We belong to a country, which came into being with the sacrifice of innumerable precious lives and our forefathers gave away their most precious possessions to establish a system, which would be a standing emblem of the golden Islamic principles of equality, justice and freedom.  It is an unfortunate reality that instead of fulfilling these dreams Pakistan became a nightmare for the common man. A dream not came so true.  Many amongst us share the burden to bring our nation to this abyss but the time has come to think, evaluate and design an independent strategy to come out of this mess.  Education needs our special attention, as in relation to education, we are in an abyss, which seems to be very deep.

Our country harbours a system of education, which is based on a caste-system worse than any caste-system in the history.  This system has created a vicious circle where the average child of the poor is destined to remain poor unless he has the brains as good as Einstein’s, along with some luck to finance his education.  The offspring of the elite is trained to govern and join the group of blood-sucking parasites, which is thriving on the nation’s blood and wealth since the independence.  The last but not the least, the middle class is destined to produce the clerks, who are devoid of thinking beyond their bellies and it is really difficult for their children find their way out of this vicious circle.  It is an utter disgrace that after more than sixty years of independence, we are still longing for a efficient education system which could catalyze the transformation of a child to a shining star, the Shaheen of Iqbal.  Unfortunately our education system not only fails miserably to deliver quality education to the future generations but also is very successful in destroying the child’s capability to contemplate, design and act independently creating human robots, which are designed to believe whatever is fed to them and lack any power of decision making and creative thinking.
This educational apartheid could have been nipped in the bud if there would have been a political will.  Unfortunately the unholy alliance of the politicians and establishment draws the energy from this system and there is a clear conflict of interest between the elite and common man.  So it is in the best interest of the ruling elite to continue with this wretched system of education as they would always like to keep the general population ignorant because the educated minds are difficult to deceive.  They are capable of looking through the dubious and false statements and policies, quick in making the right choices and ready to bin the corrupt.

So it is not surprising that none of the governments considered basic education as their priority and the condition grew worse over the years.  At this time we can see a number of systems working in the country based on riches, which are “supposed to” provide education to our future generation.  The availability is based upon socio-economic status and affordability.  The richest send their off-spring to the foreign schools and then to the high-class universities, from where they return home to rule the common man.  The less rich people have created their own system of education which can create good bureaucrats and wicked businessmen, who can both suck the blood out of the poor very effectively. Then there are middle-class schools, who can create common working class, the tax payer, and finally the government schools for the majority of the nation to turn it into mechanics, plumbers, and clerks or into criminals. Besides, another system, the Medrissas exist for the poor class, which is a bit better as it provides bread and housing to its student, but it has not been able to create an impact on the national level in terms of an output and have been under questioning because of doubts of creating extremism.

The most important aspect of this situation is to find a way out of this abyss.  The youth of this country should and must understand that if it thinks that the politicians or the bureaucrats would come out and improve this condition than its living in a fool’s paradise.  It has to take the matters in its own hands just like the independence of judiciary. It is time that you and I should start thinking that what we have done to improve the level of education of ourselves and the ones around us.  If we haven’t done enough, what can we do to improve our own education level and of those who are around us. As a response of this article I would expect people to come out and suggest the ways how can we collectively work on individual level to make a magnanimous impact.
First and the most important fact about education is that its goal is not to get a good job and to make millions, though it can be among the fruits of education.  The purpose of education is to understand and practice the virtues of humanity….. honesty, equality, justice, behaviour, truth, compassion, rationality and above all, tolerance…. And at least these virtues do not need a system of formal education.