Shocking priorities….. Education becomes last
By: Sultan Ahmed, Assistant Professor KIU
Naively or otherwise by design, they are on the verge of wrecking the already shambling Pakistani society. What a country! From the peanut 2% of GDP allocated for education, hardly 1.5 % is actually spent while reallocating rest of the amount for other sectors. On top of that, the recent revelations from authorities regarding the fate of higher education have put the entire nation in a state of yet another shock. Ironically, the government has decided to cut short budget for higher education in the face of emergent needs of 2 million people hit by disasters, as proudly announced by a senior government representative in a TV show. She was talking in front of highly qualified University teachers and students. Her seemingly vehement concern for the 2 million people at the cost of ruining out the future of entire nation depicted the level of thinking that takes place at highest level of leadership in the country. The Vice Chancellor of Punjab University brought forward very genuine points for which the government leader had nothing to justify but the fate of disaster hit people. Unfortunately, this is yet another disaster in disguise at the magnitude of the same disaster which washed away the country. It is a disaster of mind. In reality, physical losses can be accumulated even by injecting resources from other countries, and receiving of relief from various countries is already a work-in-progress. However, changing minds is a herculean task which takes generations after generations. When this nation is going to have well educated and thoughtful minds is a key challenge ahead.
Spending on higher education is rather considered expenditure, as evident from the current government policies. Another assumption in the emerging situation is “the deliberate effort of keeping the nation illiterate” hence pushing back the 180 million people to the stone ages. Otherwise what is the point in categorical denial of funds for higher education whilst overlooking other schemes and programs which do not have everlasting impact on the future of the country? Experts are of the view that the government should look for other options to make up for the damages posed by the natural disaster while sparing education, the building block for a nation’s progress. It is a pity that teachers are still given least priority when it comes to remunerations and benefits. Few months before, the Prime Minister had announced upto 50% raise in salaries of government employees, which was implemented in a gallop country wide for all government employees except University teachers, because of lack of funds allocated to Higher Education Commission.
Coming to the point of prioritization, wise nation would keep education as their top most priority in the age of information, communication and knowledge. The most educated societies are most powerful nations in the contemporary world. Therefore, the leaders should put their heads together again and think with fresh minds with some important questions in mind, which include but are not limited to: Can we achieve much with quick fixes or we need to make some solid plans in place? Why education is not the top most priority? Where does the leadership want to see the nation in the coming years with the existing policies and priorities? It is important to note that universities or the hubs of knowledge country wide are in protest not for any personal reasons but they feel the shocks of disaster hitting the minds of our leadership. Let us hope that we are able to manage this disaster wisely and timely.
Sutlan Bhai you have flagged some crucial points in regard to the status of higher education in our country. It is really shameful that a government claiming from the people and for the people has started jihad against this very important factor of a nation’s life. Do we really face deficiency of resources? I don’t think so. The only thing is how to appropriately allocate them; the thing is how to put stoppage on drainages; the thing is how to invest more in research activities at university level. Our governments for one or another reason do not want to do so. No any government took higher educational institutions- HEIs serious. It is very important to involve the HEIs in all walk of life of the nation, from conducting simple research study to formulating civil and strategic planning. It is very important to establish think-tank and research units (both social & scientific) within our HEIs. They should be funded properly and instead of paying millions of dollars to so called research institutions and groups here in the US and other European countries to formulate policy or conduct a research study those the government should utilize their capacity and pay them for their services. I know what kind of people formulates those policies and reports for Pakistan here in the US. I have met many of them; astonishingly more than 90% of those people even don’t have any idea about Pakistan itself. They google and find information about Pakistan and the next day become an expert on issues and problems in Pakistan. I have confronted many during talk shows and workshops here in Washington, DC. Our govt. should think about it and stop relying on such “US-BASED International Organizations and Experts.”
ReplyDeleteIT departments at various universities should be encouraged to produce solutions for our national IT needs, Eng. Departments should be encouraged to produce domestic and cost effective technology for our daily need, and likewise other specialized departments or professional institutions should be strengthen enough to become a service provider entities. Why is MIT the top most technological university in the world? Not only because their teaching standard is good, but the US govt. has given them a complete independence to conduct research, come up with new ideas and put their ideas to work. Therefore most of the multinational scientific companies are the brain child of MIT students. In the same manner the students of Harvard, Oxford, Columbia University, Preston University, Yale University and all other universities have a great impact on the international development. Unfortunately in our country our governments have isolated our HEIs from the mainstream political activities, economic development, social innovations, financial processes etc. What is the use of such institutions than?
Our illiterate politicians need a particular kind of mindset; a mindset which is do-as-directed and not an analytical, critical and innovative one. Therefore, they keep ignoring this important institution. It is very unfortunate that we prefer our personal interest over national interests.