The Great Irony

Irony may be defined as incongruity or contradiction i.e. one part of a sentence negates the other half of it. Or to be more precise in layman terms, Irony is the discrepancy between appearance and reality. The reason for writing this article is to highlight, some of the many ironies in our education system, the first being the word “Education” itself.

If we search the meaning of education on the internet and in dictionaries so we would be able to conclude that education means to learn, to know and to acquire a body of knowledge, not just that but learning to become humans. The irony of our education system is that instead of humanizing the students who study in it, become inhumane and

Pakistan Education System

Picture Taken from: http://funinlife.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/pakistans-education-system/

insensitive to the sensitivities of our society. They are not even able to distinguish between right and wrong, instead they follow what is commonly perceived to be wrong. As if it has been somehow installed or programmed in their analytical brain to opt for something wrong by default.

Basic education is the most important thing that can ever happen to kids of any nation. Give them good basic education and they can become intellectuals, entrepreneurs, engineers, lawyers and sound politicians. Why do we always whine about the quality of our higher education and college education? The very same reason, that all these students are a product of that pitiably wretched basic school system. How can you expect “THE GHOST SCHOOLS” to present results and make and develop your future leadership, schools which only exist in paper or where teachers exist in paper only. The schools which are a reality run on the every green method of rote learning, where students only know how to memorize things which are completely alien and unfamiliar.

Corporal punishment is one of the most concerning issues in these GOVT schools, where they come to learn education from their teachers, but instead of learning those very same teachers become the reason for the destruction of their future. I have studied in such a school where the teachers used to bestow the students with their love in the form of a dozen lashes with a freakishly hard stick in a freezingly cold weather, when you can’t even expect to move out your hands from your warm pockets. Once these students pass through this intense psychological trauma they start hating the school and the school becomes a place of torture and trauma in their minds from where they only want to run away. This thing needs to be instilled in the barbarian mind of these evil minded teachers that they are the spiritual father of these young minds, on whose shoulders lay the liability of making, molding and developing the future of these innocent little angels.

If we can spend 90 percent, public and hidden, of the budget on defense, so why not on education? Which is responsible for the development, leadership, defense and every other function that a country supposedly posses. Before it gets too late the people who are responsible should start getting serious about this gigantic problem being faced by our country, instead they should call the “Education Emergency” in place to make everybody realize that this is the most important thing for the survival of this country and nothing else but education and true education. Education is the sole panacea for almost 90 percent of the ills which has torn apart every fabric of this country. The first thing that needs to be done is to actually educate the ones who are responsible for educating others; otherwise the already leaked boat of this country is going to sink big time.

If we compare our education budget to our neighbor countries so we would be able to get a clearer picture that we are spending the least amount of money on education as compared to our neighbors, that means either they are very rich or we are very poor, but luckily none of this is correct, what we lack is administration, fiscal and financial management and most importantly of all the will to educate this country.