EDITORIAL: In a way one of Pakistan’s biggest problems, one that drags down almost all important socio-economic indicators, is the generally poor quality of education available to a vast majority of the population. For decades we have had three systems running side by side.

One, private school education, which caters to the rich elite, a small fraction of the 230-240-odd million Pakistanis. Two, government school education, which is more affordable but of such poor quality that it has hardly ever produced the kind of students that can compete at university level, especially at the international level.

And three, the madrassas, which attract the most students because many of them provide free education. But they tend to concentrate on religious learning and are far removed from the kind of scientific and IT-related education that most students in the modern world are exposed to.

So, it’s little surprise that on top of being one of the most heavily populated counties in the world – number five from the top – we are also in the top-10 in terms of illiteracy.

Sadly, this trend has never bothered Pakistan’s leaders enough to do something about it. The PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) government’s SNC (single national curriculum) was no doubt a colossal exercise in creating a new curriculum designed to bring uniformity in schools across the country. But in the end it produced a regressive curriculum that most schools rejected as soon as they saw it and a great opportunity that took a lot of time and effort was simply wasted.

Now, it seems we’re lagging even further behind as the rest of the world makes the transition to what is increasingly being called “digital education”. A study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revealed that Pakistan is the “least ready country” for digital education among its developing member countries (DMCs).

The report, titled “Towards Mature Digital Education Ecosystems, the Digital Education Readiness Framework”, says Pakistan’s “major areas for improvement” include low internet connectivity – only 34.1 percent of households are connected – low fixed broadband speeds, high fixed line broadband costs, and low rural electricity access.

All these problems have been highlighted numerous times at different forums. Indeed, other countries among ADB’s DMCs have faced similar challenges. Yet the difference between Pakistan and countries like Uzbekistan and Indonesia – the top-2 “most prepared countries for digital education” – is that they gave them the attention and resources required to overcome them, and we did not.

Going forward, these problems are only going to get worse. The population growth rate shows no signs of slowing down and combined economic and political crises have not only left very little to invest in infrastructure, etc., but also created an environment where Pakistan is not a very attractive destination for foreign investment capital. And now a big bulk of our children will not receive the kind of education that will make them competitive in both local and international markets.

This could well be the last wake-up call for authorities in Pakistan. The education system is broken. There are far too many children that need education and far too few schools and teachers available for them. And now we don’t have the internet infrastructure to take the leap into modern digital education.

Already, we’re a nuclear power that cannot stay solvent unless we’re on one bailout programme or another. If the education problem gets any worse, we will not have any credible human resource of our own either.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023