State of education

This refers to the news report, ‘Parents rally against exorbitant fees being charged by private schools’ (September 16). We have witnessed a series of peaceful protests throughout the country over the annual increases in private school fees. We are among those countries where there is no regulatory authority to check or hold educational institutions accountable for what they charge. Government schools that were considered a buffer against private education have slowly and gradually become non-functional. The vacuum created by a retreating state-funded education was filled by an ever-greedy private mafia. Education and healthcare, which once topped philanthropic causes, have now become a tool to mint money. The mushroom growth of private schools created a monopolistic tendency in our society. The result is that children from the upper class can have better financial prospects in life than their state-educated peers.
Where do children of a lesser god go? Why do we have the education ministry? Why are we allocating a budget for education? Is this amount totally consumed up in corruption? Why have we signed MDGs? Why do our rulers raise slogans like education for all? An alternative is to work with the grain of the (albeit highly imperfect) system to improve the chances of those from low- and middle-income homes. This may not result in the wholesale transformation that idealists want, but it can provide opportunities for better education to thousands of children.
Jabbar Habibani
Badin