The Human capital deficit signifies the cracks in the core constitution of our primary education system. The 1970s saw the education system going public (as it should) while currently we are going through a reversal of those policies by outsourcing the primary education industry of Pakistan.
Article 25-A of the constitution of Pakistan lays down the right to free education from 5 years to 16 years. Furthermore, Article 37-B signifies provision of free and compulsory secondary education within the minimum possible period of time. These unconstitutional changes are usually cloaked under the guise of the 18th amendment which saw massive devolution of public sector machinery to the provinces. And the provinces have conveniently forgotten to physically further devolve the education system by design to the district level thus jeopardising the fundamental right to quality education. For the sake of argument, while the quality of education may improve in the short run, loss of control over the primary education system will eventually lead to lack of transparency.
Let us pull out of this micro dissection and look at the human capital index of the country which stands at 0.41 (the lowest in the region). The pillars of HCI being education and health, in the former, where is the long term plan for this outsourcing, where is the compliance, quality control mechanism, check and balance apparatus of subsidies offered to the private operators of these schools, third party audit of the success of this endeavour on monthly, quarterly and annual basis? Fundamentally it is unconstitutional and practically it is the most untutored initiative taken for the education ministries. Such decisions should not be in the hands of a handful of office bearers who have a bleak understanding of the education diaspora. It is equivalent to taking a direct lethal shot at the very core of the nation.
In a world of such advancements today, our focus should be on Human capital development and enhancement, bringing in language, technology and skill into the curriculum. Like in the case of Singapore, where it recently mandated the education backbone of the country to reintroduce the whole workforce back into the education system to well verse and equip them with the upcoming and inevitable Artificial Intelligence era, we as a country should organise our education matrix accordingly. Yes, we do not have the resources to deploy advanced curriculum like them, it still doesn’t mean we shift into reverse gear to show the world that we do excel at something. In this case, inefficiency, naivety, lack of vision, illiteracy at the highest level.
It is my prayer that the part of our current generation which has the education and th resources, is successful in carving a better Pakistan for its next generation. The new world order is far more complex, unconventional, radical, stealth, unsparing and informed. There is a curse from the Victorian era (Not Chinese), “May you live in interesting times”. The world has approached that door. I see an avant-garde for us like none before. So we brace up and brace up fast. What Quaid-i-Azam said “Failure is a word unknown to me” is a motto to recite while stepping through the door.
