PASKISTAN STUDIES

ASSIGNMENT 3
 Introduction

It is mandated in the Constitution of Pakistan to provide free and compulsory education to all
children between the ages of 5-16 years and enhance adult literacy. With the 18th constitutional
amendment the concurrent list which comprised of 47 subjects was abolished and these
subjects, including education, were transferred to federating units as a move towards provincial
autonomy.

What is Education System?

The system of education includes all institutions that are involved in delivering formal
education (public and private, for-profit and nonprofit, onsite or virtual instruction) and their
faculties, students, physical infrastructure, resources and rules. In a broader definition the
system also includes the institutions that are directly involved in financing, managing,
operating or regulating such institutions (like government ministries and regulatory bodies,
central testing organizations, textbook boards and accreditation boards). The rules and
regulations that guide the individual and institutional interactions within the set up are also part
of the education system.

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM & STANDARD OF EDUCATION IN

PAKISTAN

Education creates awareness in human. A person distinguishes bad and good through
education, means the problems can be solved with education but our educational system is
increasing problems instead of decreasing. There is huge difference between today’s and past
educational system in Pakistan. Because there are three types of educational system have been
developed in Pakistan & these educational systems are not servicing the Pakistan in any mean.
In fact, our youth is destroying due to this bad system, this is way our educational degrees have
not importance throughout the world. Three types or educational systems namely are
  URDU MEDIUM

The children of poor people who belong

to more than poor or low locality study
in this type of educational system. Urdu
is our national language but despite of
this teachers are not able to deliver the
purpose of education which is required at
the start of education to children.

 ENGLISH MEDIUM

The 2nd system is English medium,

this syllabus teaches in popular
institutions like Beacon House,
Educator, and Cathedral. The fees
of these institutions are so much
high therefore; the children who belong to very rich families study here because a poor man
cannot bear the expenses to studying their children in the above said institutions. Another very
alarming situation that Islamic and Urdu subjects have not importance in these institutions.

 MADRASA SYSTEM

The 3rd one is Madrasa system, the

Islamic education is given here and
English, Computer & Science related
subjects are not studied in Madrasa. In
these institutions a student gets
education from the level of Maulvi to Alam.

Our any educational system is not complete by any mean, as the student who gets education
from Urdu medium institution is not able to understand the English or not have good command
over the English language. These students get MBA degrees but are not able to find the good
jobs for them; these have not enough confidence as well. The students from Madrasas have
very good command over the Quran, Hadith etc. but have not any education regarding English
and other scientific subjects. These students have very good abilities but as they get education
from Madrasa so they do not able to do clerical job or not to be a Doctor & Engineer.
 Education Standards in Pakistan

The education sector in Pakistan has historically been characterized by low participation rates
and severe deficiencies in imparting quality education to learners. A large number of children
do not attend any kind of schooling and those who are in schools do not perform well.

According to the latest Global Monitoring Report, Pakistan falls into the category of those 14
countries where the number of out of school children exceeds one million. However, this may
be a conservative assessment because local studies indicate that approximately 6-7 million
children between 5 – 16 years of age do not attend any kind of schooling in Pakistan. On the
quality front, various studies conducted by the National Education Assessment System reveal
serious deficiencies in student learning outcomes.

In addition, sector governance also faces serious performance related challenges and is
considered to be highly politicized. Inadequate human resource capacity and the absence of a
systemic planning culture are generally considered the weak links in education governance of
Pakistan. Moreover, financing of the education sector is low despite the recommendations of
the National Education Policy; currently public educational spending is less than 2% of GDP.
Further compounding the under-financing problem is the fact that the actual amount spent from
the funds allocated for education is worryingly low. In short, the performance of the education
sector is far below the level where it can be transformative for the lives of learners and for it to
contribute to the human, social and economic development of the country.

The absence of clearly articulated and agreed upon minimum standards for quality education
leaves the education system without a basic framework for evaluating attempts at
improvements in education quality.

In all provinces of the country there is no mechanism for evaluating the performance of the
education system. As a result, the impact of educational interventions is too often anecdotal
and the true evidence-based picture seldom emerges. The first dedicated effort towards a
standards-based education in Pakistan was made in 1976 with the promulgation of the ‘Federal
Supervision of Curricula and Maintenance of Education Standards’ Act. Under this Act, the
Ministry of Education had assumed a supervisory role in the development of a national
curriculum. However, a structured consultative process to formulate minimum quality
standards was overlooked at that point.
The National Education Policy (2009) came as the first national level document in recent
education history which clearly articulated the need for a standards-based education system
and recommends that, “the quality of education provided in government-owned institutions
must be raised through setting standards for educational inputs, processes and outputs and
institutionalizing the process of monitoring and evaluation from the lowest to the highest
levels”4.

The NEP further recommends that national standards for educational inputs, processes and
outputs should be determined and a National Authority for Standards of Education should be
established. The National Education Policy describes clear outcomes associated with the
adoption of standards-based education, as described below:

Standards will improve the quality of education

 Performance of the education sector will be evaluated in a more systematic manner;

 Standardization will help to develop harmony between the public and private sectors;
 Common standards will bring intra- and inter- provincial compatibility; and
 Common standards will diminish the impacts of parallel systems of education.

Recognition and awareness of these issues was increasingly felt during the interprovincial
dialogue process (2010-15) on education that ensued right after the promulgation of the 18th
constitutional amendment. The process included active research into the implication,
challenges and opportunities relating to the devolution as well as focused interprovincial and
interprovincial meetings and workshops with the aim of fact finding, strategy formulation and
experience sharing for the smooth implementation of the developed education functions.

Standard of education in Pakistan needs proper revision

Education is the base of every society that makes people civilized and put them on the right
track of progress. An educated nation always makes the country distinctive in the world and
put it on the road of success in all fields of life.

However, if the education system becomes old fashioned or is not updated on regular basis,
then people will not become competent and it will affect the progress of the country. A strong
education system provides a solid base on which the development of a country is made. The
standard of education is the most important thing that helps people to remain updated with the
latest developments in all subjects and areas of life. However, the standard of education in
Pakistan is not up to the mark as we are far behind to the advanced nations of the world that
remain updated and make amendments in their academic courses with the advancement of the
modern age. There are several reasons of that and the most important is that the courses are not
being updated with regular intervals and the second important reason is that there is no research
involved in the academic activities of students.

Currently, research is not a part of the academic course until the Intermediate level and in some
cases until graduation level. They pass even Masters Programmed without doing proper
research in any particular area of their subject. Both of these reasons are very important and
that play a vital role in the improvement of education standard. However, in Pakistan, the
Higher Education Commission (HEC) needs to make such changes in the academic courses
which force students to do research which will make them qualified and knowledgeable in the
real sense.

In all advanced countries of the world, students start research as soon as they enter into college.
They are assigned with different projects to complete which helps them in building a good
knowledge base before they move into Graduate level. In Pakistan, it has become essential to
review and update the courses at college and university level and ‘research’ should be made a
compulsory part of the academic course. We are lacking far behind in research in almost all
areas of life which is a result of the old fashioned academic courses and lack of research.