Education system is essential for all. It is crucial to understand the world in which we live, it’s a competitive advantage over other countries in terms of economic competitiveness. Education has a direct link to literacy, and we should never underestimate the power of education. Some children are attracted to bright lights and excitement, but some want to make money for their families.
The current literacy rate in Pakistan is 62.3 percent, which means that around 90 million people across the country cannot read or write. Women’s illiteracy is worse than men’s due to the general patriarchal culture and the difficult conditions for women. There are also disparities between urban and rural areas and across regions.
Improving literacy levels must be a priority for the Pakistani government. Some initiatives are required to increase access to education and enhance the quality of education. Factors affecting and increasing illiteracy in developing countries include scarcity of consciousness and motivation, poverty, unemployment, poor health, the inadequacy of organization, shortage of funding, and family responsibilities.
Poverty-stricken perhaps lack the financial resources to send their children to school, so they opt for Madrasas, where they can learn within two or three hours a day. Approximately 17,000 religious schools or madrassas in Pakistan offer children a free religious education. Around 1.8 million children, nearly a tenth of the population, enrolled in Pakistan, a study in Islamic schools, according to a report. They provide accommodation and lodging for its students. Madrasas receive donations from Muslim community supporters, philanthropists, and NGOs to run their affairs.
Under Article 11.3 of the Pakistan Constitution, “No child, under the age of fourteen should be engaged in a factory or mine or any other hazardous employment.” Some of them include the transportation of passengers or goods, underground extraction, manufacture, mixing and application of pesticides and insecticides, stone crushing, deep-sea fishing, and work in the bangle glass industry.
Children involved in child labor may be exploited for their work, with little or no pay, and may be abused or mistreated by their employers. The Pakistani government needs to eliminate child labor as this affects the education system and the children themselves.
This article will help you understand how to educate and grow the good in people’s lives. Lack of education leads to poverty, which leads to an increase in child labor and a low level of education. Working children are often deprived of education because they cannot attend school, which interferes with their education. I would like to highlight five educational strategies to enhance the education system.
The first way is by increasing the budget for elementary schools. The government should initiate public/private partnerships. Under the P3 model (Public/private partnership), the government assigns the management of the existing public school to a partner, who would provide staff, financial, and planning management services.
Secondly, for quality education in Madrasas, collaborative efforts will be significant. Many NGOs also contribute to the common goal, but the problem is that there is no centralized approach to address this problem. Our education budget is very meager compared to our GDP. Our higher education system also suffers from budget constraints. Even though we have a young population, on the other hand, if we cannot educate them, it will have a critical impact on the law and order situation in Pakistan. Awareness campaigns about the importance of education are necessary for personal, social, and economic development.
Thirdly, there must be more funding for education departments, allocations or needs-based funding, and proper infrastructure with vocational training and mentorship through counseling. Ameliorating working conditions and decent salaries can contribute to the attraction and retention of more skilled teachers. Integrate new technologies into the classroom to light up children and they should be trained in computer and information systems skills.
Fourth, we can include initiatives like student incentives. Incentives will motivate students to be more encouraged to go to school, and that’s a win-win situation for the parents and our economic conditions. Zindagi Trust is also striving to achieve similar targets LSBE (Life skills-based education) integrations are one of its examples.
The fifth way should be controlling that those who violate the Child Labor Act should be jailed and sentenced to a fine, and the child should not be authorized to work longer than 6 hours so they can focus on their studies also. It could include building more schools in rural and underserved areas and implementing programs to support marginalized communities and children with disabilities.
These strategies will be instrumental in eliminating illiteracy and child labor, and government should ensure that they will integrate into the system for the well-being of Pakistan. Only a handful of people and lucky bright minds who manage to get a good education with fluency in English to get hired by multinational companies offering better postings to pursue their careers. Making sure that all children in Pakistan have access to education is critical to improving the overall quality of education in the country.
The writer is a freelance journalist and also provides mentorship to startups. Email: sairabatada.suggests@gmail.com