'Economic development cannot be ensured in the absence of quality education'

Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday said social and economic development cannot be ensured unless quality education is available to all. Culture of greed has taken over our education system once supposed to be a noble endeavour, it said.
Mushroom growth of private sector schools proves that education is now considered a profitable business in which moral values take a backseat, said Dr Murtaza Mughal, President PEW.
Excessive focus on self-interest in the private schools is leading to deterioration of the education sector; it is hurting moral values and promoting negative tendencies in the students which must be contained, he said.
He said that private sector schools are cashing in on the desires of parents to ensure a better future for their children but what they get in return is a piece of paper called an academic degree. These institutions are following a simple rule that the students are enrolled to get degrees and not to fail in the exams, he added.
Dr Murtaza said that majority of teachers in the private colleges in universities include part-timers, serving and retired bureaucrats and business executives with no experience in education, no interaction with students.
Payment on hourly basis makes them run from one school to other to make as much money as they can.
He said that majority of teachers in private schools have been transformed into salesmen whose prime responsibility is to please students throughout the academic year and give inflated grades which is one of the reason Pakistan lacks leaders in every sphere of life.
Almost all the known private schools are being run as a family business to maximise profits resulting in compromising the quality of education, he observed.
Country can only move forward if government ensure quality and affordable education for all for which regulating the private sector institutions is very important, said Dr Mughal.
Otherwise the private educational institutions will continue to deprive poor and middle-class of quality education which will bar us from becoming a developed nation.-PR