced, judging by the quality of reports and write-ups included in government documents by persons unable or unwilling to think. These people seem to be competent only to put forward extravagant ideas, couched in poetic language which we all know will never actually materialise. The reports and the plans laid out are then nothing but an illusion.

This pretence needs to end. We need to instead tackle reality. The reality is that we have landed ourselves in the midst of a gigantic mess. Finding a way out is clearly not easy. Putting in place elaborate setups like the HEC has not helped as far as we can ascertain. The fact that Pakistan stands as the worst ranked country in the world in terms of the quality of its higher level education is proof of this.

Instead of delivering lofty speeches, we need a nuts–and-bolts approach. It is the schools at the bottom of the tier, the tiny buildings – and sometimes even bigger ones – in a state of decay dotted around the country, that need to be repaired. In some cases, quite literally brick by brick, the system has to be improved.

This of course also means finding teachers and persuading them to attend schools. There is a gigantic problem at the moment in recruiting teachers given the devaluing of the profession as a whole. There are of course many other interrelated problems.

But to build a strong structure it will be necessary to begin at the bottom and work up so that those who emerge from the system at the end of the process are able to stay within it for longer, and have the skills that would be expected of graduates and post graduates in their respective fields.

Email: kamilahyat@hotmail.com