Standards of learning

The Board of Intermediate Education in Karachi has taken a welcome note of substandard education standards at colleges and higher secondary schools across the city. The chairman of the BIEK has in a letter to 77 pre-med colleges, 72 pre-engineering colleges and 23 general science colleges run by the government warned that a result below a 33 percent pass rate was not acceptable and that the registration of these colleges could be cancelled for their failure to deliver quality learning. Similar letters have been written to the director of school education concerning 23 pre-med and 23 pre-engineering government higher secondary schools which had failed to obtain the desired past rate. Private institutions have also received letters, including 67 pre-med and 77 pre-engineering schools and colleges.
Parents send their children to educational institutions in the hope that they can obtain the required grades to clear exams and move on to an improved quality of life. It is clear that a large number of colleges and schools, even in a large city like Karachi which has one of the highest literacy rates in the country at over 95 percent, are not delivering. This is a disturbing state of affairs. What we need is not just education but education of a reasonable standard which can truly help pupils progress in life and take up careers of their choice. The fact that this is not happening can be attributed to the poor quality of teachers at many institutions, their lack of interest – especially at government-run facilities where pay and incentives are low – and the general lack of facilities at these schools and colleges. The matter has come up before in the case of other examination boards. All educational institutions that enrol pupils must be required to offer them learning that can enable them to pass exams. In the absence of this, the time they spend in the classroom is essentially wasted and offers them nothing in terms of a chance to move ahead in life or acquire the skills that could assist them in improving the quality of living for their entire families. This is essentially what education should be all about. It should also be about meeting dreams and goals, and it is obvious that institutions where the vast majority of the student populations fails to clear exams are not coming up to this mark.