Introduction:-

“Education in its general sense is a form of learning in which the knowledge, skills,

and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next

through teaching, training, or research.” © wikipedia

Education is the single most important investment a country can make in its

people and its future. An important aspect of education is that it is not bounded

by age. However, a good education is most beneficial to the youth of a

country, because youth is biologically described as that stage of a person’s life

when the brain is capable of comprehending, retaining and efficiently applying

large volumes of knowledge, easily. The United Nations (UN) defines youth as all

persons between the ages of 15 and 24 (and in some cases up to 32). Member

states of the UN including Pakistan have adopted this definition of youth for

statistical purposes. The youth of a country is often considered a valuable

resource since it can play an important part in the social and economic

development of a country, but, in order to play that part efficiently, the youth

requires education. A good education allows the youth of a country to gain an

understanding of the problems that hamper the development of the country

and prepares them for their journey to find solutions to those problems . In

Pakistan, The youth currently makes up about 21.5 %[1] of population of nearly

200 million people. With the youth making up such a huge chunk of the

country’s population, Pakistan has the potential for fast and sustainable

development, provided the youth has access to education and the problems

impacting an education system are non-existent.

The education system of Pakistan:

The education system in Pakistan is very complex. The standard national system

of education is mainly inspired from the British system[2]. Pre-school education is

designed for 3–5 years old and usually consists of three stages: Play Group,

Nursery and Kindergarten (also called 'KG' or 'Prep'). After pre-school education,

students go through junior school from grades 1 to 5. This is proceeded by

middle school from grades 6 to 8. At middle school, single-sex education is

usually preferred by the community, but co-education is also common in urban

cities. The curriculum is usually subject to the institution. The eight commonly

examined disciplines are Urdu, English, mathematics, arts, science, social studies,

Islamiyat and sometimes computer studies (subject to availability of a computer

laboratory). Secondary education in Pakistan begins from grade 9 and lasts for 4

years. After end of each of the school years, students are required to pass a

standardized examination administered by a regional Board of Intermediate

and Secondary Education (or BISE). Upon successful completion of grades 9

through 10 examinations, they are awarded a Secondary School Certificate (or

SSC). This certificate is locally termed as 'matriculation certificate' or 'matric' for

short. Students then enter an intermediate college and complete grades 11 and

12. Upon successful completion of grades 11 through 12 examinations, students

are awarded the Higher Secondary (School) Certificate (or HSC). This level of

education is also called the FSc/FA/ICS or 'intermediate'. There are many

streams students can choose for their 11 and 12 grades, such as pre-medical,

pre-engineering, humanities (or social sciences), computer science and

commerce. Each stream consists of three electives and as well as three

compulsory subjects of English, Urdu, Islamiat (grade 11 only) and Pakistani

Studies (grade 12 only). Alternative qualifications in Pakistan are available but

are maintained by other examination boards. Most common alternative is the

General Certificate of Education (or GCE), where SSC and HSC are replaced by

Ordinary Level (or O Level) and Advanced Level (or A Level) respectively. Other

qualifications include IGCSE which replaces SSC. GCE O Level, IGCSE and GCE

AS/A Level are managed by British examination boards of CIE of the Cambridge

Assessment and/or Edexcel of the Pearson PLC. Generally, 8-10 courses are

selected by students at GCE O Levels and 3-5 at GCE A Levels. Advanced

Placement (or AP) is an alternative option but much less common than GCE or

IGCSE. This replaces the secondary school education as 'High School Education'

instead. AP exams are monitored by a North American examination board,

College Board, and can only be given under supervision of centers which are

registered with the College Board, unlike GCE O/AS/A Level and IGCSE which

can be given privately. There is another type of education in Pakistan which is

called Technical Education. Three boards, Punjab Board of Technical Education,

NWFP Board of Technical Education, and Sindh Board of Technical Education,

provide facilities of technical education. PBTE (Punjab Board of Technical

Education) offering Matric tec. and D.A.E. (Diploma of Associate Engineering) in

technologies like Civil, Chemical, Architecture, Mechanical, Electrical,

Electronics, Computer Sciences and many more technologies. After earning

their HSC or equivalent certificates, students may study in a professional college

for Bachelor's degree courses such as engineering, medicine, law, arts,

architecture, social sciences etc. These courses require four or five years of

study. There are some councils and boards that will handle all the education

matters e.g. Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, Pakistan Engineering Council

etc. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree, the students may opt for a Master’s

degree and other higher qualifications after the master’s degree. Secondary

(high school) and Tertiary (Bachelor’s) education usually play the most vital role

in moulding the youth for the Practical world. According to the UNESCO's 2009

Global Education Digest, only 6.3% (2007 est.) of Pakistanis (8.9% of males and

3.5% of females) were university graduates. Pakistan is home to world class

institutions such as National University of Sciences and Technology,

Beaconhouse School System, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of engineering

sciences and technology, Roots College International, Lahore University of

Management Sciences, Institute of Business Administration – Karachi etc. There

are more than 400,000 educational institutes of various kinds present in the

country today. The Youth literacy in Pakistan currently stands at 71 % according

to a 2012 Education for all (EFA) report. Male and female literacy for the 15 – 24

demographic stands at 79% and 61% respectively. The youth literacy rate is

much lower than that of other countries in the region such as India (81%),

Bangladesh (77%), Nepal (81%).

Problems plaguing the system and the youth:

The education system of Pakistan has a lot of problems and deficiencies:

1. Dearth of Public expenditure:

Public expenditure in the education sector stood at 2.0%[1] of Gross

Domestic Product in 2009. This is very low as compared to the average in

the region. Many institutions in the country have been shut down or

provide low quality education because of a lack of capital or financing

available for the day to day operation and maintenance of the

institutions.

2. Improper Implementation of features for improvement:

E.g. In 2012, the Punjab Government could not properly computerize the

result delivery system for secondary education examinations leading to

protests by the youth in Punjab.

3. Lack of incentives for sustained achievements:

Institutes sometimes fail to provide rewards to students for their academic

achievements to keep them motivated in their studies.

4. Corruption:

Nepotism and bribery is a common practice in some institutions allowing

incapable youth to negatively impact the output of the institutions.

5. Multiple media of instruction:

Urdu and English are the most common media of instruction across

institutions in Pakistan. Having a dual medium of instruction prevents

institutions from crafting a suitable curricula for some subjects and

promotes misunderstandings and miscommunication.

6. Outdated or defective curricula:

Many institutions and education monitoring organizations have failed to

update curricula for various subjects and fields according to international

standards and/or present day needs of the country.

7. Shortage of qualified instructors and policy makers:

People with inferior qualifications are made teachers, executives and

administrators preventing students from receiving the best education.

8. Overcrowded institutions:

Nearly 50%[3] of the population lies in the 0 – 24 age group. Institutions that

are capable of providing high quality education such as National

University of Sciences and Technology are sometimes unable to evenly

distribute resources among a large number of students. Many primary and

secondary education institutions suffer from this problem as well.

9. Gender disparity:

Literacy rate among Pakistani females is lower than that among Pakistani

males since certain social, cultural or religious conventions prevent

women from receiving higher education and in some cases basic

education. This problem exists mostly in rural areas of the country. The

problem is also majorly present in the north- western areas of the country.

In the Swat district e.g. the Tehreek-e-taliban, a known terrorist

organization, has enforced a ban on female education and caused the

shutdown of more than 170 schools (2009 report).

10. Brain – Drain:

Many talented and competent students seek tertiary education from

institutions abroad. Some of these students do not return after completing

their bachelor’s or master’s degrees and opt to work in other countries as

teachers and professors. As a result, the development of local institutions

is affected as they have to take on less competent students and

teachers to fill the voids left by the more competent individuals.

11. Political and economic instability:

Political issues distract the youth from their obligations towards their

education and economic instability and an unequal distribution of

wealth promotes brain – drain and prevents the segment of the youth

population that lies just above or below the poverty line from receiving

even the 12 years of basic education.

The above mentioned problems prevent the youth of the country from

developing its capabilities and utilizing them for the social and economic

development of the country.

Youth Potential:

Pakistan consists of one of the largest pool of scientists, doctors and engineers in

the world. The pool majorly consists of young graduates who have garnered

acclaim for their work in their respective fields in Pakistan and in the world. The

Pakistani youth has also made contributions to the development of arts in the

country.

The following is a list of individuals who have proved that the Pakistani Youth has

ample potential to kick start and sustain social and economic development in

the country:-

1- Ali Moen Nawazish:

He had set the record for most A’s obtained by a student in GCE A level

exams in 2008. He garnered global attention for this feat. He has studied

psychology and sociology at Cambridge University. He came back to

Pakistan after receiving his undergraduate degree and joined the Jang

group as a columnist and youth ambassador. He also created a Non-

profit Organization by the name of Step Up Pakistan to create awareness

of problems plaguing the education system in Pakistan and to find

solutions to those problems.

2- Malala Yousafzai:

She was a resident of the Swat district and locally campaigned for female

education in the then Taliban controlled region. An assassination attempt

was made on her life by the Taliban, but she survived. After the attack on

her, she became a global symbol for women’s education rights and was

acclaimed for her bravery by influential people across the globe. She was

nominated for a second time for the Nobel Peace Prize in March of 2014.

3- Zohaib Asad Syed:

He once held the record for scoring the most number of A’s in GCE O

level exams and received a top – in – the – world distinction for exemplary

performance in the GCE O level Exams of 2011. He garnered acclaim

from the then Prime minister of Pakistan, Yousaf Raza Gillani, who

awarded him the president’s pride of performance award. He is currently

studying at Mcgill University in Toronto, Canada and in his spare time, he

teaches a variety of subjects to O and A level students from Pakistan and

other countries across the globe via skype.

4- Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy:

She is a journalist and documentary filmmaker. She started writing for a

newspaper in Karachi at the age of 14. She has studied journalism at Smith

College in USA. She returned to Pakistan soon after completing her higher

education. At the age of 22, she started her filmmaking career and sent

out a proposal for a documentary about terrorism to various news and

broadcasting agencies in the US, all of which rejected the proposal. After

some initial struggle, she managed to secure a producer for her first

documentary feature and started filming for it in 2010. She won an Oscar,

the most prestigious award in filmmaking industry of America, for her

documentary on Acid attack victims called ‘Saving Face’ in 2012 and

garnered global media attention as the first Oscar winner from Pakistan.

She has served as a teacher within the media – sciences department of

the Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology in

Karachi. She continues to educate the youth on the power of filmmaking

in shaping society and on their potential for achieving greatness.

5- Arfa Karim:

Arfa, at the young age of 9, became the youngest Microsoft Certified

Professional, a title she held till 2008. She was invited by Bill Gates, co-

founder of Microsoft, to visit the Microsoft Headquarters in USA. She

received a pride of performance award from the president along with

many other accolades for her prowess in the field of information

technology. She also attended a prestigious Technology conference in

Barcelona, Spain, in 2006. She was the only Pakistani among 5000

participants from across the globe. She passed away from a cardiac

arrest resulting from brain damage due to an epileptic seizure in 2012, at

the age of 16. She was pursuing a GCE A level qualification at the time. A

technology Park, named after her, was established in Lahore, Pakistan.

6- Ali Rehan:

Ali rehan is a student of Lahore University of Management Sciences in the

computer sciences department and CEO of a software development

company called Eyedeus Labs. He, along with his team at Eyedeus Labs,

developed an application called Groopic for smartphones, in 2013. The

application allowed photographs taken at different times to be grouped

into one photograph without traces of digital manipulation. The

application received acclaim from across the globe for its innovative

concept. Ali Rehan and his team became the subject of a CNN news

report that highlighted the innovativeness of the application and also

shed some light on the software development by youth in Pakistan.

Software developers in Pakistan have been in high demand by tech

companies, especially those based in America, since the beginning of the

current decade and Ali Rehan has shown the youth of the country why

that is.

7- Fasi Zaka:

Fasi Zaka is a television host, satirist, political columnist, radio talk show

host, music critic, academic and Rhodes Scholar in Pakistan. He is

recognized for a successful presence in print, television and radio. He is a

public intellectual who employs humour from a political and democratic

perspective in his media forays. Fasi Zaka also occasionally comments on

the Pakistani media and politics to National Public Radio (NPR).He is also

known for hosting awards ceremonies and speaking engagements. Fasi

Zaka was declared a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum

in 2012. British Council Pakistan linked up with Fasi Zaka to create Ace

Encounter, an edutainment programme that used his appeal with the

youth to send out educational advice.

The seven individuals mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg. The

Pakistani youth is multi-talented and the six individuals mentioned above have

shown that an education is vital if not necessary for achieving one’s dreams and

goals and that hard work is needed to overcome barriers and obstacles in one’s

pursuit of their dreams and goals.

Conclusion and solutions:

Pakistan has a multitalented and skillful youth. The youth needs an efficient

education system and brilliant educational institutes to tackle the problems

faced by them and those around them i.e. the society they live in and the

country at large. There are a number of ways to fix the problems that plague the

education system of the country.

Firslty, corruption should be eliminated not just from the education sector but

from all the country’s government institutions. The youth with its overwhelming

numbers should stand up to corrupt individuals in their institutions and protest

against any injustice in distribution of educational resources.

Secondly, the youth pursuing education in any form, should make the pursuit of

that education, their first priority. Extra-curricular activities should be given less

priority unless they allow the youth to develop their skills in a particular field of

education.

Thirdly, The Pakistani youngsters, who are pursuing education abroad, should be

encouraged to return to their homeland after receiving their degrees and work

for its’ social and economic development. Brain-drain can be reduced by

raising the quality of education to match international standards preventing the

youth of the country from pursuing the same quality of education abroad.

Fourthly, the government should revise its policy on government spending in the

education sector. The public expenditure on education should be increased to

a larger percentage of GDP by creating awareness among the general

population on the importance of education.

Fifthly, efforts should be made to increase female representation in the

education sector by encouraging female graduates to take up teaching and

creating educational institutions especially for girls.

Sixthly, awareness regarding the dangers of population growth should be

created to allow population growth to be regulated and to prevent shortage of

educational resources and job opportunities for the youth in the country.

Seventhly, The education monitoring organizations need to update curricula

from time to time and standardize exams, to allow the youth of the country to

keep up with the rest of the world. The organizations should also provide Skill

development courses to teachers to allow them to become better at their jobs.

Lastly, awareness regarding the importance of getting an education should be

created. The achievements of the youth should be highlighted and rewarded.

The youth should be encouraged to take unconventional approaches in the

pursuit of their goals and should be constantly reminded of the investment being

made into their futures, to keep them humble and grounded.

References:

Sr

no.

Link Retrieval

date

[1] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-

factbook/geos/pk.html

03/05/2014

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Pakistan 03/05/2014

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Pakistan 03/05/2014

Under Youth Potential

1- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Moeen_Nawazish 04/05/2014

2- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malala_Yousafzai 04/05/2014

3- https://www.facebook.com/ZohaibAsadSyed 04/05/2014

4- http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharmeen_Obaid-Chinoy 04/05/2014

5- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arfa_Karim 04/05/2014

6- http://theappjuice.com/the-appjuice-interview-ali-

rehan-ceo-of-groopic/

04/05/2014

7- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasi_Zaka 04/05/2014