Education emergency

Millions of children in Pakistan do not attend school. According to UNESCO, 30 percent of Pakistanis have received fewer than two years of education.

The schools that exist are in poor condition, often having been built in colonial times. Other schoolchildren have to attend open-air classes as there is not building at all.

The Pakistan Education Task Force has called on the government to double its efforts to provide a "solid and good-quality education" to all citizens, girls and boys alike. It wants the government to at least double the education budget.

Currently, less than 2 percent of Pakistan’s GDP goes on education – less than the subsidies for Pakistani International Airlines or the Pakistani Electric Power Company (PEPCO).

It is not just about more money

Shahnaz Wazir Ali, the co-chair of the Pakistan Education Task Force, says that it is not only a question of how much money but of how it is actually spent.

"Our textbooks need to be better," she insists. "The curriculum needs improvement. Teachers need to be given manuals, learning materials, science laboratories, computer labs, equipment, and we need a better examination system."

She also points out that investing in girls' education more would "give society the highest return," explaining that educated mothers would be better able "to provide a safer and more nurturing environment for their children - a foundation for a stable population."

She is worried about the rise of extremism in Pakistan, referring to the Taliban’s reign of terror in Afghanistan during which hundreds of girls’ schools were blown up.

"We really have to fight a mindset that does not believe in the equal rights of women and men and wants to impose itself through bullets and violence, spreading chaos, fear and anarchy," she says.

Opening minds

Samina Wahid, a university lecturer at a private university, believes that the lack of good-quality education has played a role in the increase of extremism in Pakistan. She fears that children pick up racist or bigoted attitudes at home that schools are not able or willing to rectify.

For her, education is about opening people’s minds and she thinks teacher training is a crucial aspect that is currently missing.

She deplores the fact that many people go into teaching because it is a "convenient job" - from 7am to 3pm. She also criticizes the fact that class cancellations are not uncommon even though salaries take up most of the education budget.

Because many teachers lack dedication, she explains, lessons often consist only of reading books and writing exams. Wahid suggests that there should be "more interactive education rather than just one person standing there teaching the class."

"I think a lot of the problems we have in Pakistan crop up because we don’t have dialogue - we don’t talk," she says. "We don’t like talking about things, whether it is religion, sex or education. We just don’t want to."

Pakistan has signed up the Millennium Development Goal for education for all by 2015, pledging equal access to girls and boys to a full course of primary schooling. Few believe this goal will be met. Thousands have signed an online petition pushing the government to increase the education budget.

Author: Anggatira Gollmer
Editor: Sarah Berning