Books are considered our best companions. They lead us to a brighter future. But when these companions are treated brutally, it gives us pain and unhappiness. Recently, the news was unveiled that a donkey cart man was caught carrying textbooks, which he had bought from a public school at Rs 2 per kg as scrap in Mirpurkhas.
The books were new, which were published to be disseminated to students free of cost. It is suspected that the employees of Department of Education were also involved in selling books worth millions. It is deplorable news for educationists and veteran teachers to see the lack of transparency and the dreary state of the education system. We, the educationists, do not know, why there are so many ambiguities in the education department.
The government of Sindh, the Ministry of Education, previously launched a Free Books distribution campaign, but most of the institutions were not provided with the books. Instead, books were bought and sold by the shopkeepers. I have witnessed the availability and selling of free books, issued by the Sindh Text Book Board, at many book shops in Clifton, Garden and Saddar areas.
Despite the claim that efforts are being made to improve the education system, all promises have fallen flat. We are not producing that many human resources, as required. The Sindh Education Minister, claimed many times that the education budget must be raised, and that, funds must be provided to impart education, besides solving education problems. But the incident of selling precious books was really a threat to the education of our future generation.
Our country is threatened from lack of quality human resources. It is not the poor people who are not willing to send their children to schools. It is the fault, of our policies of education which deprive them of education.
Recently, the Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazharul Haq clearly indicated that it would be difficult to achieve the target of education for all by 2015 because of the faults in the system. I would like to ask a question: is there a problem in achieving the target within the department of education? The education department is malfunctioning since years, because not a single attempt has been made to improve the quality of education. We, the teachers and educationists of Pakistan would like to remind the Minister of Education not to play with our emotions. Books are precious gems and we must not forget that preserving them is our responsibility.