"A system easy to logic but harsh for brain"

When comparing Pakistan's education system with a 1st world country's education system, we find there to be a very little difference which is approach! The syllabus goes into huge depth but its designers usually forget that a student might drown in those depths. To save student from such problem is to change the system of education which is truly a difficult task so instead we can make our drowning easier and much relaxing. Few simple steps are enough to deal with it; firstly introduce activity based learning which is being successfully used in USA, UK and Australia, secondly, introduce career counselling in high school and lastly, shorten the syllabus to only latest information and technology.

To be honest, these small steps would evolve our education system but still a new system is direly required to produce highly focused citizens.

Haste for tuitions

Right now pupils of different ages who have given board exams are planning to go for tuition to better their result but this might be a hasty decision which might be useless. Those expecting miracles from tuitions should understand nothing is possible without oneself's hard work and aim fullness. If you have interest in a specific subject and go with targets, you certainly would achieve your goals, i.e good result. If school provides lectures enough to solve practice papers, you are on the right track and firmly believe in school to ace. Here again if tuitions turn out to be a dire need, a person should go for it as at the end its all about your future.

As this time is crucial, one should take a decision without any doubts from those who have got experience and in the profession aimed, and remembers a pathway with failures leads to success!

To battle bad results!

Board exams are one of the most important part of life but the matter students fail to understand is in reality its just a small part of life! Bad results are a huge demotivation for young pupils and sometimes further trigger their running off from education. Such situations need continuos positive counselling and restrictions for the child by the teachers and parents.This doesn't mean ban over home access to social media or end to involvement with peer groups but its limitation. To be honest we need extra-ordinary moral support from the parents and teachers by explaining the child that they are always there in days of success and failures. Try explaining the significance of perseverance in life and push them forward again to enter this battle! For a better result, parents should ask time to time about their child's interest in the attempted subject and teachers shouldn't be silent over minor declines as it leads to nothing but trouble. Even remember to make the student realise the value of time and money involved in education. The best way to level-up is to ask the child for hard work and dedication instead of good grade because it boosts confidence!

Summer Vacation and Boredom

The school students especially living in Karachi are so unfortunate that for them summer vacations is another period of imprisonment in their homes. After months of studying hard non-stop it is a pupil's right to enjoy these vacations but what can we say, continuos fear for act of terrorism swallows all the happiness! In addition, less number of summer camps in the economic range of a normal person are difficult to locate. This instigates boredom, tension and agony for the city's situation and nothing looks better than viewing 24/7 news channels with news full of sorrow. I think our city and country craves for peace because in the state of harmony the student population is only satisfied.

Community Service and Youth

A moment of pride is to see the youth being really active in community service and why shouldn't they be because Pakistan is a country where social services is much more common in public than that at the governmental level. Developed nations have given community service extreme importance and credit students over there records of volunteering. In Pakistan such system is required because this promotes national fraternity, social security and community trust. Letting in volunteers from different scopes would further help in transparency of NGOs and further polish their aims of serving the nation. 

Club of Death

Our youth is being enslaved by the addiction of Shisha which penetrated as a teenage fashion. At every corner from slums to the posh areas we either find Hooka Bars or Shisha clubs where the same thing is being sold at variable prices. The case of Shisha is similar to that of cigarette but what to say about social ignorance and undue silence. The harms of such an entertainment are numerous and prolonged. The most common myth is the believe of Shisha being safer than cigarette which baseless and one should accept what doctars have concluded is that Shisha is equally as harmful as cigarette. Again the worst part is our social acceptance for Shisha!

I request the parental community and teaching staff to explain the hazardous effects of such drugs in life and over health. Moreover, people should request for closures of these places as soon as possible for the removal of such harmful distractions!

Running from responsibility!

In the 21st century many parents are running away from their moral responsibilities of inducing good values in their children. The greatest reason for this is completely turning school responsible for their child's actions and behaviour!

Parents should realise the fact that the greatest impact over their child is of themselves and school has relatively very little to do with it. It is more now a way to sideline oneself's responsibility and shatter the guilt for a weak moral upbringing. And, yes! I do agree with the impact of surrounding, still it can never be blamed for someone's behaviour. Now it looks a little disputable to what we usually believe in but whether someone agrees or not parents are the character builders of a child whereas all the others are agents which polish the personality.

In my opinion, parents should pay attention to their child's behaviour and consider moral development as the first step towards a better society.

" Depriving the youth from genuine leadership conferences "

Leadership conferences have turned into a powerful tool for the youth but sadly, it caters a very narrow circle of our society. Several conference being organised could only be approached by the elite class and this is something to thoughtful about. Are we discriminating due to someone's financial situation! Unfortunately, this saga of grievances doesn't end here, there is lots more. A decline in merit based scholarships for students is another issue. I question where is the concept of a welfare state? We are moving ahead to create a society with a fortunate top and jinxed bottom with their ultimate fate of ruling and being enslaved respectively. We should take note of what we have in hand - future of Pakistan and the future lies in the hands of the todays youth which is being trained to enslave rather then to empower.

Hence, such programmes and conference along with private schools should come up with a fixed quota for under-priviledged students because this is an ethical responsibility of them! So, we should take part in sowing seed of equality rather than promoting the concept of duality and discrimination!

"The rising craze for international qualification"

Nowadays, we find a huge craze in the local student population for grabbing international qualifications which is seriously very alarming! The faith over local qualifications is declining because of its rejections by the employer and this is not all, employees fear the introduction of internationally qualified employ as he/she might be favoured due to their prestigious degree rather than the local degree holder's handwork. Moreover, source culture adds the spice to the flavour. 

Therefore, when we talk about a change, lets build a nation with huge faith over local qualification and lets work together to enhance our education system by appreciating  its positive features and filling up the vacuums in it! 

"Blazing Drama Industry"

Besides all bad and evil, our country has too much positive to discuss about! Our drama industry is climbing the ladder of viewers' attention by showing much realistic yet entertaining soaps and telefilms. It shows our media's growth in a direction to compete with international standards for telecast. Our drama serials have moved forward from the era of conventional home politics to a golden age where not only social issues are being discussed but also being resolved in a positive manner.

This confirms that we are progressing slowly but rightly!

Tuition centres and tax policy

Education is free of tax and it should be free of cost for all! But here in Pakistan, the exponentially rising number of tuition centres has become the new business of this era! Its a business of all profit, no loss because whatever happen, how much you earn, tuition centre owners have to pay 'zero' tax. Now as it is more turning into an industry, government should register them and strictly charge them regular tax per annum. This is a completely fair action because education here is being sold and as it has become more professional and commercial.

In addition, this step will aid to bring back teachers to schools and help in demotivating tuition culture. With this, the public should also realise that tuition should be taken on need basis and they should realise that it is an approach of handicapping their own children in the long run.

Trend of college bullying

Like always, our educational institutions are unable to cope up with their standards and sometimes their silence promotes several actions that ruin a society. I have observed bullying to be a major fear of students and it should be because its a great demotivation and the scariest action for a person new to an environment. Surprisingly, in majority government colleges and private institutes, we find bullies to be more common than high achievers!

Our society facing such dilemmas since ages and we intentionally accepts it because there is no way out! When discussing our educational policy and passing laws over student security, the people making them should also take into account the negative role of bullies in school, colleges and university. Verbal or physical abuse of students is quite common but hidden due to resistance of fear. Similarly, bullies are also a fear to teachers because the stress makes them unable to work.

The public, especially the student faculty should take a step to acknowledge the law enforcement agencies about these issues because they are easy to be tackled. Accordingly, the education commission should enforce regulations over bullying in educational institutions by charging heavy penalties and positive punishments such as regular social work and in serious cases cancellation of examination or even imprisonment. And with that laws over teacher security should also be passed.

"Sustaining the middle class for the sake of tax payment"

A nation aiming to prosper in all fields should have a strong and a majority of middle class in its population. Since decades, it is seen in Pakistan that the middle class is a prey to heavy taxation because most of them are employed. A large percentage of salary is deducted from the pay-roll even before it reaches the employ, this makes it quite clear that whether a person receives a salary or not, his tax is out of his account!In Pakistan, the tax is majorly squeezed out of the middle class, whereas, the majority of the business class believes in showing losses and the rest have the common reason of living under the poverty line. According to a source, less than 2 percent of Pakistan's population pays tax for the sake of development and the rest being non-tax payers question development. Is this a fair action?We find most of the development in those areas where we record the least percentage of tax payers and please note, development is not only solid roads and cleanliness but also betterment of schooling structure and health standards which is again missing. But here again, wealth standards are found less complex and are analysed the most.Whatever I have said is not against tax payment but against the unequal and unfair pull of capital from a specific mass. A nation which aims to secure success should first ensure balance and equality in such matters like taxation. And this is the reason why the middle class should also be sustained by providing them equal benefits as others!

"Victim of tuition culture"

Recently, I have seen an exponential rise in the number of students taking after-school tuitions for various subjects! This is now more a fashion of the urban population, instead of being a medication for a need.

Nowadays, school has just become a registration portal for board examinations, whereas, tuition centres have taken up the role of schools and are quite successful in producing aim-centred and successful students. Here again, the pupil population is at the end of suffering as they are missing the deep social aspect of regular schooling. From teachers' perspective, teachers are not payed high enough to maintain a satisfactory lifestyle and hence they opt such sidelines to generate income. For this reason, they have to lower their standards at the school to ensure full class population at the tuition centre. In addition, students like I consider tuition centres as our saviour because at the end of the day, whatever we all say, we all aim to score incredible in professional and high school examinations. And to achieve this, parents pay heavy tuition fees for the betterment of their children, along with the regular school fee.

Why I call ourselves to be a victim of the tuition culture is because we are missing the awesome school-life which in turn is damaging our social development. The key to demotivate tuition culture is in the hands of government, parents and educationists. And here, I deliberately missed students because a boundary carved by our teachers, government and parents could only restrict us from accessing such options. Similarly, schools should respect the dignity the teaching profession and for the God's sake, they should pay them a good salary so that they could create again the environment of positive schooling in our society!

Our behaviour and the teachers!

Everyone around the country is discussing the strict law enforcement over beating of children in the schools, which is quite appreciable! But here we have missed the social dilemma behind it which has instigated such crimes. When freedom of expression is imprisoned and the teacher consider his/herself a true failure in their profession, such modes of expressing oneself's emotions was something due to happen.

When we discuss the protection of pupils, we ignore the safety and respect of the teacher completely. The news of teacher beating student is in the air but behind the curtains, the silent oppression over teachers stays hidden. When high-school students beat-up a professor at an examination centre, everything is fair! When a student bribes a teacher, everything is under control! Is this what our law communicates to us. Student behaviour at school is never considered as a point to be discussed, it was never a core part of our system. But why? Because we consider development and national success to be the production excellent doctors, engineers and accountants, not well-mannered and role model citizens. I guarantee, if we change our behaviour a little, our system changes, our culture well-defines itself and our constitution enforces indirectly. 

The sense of good behaviour and promotion of healthier environment could bring about a positive change. Teachers are a pride for a nation and they should be given honour and gratitude because a nation which respect its teachers is a nation on the track of excellence!

 

"Exploitation of Youth"

A student's stamina could be reasonably judged with a person's academic skills along with his/her extracurricular performance. Like always a great sector of pupils is deprived off such events taking place all-over around the country. But the question is how when the selection is on the basis of merit. A very simple answer is the fee the organizations charge for. The range starts from Rs.250 to even Rs.1.5 lakh or more which is unaffordable for a common man with a monthly salary of Rs.8000. Under the umbrella of recession and inflation major private educational institution opt to push back the poor brilliant student from the race of gaining experience and  self confidence. Isn't this an open discrimination? The major part of the ultra-talented future generation is sided to footpaths as the best renowned universities of the world require a good extra-curricular background alongside with an exceptional examination result.

It is not only a story of discrimination and uplifting a particular class but it is a mother of  "jealousy" and "agony" which is another barrier in between sects of a society along with religion, ethnicity and politics. I think that this is not a pedagogy to be taught and induced in the young brains. In this way we are ourselves trying to decline rate of social and civil development in our society by paralyzing a willing candidate who is exploited on the basis of his/her family's income. Several international competitions taking place only allow the few with a handsome bank balance to register while the competitions organized by the government are free of cost but the judgements are imprisoned by prejudice mind of thinking. 

But here what to say where the basic and dire right of education is not sufficiently provided and where several external and our national board intersect each other building tumors of differences. Still what I can hope for through writing this letter to the editor is a recognition and realization for the fact that a majority population of youth is deprived of better educational standards, co-curricular and extra-curricular participation just on the basis of affordability and the bank balance. So either democracy or martial law, education should be for all with equal and undisputed standards!

"Modern-day slavery and the inherited monarchy"

Man is born free to live but as we travel to the rural regions of Pakistan, we have to face few harsh realities of which one is modern-day slavery. Families or I must say cluster of villages are inherited by the royals. Now the question arises, who are the royals? For me, they are either the godly people or the landlords who inherited the slavery of thousands of locals. Here the locals are worthy of blame because their undue support and acceptance of the stone-age customs has resulted in the violence of human rights. Sadly, the worst part is that they are even not aware of the religious laws andcontinue to settle mutiny through a constitution given by their culture ruling a typical mindset for ages. The royals of the inherited monarchy fail to educate their people to avoid legal awareness and ensure zero chances of betrayal. This completely shows that in a country named Pakistan, few families are running their own dominion states with their own borders and constitution. Hence, during elections, even if it is 100 percent transparent, people will continue to vote their local lords. Therefore, education should be introduced alongside public awareness so that the locals could understand their rights. 

To initiate this, the election commission should introduce a public awareness mobile cell which consists of law-literate people who could teach people how powerful they are because of democracy and move into the rural regions because they need it the most. If we want a nation with the true democracy, we need to introduce such projects on grass-root level!

"Judiciary: The Most Supreme"

Judiciary mainly maintains and sustains the system being run in a country and it is widely accepted by the majority literate public to be the most supreme institution of Pakistan. Though the constitution is designed and passed by the parliament still, constitution continues to be a legal part of this institution which could be only treated in the court of judiciary.

It is a feather in the cap of this parliament to re-initiate a free judicial system so they should respect the judiciary by giving it utmost honour. The game is not of how supreme some institution is but how definite and fair it is!  

Rotten Tomatoes

Since decades this world, especially Pakistan, is owned by the elite class of its nation. The common man like always is exploited because of his mediocre nature and lower affordability. Many say this is the true face of the world but I surely believe human existence is bounded by the element of hope. You can achieve anything from money, from a false education degree to the utmost throne. Merit and dignity in our society is of no use because the world charges and marches on the roads of dollars. The best university is just now a dream for the majority but the ones lowest on their merits rise to such levels that we dignify them with a doctorate. Parliament is a reality for the masters but a hopeless institution for the general public, a public whose one-third wants to run away from this country and two-third in a state of dilemma.

This is not now a harsh reality for me but an extensive measure of human tolerance and handicapping. Truth scores denial or death and false words open channels to success, honesty pulls into lowest darkness while deception and hypocrisy is taught to be diplomacy and a pious action, a tall order honor is to have such a system. The poor majority of this population is enforced to starve and accept humiliation as their fate but the rotten tomatoes believe in the lie of being eternal, thus worsening the tyranny. The public is shocked, puddled and enclosed in the chamber of confusion while the others relish and delect luxury in this transitory paradise.  

We are paralyzed by our situations and require our rights, direly. We don't want to continue the system of request but inaugurate the way of ordering our civil servants as, emphatically, we are the establishment, the true stake holders of this nation. So why we obey and regard the rotten tomatoes?  

Vote for Education. Nothing else!

Since decades the people of Pakistan are listening to the different proposals and agents of change that could propagate the streaming revolution and induce self-reliance and courage in the commoners, but sadly none of them proposed a new system of education. Our education system is a true blunder and has proven this fact through its failure. You may call this as the beauty of the standards of our education that today we are the back-benchers in the class of discoveries and inventions. We still believe in a single exam which could judge a person’s destiny and either glorify or darken his/her future. Our syllabus is revised and further loaded, establishing the concept of rote learning as the only savior and logic behind any subject to be useless.

The solution which I propose is educational revival through revolutionary reforms! If we all desire progress and stability, we require an educated nation as the only safeguard of freedom. We should insist to find a way out, a method that has an efficiency of at least 90% production of successful and on track people. Countries like U.K and Australia initiated an education system with semester divisions where series of test, class participation, co-curricular and extra-curricular performance is judged, this means if a person fails to qualify for a single test, he/she has another chance to prove him/herself. This is the system which produced self-sufficient and efficient people who could credit victories to the nation. Every loyal patriotic nationalist should move on to the next level, raise voice for a better education system!

"Without education: it is Democralysis"

A word not a part of any dictionary but crystal clear with respect to its definition in the mind of the intellectual is "Democralysis". In a country where majority population is illiterate and others pose to be, the state of democralysis tends to induce. For those unaware of its meaning, Democralysis has been derived from the words democracy and lysis (a biological term meaning destruction). Education is a dire need of a society aiming to progress and prosper in all scopes of living which makes it quite important for the sustenance of a common yet fair governmental system known as democracy.

According to world bank, Pakistan's 54% population is educated which is too low for a nation as fertile as ours but even this percentage is of no use because the people falling into such category are unknown to their right and legal system of their country.

Why I state democraylsis is due to the fact that in Pakistan democracy is roared to be a basic need and right but the people unaware of its glory and esteem accept it as another hopeless system of governance. Therefore, either people opt to move back from voting or continue with the stereotype choosing. If the education was made common with awareness of rights and open exercise of the justice between the locals, this dilemma could be crushed from its roots.

A region where illiteracy is common, the spirit behind democracy dies while freedom of speech in the public forums turns uncommon leading to the destruction of the real essence of democracy. For some reason the public is worth blaming as they either because of conventional mindset or phobias deny importance of knowledge of human rights and worldly education.

According to a friend of mine, about 30 years of martial law and 200 years under British reign the Pakistani mentality is besieged by commanders and generals. This is another reason why we have lost democracy and chosen a half way between to comfort international community and our intellect. Favoring serfdom over freedom and loyalty without nobility has vanquished the concept of self-reliance from hearts of the majority.

Education with an indispensable coordinate specified as human rights education is a need to create an acceptable broadmindedness and a bond of trust over system of governance namely "Democracy" so that our future generation never add such a sarcastic word like Democralysis in their dictionary.