Rock bottom

This refers to the editorial, ‘Rock bottom’ (May 25). The state of education in the country is terrible. A British university ranking agency - Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) – has placed Pakistan at the bottom of a 50-country list. What can one expect from a country where allocations for education is merely two percent of GDP? The emphasis has remained on sending scores of students and faculty members abroad without making drastic changes at the grassroots level. Universities are being established without paying any heed to the quality of education they offer.

It seems an unending race for minting money is on in the name of education. In the recent past, thousands of ghost schools were unearthed. The majority of government schools in rural areas lack basic facilities. During loadshedding, children are made to sit in the stuffy environment of dark classrooms. Nobody has ever bothered to provide solar powered systems to these schools. There are many boards of education in the country and each board has its own syllabus. Why can there be not a single board and one syllabus? No wonder then that Pakistan is ranked at the bottom of the 50-country list during QS ranking.

Air-Cdre (r) Azfar A Khan

Rawalpindi