A few days back I happened to attend a “mingle party” for the freshmen in my university. The agenda of the party was to introduce the new comers to their seniors so that they can cope up with the different and challenging environment of the university and also to encourage them to take maximum part in the university’s events, since it was up to them to add to the achievements and name of the university. The idea, as it seems, is simply remarkable and no doubt a healthy effort on part of the administration except for a single fact that the party was just for the “A-levelers”.

The intermediate qualified students were not considered to be of such caliber to be made part of the meeting. Primarily because the intermediate students come from diverse areas of the country and due to a clear education standard distinction between the two modes of education systems prevailing in the country, generally lack the proper English language communication skills and confidence. Ironically, this is not the only difference between the qualifiers of the two disparate systems. The differences among the two are quite evident as day from night.

The GCE and BISE represent two totally different genres of education. The former is a well organized system that targets the excellence in education by designing a curriculum that mold brains into creative, analytical and innovative entities and provides modern education in such a way as to ensure maximum knowledge acquisition by students.

Whereas the latter is a poorly administered system with outdated curriculum, that falls decades behind the modern education standards. A system much indifferent to the quality of education it is providing to its young generation, a system that is violating the very basic purpose of education- to widen the thinking dimensions of the people, enhance their innate abilities and induce new skills in them. Apart from the curriculum, the other major differentiating element is the extracurricular.

As the GCE system does not approve overburdening students with study load, its students get ample opportunities to propel in extracurricular activities and discover their hidden talents and polish them, which add self confidence to their personalities. Whereas on the other hand, the BISE Pakistan has over strained its students with the heap of books laced with information that is not meant to be acquired for the sake of knowledge and enlightenment rather just to cram every word of it and copy paste it in exams, like a photocopier machine.

The students, so preoccupied with this tiring task, hardly ever find time for extracurricular and hence get little opportunities to discover and enhance their abilities and skills, which obviously leave a vacuum in their personalities because beyond their crammed knowledge they are not capable of much, obviously except their God gifted talents.

Here, many people will differ and argue that the situation as mentioned above is however not so bizarre and is unwittingly and extravagantly sketched. They will probably argue that the ratio of BISE graduates to GCE graduates is considerably high and hence we cannot put all the BISE students in one box and judge, their ground of argument will be that in higher educational institutions the proportion of inter qualified students is much higher than those of A-levels which explains the fact that there lies not much difference among the two groups. But what they might be overlooking is a fact that BISE caters to a wide range of public from low class to upper class of the society, from rural to urban natives of the country, from people with literate backgrounds to those with not even a slight shadow of education on their far off relatives leave alone the instant ones. So it is the responsibility of BISE that irrespective of the background these students come from, they must enjoy the same education induced intellectual level, they must be equally proficient in communication skills, there should lie no difference between these students depending upon the education they have acquired with equal vigilance and hard work as any other student, it is their right- a right that shouldn’t be violated.

Apart from the curriculum, the BISE has also failed in providing an efficient education system in Pakistan. The education of the native residents is the responsibility of the state but our state has repeatedly failed in providing this basic right to its citizens.

There are no doubt many government schools in our country which provide education for the minimal cost but their situation is so bizarre that attending them is like wasting one’s energy and time. The infrastructure and maintenance of schools is so poor that they depict the facade of derelict historical ruins rather than that of a school.

The teachers are least interested in teaching the students, whom they think more of animals than young humans prone to mistakes. Physical and verbal abuse is common in such schools. The teachers don’t bother to attend their classes; all they are concerned with is the cheque that they receive at the end of each month for doing absolutely nothing. They have no check and balance from higher authorities whatsoever.

Most of the teachers are not even hired on merit rather on the basis of nepotism, reference or bribe. It is not unusual for the government teachers in the remote areas to have no knowledge of their assigned subjects at all. One of my class fellows, who was from a rural area and had no education background, told that he studied in the government school of a far off district till 10th grade.

The teachers there were least competent and hardly knew anything about their subjects. He was a sharp student so he would study the topics himself and his teacher would ask him to teach the class while he himself enjoyed coffee and snacks with his colleagues. But now that he has made his way into the university, he is facing many problems because of his lacking in English communication and writing skills, analytical and critical thinking skills etc. He, who was the topper of his district, is now finding it hard to survive in the competent environment of university where most of the students have come from high standard private schools of the city.

This depicts the standard of education that BISE provides for its students. Contrarily GCE teachers are most competent individuals with PhD degrees in their respective subjects. They focus on conceptual clarity of their students and use various techniques to develop analytical and critical thinking skills in students to enhance their learning which subsequently helps them in their higher education and jobs as well.

The acute difference in the two education systems does not only develops disparity among the students based upon their knowledge and skills but also upon their level of confidence, which in recent times is essential for success. When the students of the two systems encounter each other in higher education, they develop complexes. The GCE graduates become the victims of superiority complex whereas BISE students develop inferiority complex which is majorly because of language skills and confidence.

This by no means imply that GCE students are more intelligent than BISE students, it just becomes their perception that they are the superior ones which normally makes them over confident while BISE students not being able to compete in just language skills and confidence develop inferiority complex and recede in their shells, not discovering their full potentials and using them to bring out the best in them.

So what should we do in such a predicament? The answer is clear, we should learn from educational policies of developing countries like India and China where just a single education system prevails in the whole country. Their student body is not bifurcated into two distinct groups rather is homogeneous in nature. They do not allow any foreign education system to enter their market. They have their own system of education which they keep updated with the technological advancements in the world and try to provide international standard education to their students through their own system. When there will be a single unbiased education system for all classes and areas of the country in Pakistan, the education standard will rise in due course.

When the children of ministers and industrialists will have to study the same curriculum as those of poor people, the education standard will eventually improve giving us more number of highly talented and competent professionals. Thus by adopting correct measures to improve education standard and system in Pakistan, we can bring radical change in society with more proficient labor force working towards the development of the country and its economy.

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