Human history is witness to the fact that the greatest contributor to the wealth, prosperity and development of a nation is not the stock of its natural resources but its stock of brain power. There are many countries in our contemporary world that are endowed with vast treasures of mineral wealth yet the same wealth is a curse around the necks of their people that is subjecting them to extreme poverty, death and destruction. There are also many countries with no natural resources but whose people are the richest in the world because of the innate abilities, capabilities and brain power of the people themselves.
Numerous research studies endeavour to estimate the stock of brain power of a country and are usually designed around achievement test results of verbal, mathematics and science scores of students across various countries. One such recent study by a Duke University Talent Identification Program, research scientist, compiled a ranking of top 25 countries based on scores of the OECD Programme of International Student Assessment, (PISA) which tests reading, maths and science competency in 15-year-olds.
The model determined the proportion (%) of students from a country that scored in the top two percent at the global level and applied that percentage to the population of a country to determine the stock of exceptionally bright people in that country. For example, the study found that the highest proportion of gifted students was in Singapore with a ratio of 9.1% while the lowest ratio was .01 % in Brazil. The East Asians scored well with Taiwan at 5.85% while South Korea and Japan scored over 4%. In Europe, Switzerland scored 4.25% while Russia scored 0.65%; Turkey from the Islamic world was at 0.65%. The USA scored 1.67%.
When these percentages were applied to the populations of the respective countries their stock of brain power could be estimated. The biggest stock of brain power in the world was in the USA at 5.5 million people, primarily because of a large population and the ratio of 1.67% of its gifted students that was in turn the product of their schooling systems and economic incentives. Brazil's pool was at 20th primarily because of its poor ratio of .01% but with a large population of 200 million.
So what is the stock of Pakistan's brain power? It is a common refrain in Pakistan that Pakistanis are innately highly intelligent and gifted; only the system keeps them backward and illiterate. Therefore if we had a perfect system like say Singapore with the highest proportion of 9.1% gifted population our overall pool of super bright people would have been around 18 million and that would be the largest pool of talented people in the world. On the other hand, our systems are worse than Brazil and on that criteria our pool of talent would be less than 200 thousand in a population of 200 million. Singapore with hardly any natural resources through sheer reliance on brain power has delivered unprecedented prosperity for its people. Whereas Pakistan by disregarding its systems of nurturing and harnessing brain power has consigned a naturally rich people to the clutches of poverty and deprivation.
Nurturing brain power requires an all encompassing and comprehensive effort that starts from the mother's womb to the retirement home. It is a value chain that has to be cultivated from conception of a child, to its birth and first 1000 days, to its primary education to its secondary and tertiary education. To the meritocracy in the world of business and government and finally the recognition and rewards a country bestows on exceptional talent.
Demographically Pakistan is amongst the youngest country in the world with almost 90 million under the age of 15 - larger than the entire population of Germany. This group of youngsters is our best hope for the future. Unfortunately, we are oblivious to the role they can play in our development. We are not investing in them to equip them for the future and we are not even feeding them the basic minimum levels of nutrition. Isn't it a shame that it is the donors who are alerting us to this catastrophic development? I quote a few recent warnings:
"Pakistan has some of the worst rates of child malnutrition in the world, with more than 40% of children suffering from stunting and 30% underweight. Stunting is a result of malnutrition in the first two years of a child's life, and limits height as well as emotional, social and cognitive development".
"Our work is taking place in the context of a malnutrition crisis in Pakistan, where nearly half of children are stunted and won't be able to participate in the economy."
"Stunted kids are at a disadvantage cognitively as well as often being the height of a child two or even four years younger. If a child doesn't get [enough] nutrition in the first 1,000 days, their brain and immune system don't develop".
In an earlier article "Criminal breach of trust, my Lords" (Business Recorder August 25, 2016) I had reflected on Pakistan's criminal neglect of not fully utilising its water resources by not building the water storages and not extending the irrigation network to the arid and dessert regions in eastern Sindh, south Punjab, south KP and eastern Balochistan where the bulk of these malnourished and stunted children is growing up with no chance of breaking the shackles of poverty and stunted growth. Not building the irrigation systems has condemned the future of Pakistan brain power to malnutrition and stunted cognitive abilities.
If you are part of the lucky half that has escaped malnourishment and stunted abilities then you confront a school system that is perhaps amongst the worst in the world. In terms of quality and quantity rankings of our educational system from primary to tertiary levels the Global Competitiveness Index rankings for Pakistan out of 144 countries are abysmal as under.
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Primary education enrollment 134
Primary education quality 112
Higher education quantity 129
Quality of higher education 91
Quality of math and science 88
Staff and (teacher) training 122
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The education system of Pakistan is clearly loaded against the youth of Pakistan. When they are going to compete with the youth of other countries in a globalized world in pursuit of wealth and prosperity they will be handicapped ab-initio without the knowledge and skills to compete.
If they survive the dysfunctional education system of the country then they are confronted by a business world that is not conducive for talent. The rankings for the effective use of talent by Pakistani enterprises is 132. The capacity of Pakistan to attract talent is 96 and if you are a woman your participation in the workforce is ranked 136th in the world. This shows that the wealth producing segment of the economy is more an engine of retardation rather than growth.
If having beaten the odds they do land up a job in a Pakistani business it is not a paragon of innovation needing brain power. The business capacity for innovation is ranked 96th and in Patent applications Pakistan is ranked 109th. Quality of its scientific research institutions is 104th. The bottom line is that Pakistan's ability to nurture and grow talent and brain power is non-existent. Any talent if by some miracle still emerges in Pakistan it has no option other than to emigrate to a country more fertile and accommodative for talent or perish in anonymity.
This is an alarming situation that poses an existential threat to Pakistan. As Pakistanis we must come out of this trap of ignorance and mediocrity. We must tackle and fix as our number one priority the entire brain power value chain from malnutrition to bad schools, to bad teachers, to bad enterprises simultaneously. National vision, national focus and national resources will have to be employed to put in place a system that nourishes and promote talent and brain power to our fullest potential. It has to be combined with a basic food surplus programme that fully utilises Pakistan's vast land and water resources in the most efficient and optimal manner to wipe out poverty and malnutrition and properly equip our people both in "mind and body" for leadership in the global economy driven by brain power.
(The writer is a former Finance Minister)
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