Youth and Education

Some of the bacteria lurked into my throat, incurred cell growth, worsened my immune system and irrevocably left me with no voice. This is the present condition of the youth of Pakistan. Today’s headline which concocted my mind to blog on the youth was ‘Students manhandled teachers when they refrained them from cheating’.

The sixteen years of my education have apprehended this fact to me that the youth of Pakistan is divided into two sects. The factor which makes them fall into two distinctive categories is nothing but the education standard, rather different hues of education prevailing in the current era. Here, the catastrophe is Pakistan doesn’t have its own specified education criteria. Education in the primary and secondary level is either Cambridge system or the Pakistan board system which is further divided on provincial levels. Fortunately or unfortunately, I have been a part of both. Moreover, my secondary school used to offer two board exams simultaneously, Punjab and Sindh, so somehow I have seen the difference densely. It is very remorseful to write here and I won’t prefer any non-Pakistani to read this blog but Pakistan boards have given us nothing but cramming and cheating. This is the consequence of the malfunction of Pakistani education system that students end up hustling and jostling their invigilators if they are not allowed to cheat. Here, the point of concern is what forces them to do this? Obviously, they are neither being taught this nor it is present in Pakistani curriculum. Ask any question to a student from Cambridge board, he would give answers and would justify his answer with logics and reasons. On the other hand, if you would ask same thing to someone from Pakistan board, his instant reply would be, Oh! We have not been taught this or this is out of our syllabus. 

Now, if we go to the university level, the criterion of admission in every university is different. Few universities have quota system due to which students with the urban domicile have to face tough competition for the entrance exam and many of them loose their seats albeit they score higher than the students from rural areas. Political influence in few renowned universities has made the education system worse. Sometimes, studying in such universities make you feel that pariah system is still a part of the sub-continent and nothing has changed in these 65 years when you hear linguistic riots broken out in the domes.

Just after the university, practical life becomes much more biased for more than half of the students. Graduates from few top burger universities of Pakistan get jobs as the pieces of cakes and rest of the students spend their days and nights stipulating in front of companies and industries to hire them. This sounds funny but these are the students who take IELTS and GRE exams, get scholarships, go abroad, serve other nations and when they are questioned for not being in Pakistan, their reaction is, ‘Pakistan mein rakha kya he’. I, sometimes, but this is just sometimes, consider their stance to be justified.

I am not here to identify the different standards of education but at this stage I am more concerned about what we actually have now and what these different fonts have given us. Neither the entire write up points toward the flaws of the youth nor does it say that whatever happens is due to teachers or the courseware being taught in Pakistan board. The problem is with the system and the woeful truth is that we are the ones who have made this system, we are the ones who have let the system prevail and affect our youth and we are the ones who are left with no voice and gesture to stand against it.