Pakistan’s literacy rate which was 60% has declined to 58%, according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan (2016-2017). A significant number of children are not even able to read or write. A lack of education results in vast evil outcomes such as child labour, unawareness, etc. An uneducated person does not have the knowledge and awareness to decide what is good and what is bad for him or her. One living example of this is the democratic setup of our country. People keep voting despite being unaware about the person they are voting for or their party’s manifesto. This results in harming the country as the steering wheel goes in wrong hands.
This single problem of lack of education causes numerous other problems that we can never solve unless the root cause is fixed.
Developed and other developing countries have a better education system and standard. For instance, Germany provides free of cost education to all its citizens and considers it as a basic right of every human being. Many other countries also provide quality education with affordable fees, without differentiating on the basis of ones’ class, cast or creed which is the core reason behind their success.
In Pakistan, though there are some good policies on education or public instruction, the problem of implementation, maintenance and corruption remains constant, resulting in failure of these policies. This needs to be fixed if we want a progressive, prosperous and peaceful nation.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 9th,Â
