Voices of the future

The crisis of higher education in this country can be traced back to the ban on student unions in 1984. Students were left without the means to organise and demand redress for their grievances, leaving administrators in complete control. The space that had previously been occupied by unions was taken over by the student wings of political parties, many of them violently extremist. It was during the 1980s, when privatisation was all the craze, that private schools charging outrageous fees while providing a substandard education began to crop up. Public schools remain chronically underfunded, forcing parents into paying outrageous sums just to get their children education. Clearly there is a need for change and it needs to come from the bottom up since the state has shown no appetite for tackling this crisis. Today, on November 30, students from around the country will be demonstrating across the country in the Student Education March, hoping to spark much-needed action to secure their future and that of the generations coming after them. It is crucial to listen to our students – who have been denied any space in this country – and understand their problems so that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past.

The demands of the students’ march are simple and unobjectionable. They want the state to address the exponential rise in fees at educational institutions and for the government to crack down on bogus schools that charge massive amounts of money but turn out not to even be accredited. Importantly, the marchers also want to address inequality on campus, particularly in the way students from smaller provinces are treated. We have seen time and over again how extremism has taken hold of many campuses, from the lynching of Mashal Khan to the de-facto control groups like the Islami Jamiat-e-Taleba have over many public universities in Punjab or in Karachi. There needs to be more democracy on campus, where extremist political groups do not have veto power and the voice of all students is heard. Education should be about students, not politicians, bureaucrats and administrators. The students’ march will hopefully be the start of a sustained movement to reform the most important – and most ignored – sector in the country. Our future may depend on it.