Education inequality

Our education system has aligned hierarchically along three parallel categories: schools in the private sector including those of the armed forces, those run by the government especially in rural areas, and religious seminaries or madressahs. In the first category, we have a class of students who are self-confident, fluent in English, exposed to the modern world. Second, we have children who are simpler. They lack self-confidence and are weak in English. They are practising Muslims and full of doubts about their careers. Some may excel if properly guided but their lives are mostly full of hardship and challenges. And third, we have students of religious seminaries. They are free from worry about food and clothing. They are totally indoctrinated with religious thought. Most of them are ignored by their families. They play in the hands of their religious teachers who try to present themselves as their spiritual fathers.
How can a society survive when you have three sets of minds trying to mould social norms according to their own thinking? This categorisation appears to have caused growing inequalities in our society. This has resulted in holding back social mobility that is the primary purpose of education. Our government has deliberately kept its eyes closes on the issue. The need is to devise policies that are aimed at addressing these inequalities in the education system.
Rehana Rafique
Risalpur