Education is the panacea to all the problems confronting Pakistan Currently

[wahab_ahqar]

Kindly evaluate this essay. Looking forward for constructive feedback and suggestions to make it more effective.


Education is the panacea to all the problems confronting Pakistan Currently

1. Introduction.
2. Status of education in Pakistan.
3. Challenges faced by Pakistan, their linkage with education and role of education in their resolution.
a. Poor economic growth.
b. Poverty.
c. Unemployment.
d. Terrorism.
e. Extremism and religious intolerance.
f. Provincialism and weak national integration.
g. Technological backwardness.
h. Weak international standing.
i. Feudalism.
j. Sectarianism.
k. Weak democratic setup.
4. Setup to reform education system to better address the challenges faced by Pakistan.
5. Conclusion.

There are few basic requirements for the growth, development and progress of any society and nation. Education is one of these. Education is that tool which equips human beings with knowledge, skill and capacity to deal with all the challenges. All the nations which focused on education succeeded in the achieving better position in the comity of the nations. The Muslims also ruled the world when they had the best education. Pakistan is faced with so many challenges on economic, social, and cultural ends. All these challenges are severely hampering the growth and progress of the country not only at national but also at international level. All these challenges are some way or the other can be addressed as nothing is impossible. Education can be that one thing that can help in overcoming all these challenges. A strong and effective education system is the need of the hour if we really want to get out of the gruesome situation.
Unfortunately, so far we have not been able to provide education to the masses. Illiteracy itself is a big problem. Our literacy rate is 58.7% as per the statistics of the government of Pakistan. This is way behind than that of the developed countries. Evan in South Asia we are lagging behind almost all the countries. Our neighbor India has 74% literacy rate while Sri Lanka at 91%. We have the second highest number of the children not going to school. All these factors indicate the miserable condition of education in our country.
Now, coming to the problems being faced by Pakistan, their dependence on the education and how an effective education system can help in addressing all of these problems.
First of all, poor economic condition of the country is the most serious problem. Large fiscal deficit, large trade deficit, high inflation rate and small foreign reserves indicate the poor condition of the economy. Agriculture, Industry, and services sector are the main components of the economy. Our agriculture production is low beside the fact that we have largest canal system because our farmer is illiterate and not able to use the best practices in the field. Similarly, our industry is labor intensive and we failed to exploit the potential as we could not adopt the latest technology to increase production. In services sector, our education system is outdated and the professionals we are producing are far behind in knowledge and skill than the developed world. Poor performance in all these sectors because of poor education and ultimately result is poor economic situation.
Poverty is another challenge. Almost 40% of our population is living below poverty line if we take $1.25/day as benchmark. This means 40% of our population is not able to meet the basic requirements of the life like food, shelter and clothes. One reason that people are unable to earn is that they are illiterate. Education equips a person with knowledge and skill to compete and explore more options to earn. In addition, illiterate labor lacks skills and can go for work related to physical hard work which has less remuneration. Poor education and no education at all becomes a stumbling block in the way of getting out of poverty.
Next comes the unemployment. This is to somehow relate to the previous problem. As discussed an illiterate person has very limited skill set which decreases his opportunities for the job or work. Even is the international market literate labor force is preferred over the illiterate in all fields.
Similarly, terrorism is a big problem especially after 9/11 and has severely impacted our country. Unfortunately, terrorists operate in our society and a sizeable chunk of the people provides support to them.
They fail to distinguish between right and wrong and think that by supporting the terrorists they are doing the right thing. Illiterate people easily fall prey to the wrong interpretations of the religion by these terrorists for their own vested interests. Educated class is better equipped to deal with these non state actors and their wrong ideology.
Another important problem is growing extremism and religious intolerance. It has severely impacted the life of the people and has tarnished the image of our country. There have been so many incidents of attacks on minorities in our country. Burning of Christian’s houses, attack on the worship places of the Hindu’s and Ahmadi’s. These all acts are done in the name of the religion and in reality our religion does not permit it. Indeed it provides protection to all religious minorities. Lack of education is the main problem as illiterate masses are exploited by a few for their own agendas in the name of religion and Allah.
In the matters of the state, people are exploited by the politicians to serve their own interests. Whenever their interests are at stake , they start playing Sindh card, Azad Baluchistan, Jaag Punjabi Jaag and Pakhtunistan mantra. Using these cheap tactics they have weakened the federation. Take the case of Kalabagh dam. In this economic crunch and shortage of the electricity, it is the best project to go for, for the early resolution of the electricity shortage. But due to political interests, no political leader is in a position to go for it. If people are educated then they will not play in the hands of the politicians who misguide them. This way educated masses will prefer and promote culture of national integration instead of division on the provincial lines.
Technology is the key to success in this era of globalization. Education is mandatory to acquire and excel in technology as new advancements are made through research which is an integral part of education system. It would not be exaggeration if it is said that USA is super power because of its superior technology in every field. Agriculture, industry and services sector, all are dependent on it for better performance. We are lacking in it and only way to excel in it is education. There is no other way to have best technology.
Our weak economy, poor social indicators including health, education, welfare and religious intolerance, all of these have weakened our position in the comity of nations. We are considered a threat to humanity. All the above mentioned factors are some way or the other related to poor education status in our country. If we will educate our people, we will turn all these people into productive citizens of the state. We have a large population with median age of twenty to twenty five years. This shows a large section of our population is young and if proper education is imparted, this youth can turn the fate of our nation on all fronts including our international standing.
Feudalistic setup is also a major problem in the growth and development of our country. Feudal lords still have their dynasties and do not let people live their lives freely. Though they were liberated from the British and the Hindus in 1947 yet they are slaves. This feudalistic setup is existing in the country as people are not aware of their rights as free citizens of the state. If education is imparted to the people, no feudal can keep them in chains. They will get their rights from the lord and will live like any other free citizen of the state.
Similarly, sectarianism has become a constant threat to the existence of our country. The poor and illiterate masses are exploited by the Mullah’s in the name of the religion. So many people have been killed and being killed every day. So called scholars of the religion fail to impart the teaching of Islam in true sense. Instead of healthy dialogue which is important and compulsory part of our religion, path of violence is adopted and many innocents are killed every day just because they do not follow the interpretation of a particular sect. This intolerant attitude is because of the failure to understand the religion objectively. In such situation, lack of education is an added fuel to the fire. It is an established fact that with education people are in a better position to solve their issues in peaceful way. It will be very difficult for the religious fanatics to exploit people according to their whims if the people are given proper education.
Last but not the least; weak democratic setup in our country is also because of illiteracy. Educated people know the value of their vote, they know their responsibilities, they know their rights and they are very difficult to be exploited. They act as a check on the leaders and demand the answer of their questions. All these things which come from education help in the establishment of a strong democratic setup at all levels. Democracy is getting strong in our country as now people are more educated than the past. Now, it is very difficult for a difficult for a dictator to take over the country in the name of the wider interest of the country.
From the preceding discussion it is clear that we need a strong education system to impart quality education to the citizens of this country. We need to revise our course as the current course content are outdated and does not meet the requirements of our country. Uniform education system needs to be adopted all across the Pakistan to provide equal opportunities to all citizens. Government must realize its responsibility and must increase budget for education as we are almost at the bottom in terms of percentage of budget allocated for education. Teachers are an important part of any education system. Special attention needs to be given on training of the teachers and we must ensure that our best brains are hired in this sector. This is how we will be able to equip our new generation with the required skills to deal with all the problems and challenges.
The crux of this whole discussion is that all the challenges that we are facing can be addressed with education. There may be temporary solutions other than education that can be helpful in addressing in economic, social, cultural and all other problems but the long lasting solution lies in education. Education will inculcate inherent capacity in our coming generations to overcome all problems. It will open a new era of progress, development and progress in every field. It will make our society a welfare society where all will be living in peace and harmony. God forbids, if we do not focus on education and continue with our past approach, there will be serious repercussions. It will further deteriorate our all indicators of a healthy and growing society. Time has come that we put all our energies to impart quality education to our nation if we really want to overcome our all problems.

[aqua girl]

Are these statistics recent?
i mean, can we incorporate them in our current affair paper?