| Pakistan’s Educational System | |||
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By: Kishan Bhatia
March 22, 2005 
FeedbackThe latest HRCP report, expectedly, paints a dismal picture of the human rights situation in Pakistan. Relevant to the subject of this article is the concern expressed over deteriorating standards of education. A graphic account of the educational scene, representing almost a total denial of education to the poor, would be the ultimate indictment of Pakistani rulers. In addition, the HRCP report has highlighted how religion, misinterpreted by extremists, has served as a restraint to development.” The US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report stated that religious extremism is promoted in government-funded schools in Pakistan to manipulate fervor in pursuit of foreign policy goals. "There appears to be few differences between public (government-funded) school and madrassah syllabi with regard to the levels of intolerance that are assuming dangerous proportions," CRS, in the report updated till the end of 2004, said. "Despite President Musharraf’s repeated pledges to crackdown on the more extremist madrassah in his country, there is little concrete evidence that he has done so. Many speculate that Musharraf’s reluctance to enforce reform efforts is rooted in his desire to remain on good terms with Pakistan`s Islamist political parties, which are seen to be an important part of his political base," it said. The educational system impacts on economic growth of a nation. Literacy in India is increasing at 1.4% a year and its economy is growing at about 7% annually. Globally, India ranks #1 in production of science and engineering graduates. Given these trends it is reasonable to estimate that by 2025 India should be fully literate and its per capita GDP should be between 3 to 4 times present GDP of $3,000 (PPP adjusted; US-CIA data). The per capita GDP for Pakistan was at $2,100 in 2003 (PPP adjusted; US-CIA data). One aspect of Pakistan’s foreign policy is to exploit its geographical location to fulfill its political wish-list by denying India access to energy from Iran and Central Asia. Geography has always favored Islamic nations, from Turkey to Malaysia for nearly 1,000 years yet it didn`t stop Western nations to reach South Asia, Southeast Asia and Far East to procure supplies and develop commercial interests. In fact Europeans were very successful as they were able to colonize not only non-Islamic nations but also many Islamic nations to further their political and commercial interests. Sure for a time being Pakistan can block India`s access to energy supplies from Iran and Central Asia in a desperate move to realize what`s on its political wish list. Economically a wide gap has developed between two South Asian nations. Where would be Pakistan in 2025, if it continues to block India`s access to energy supplies from Iran and Central Asia or if India manages to successfully by-pass Pakistan to procure energy supplies? I have attempted to answer this question in the following analysis of its educational system. India is enjoying a change and an infusion of fresh thinking every three years while Pakistanis are sticking to the same medicine for years on end? President Bush has observed that the roots of global terrorism were to be found in the political systems of the countries from which came the people who perpetrated these acts. Contrary to what some of Pakistan’s leading journalist have observed, ruling elites continue with stale policies. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is a norm established by dictators who have ruled Pakistan for all but about 20 years of its existence. Fresh thinking requires an educational infrastructure that puts emphasis on reason, not dogmatic faith in sacred texts to rule a progressive nation. Ruling elites of Pakistan suffer from a lack of rational political thinking in managing its internal and external policies. The commando in Musharraf tends to override rational political judgments. Exploiting geology to seek what’s on Pakistan’s political wish list is a futile attempt for a second partition of India. Peace with India should be based on ground realities rather than perceived weakness of India’s armed forces and Pakistan’s nuclear status. Nuclear weapons are useless except as deterrence against foreign invasion. Pakistani military officers - Musharraf is no exception to this - are in the habit of misjudging India. One has seen this ever since Pakistan was born as an independent country in 1947. It was this misjudgment that led to the loss of East Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh in 1971. It also led to its Kargil misadventure in 1999. Musharraf still fails to understand that his actions – a failure to develop mutual dependencies and commercial interests - may lead to another disintegration of Pakistan rather than force India to agree to one more partition of Indian Territory. Pakistani mindset is a result of flawed educational system used to train not only army generals but also its Jihadi forces, so let’s take a look at Pakistan’s educational policies. The schools of the country are its future in miniature. Pakistanis both civilians and army personnel, are a product of flawed madrassah brand rote and regurgitate education system that was build around emotionally skewed historical untruths and myths while emphasizing a dogmatic faith in sacred texts. Pakistan is what it is today because its ruling elites have failed to provide for development of its human resources to meet global challenges. There were 35 million Pakistanis in 1947 and in 2005 there are about 160 million. During the period 1947 to 2004, India’s population grew by a factor of about 3 and that of Pakistan by a factor of about 4.5. Unlike in Pakistan as more and more girls/women continue to join the ranks of educated India’s population growth is steadily declining and it now stands at below 1.7 per cent. Since the event of 9/11, yielding to a threat from America, President Musharraf is trying to reinvent Pakistan’s as a moderate Islamic state. Beginning with President Zia ul Haq, the establishment had been projecting Pakistan as an Islamic state dominated by fundamentalist forces. Musharraf was a part of the establishment under Zia regime. To American eyes Musharraf now may be a moderate relative to Zia but he still has to convincingly establish his moderate credentials. He covertly continues to support a Jihadi ‘proxy war’ to appease the fundamentalist in his government and is now preparing to use his commando training to subdue developing insurgency in Balochistan. The creation of Pakistan was rooted in the two nation theory derived from a flawed concept of the conflict of civilization. A conflict of civilization appears if a community ignores established social and cultural norms to initiate a parallel society using a dogmatic faith in sacred texts, not reason, in addition to emotionally skewed historical untruths and myths. Reason is sacrificed in development of such a parallel culture and society. For most of past fifty-seven years Pakistani ruling elites have pursued a dogmatic faith in sacred texts to establish its identity. They established a radical madrassah brand educational infrastructure to galvanize impressionable young Muslims to create a steady flow of Jihadis full of hate and intolerance against all those with a belief system other than Islam. Using dogmatic faith in sacred texts Osama bin Laden, Taliban in Afghanistan and Jihadis trained by Pakistan have waged ‘holy war’ against the ‘infidels,’ ‘the Crusaders,’ who would sully principles of Sharia Law, and prevent a restoration of the medieval Caliphate. A fatwa issued in 1998 by Osama bin Laden against US and Israel was signed by many leaders of terrorist organizations base in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Jihadi forces initiated the conflict of civilizations during 1990s by participating in a number of proxy wars on the global stage and they struck mainland America on 9/11/2001. American retaliations has achieved three goals: it has forced ‘the one-phone-call’ Musharraf to dissociate Pakistan from the global jihadi crusaders, liberated Afghanistan from Taliban and Osama’s influences, and in Iraq, they are in a process of replacing Saddam Hussain with a democratically elected government. Faced with a determined superior force pitted against Jihadis, some elites who supported and delighted in success of Jihadis prior to the event of 9/11 are now accusing Western nations supporting the war on terrorism as promotion of the conflict of civilization. Pakistan is a nation dominated by elites who have failed to accept that reason, not dogmatic faith in sacred texts should be the foundation of a modern nation and educational infrastructure for a developing nation. Using emotionally skewed historical untruths and myths Pakistan’s ruling elites and clerics have enforced an educational system in Pakistan that ignores reason and promotes dogmatic faith in sacred texts. Pakistani generals, thus educated, are not as bright as they should be since they continue to believe that they can pursue territorial expansion using ‘proxy wars.’ That after fifty-seven years of independence not even one university of Pakistan ranks among top 500 universities in the world tells a lot about what kind of future lies ahead for people of Pakistan. In human affaires – political, social, economic, or business – according to Peter Drucker, a management guru, it is pointless to try to predict the future. But it is possible – and fruitful – to identify major events that have already happened, irrevocably, and that will have predictable effects in the next few decades. It is possible to identify and prepare for the future that has already happened. By instituting a flawed madrassah brand rote and regurgitate model of education and dominated by delusional generals, Pakistan has been a leading state with sole purpose of its existence to safeguard the interests of Kashmiris, Taliban, Palestinians, Chechnyans, Bosnians, Kosovians, Uzbeks and Iraqis; as a nation Pakistan is anything but a homeland for the benefit of all her citizens. It is about time Pakistani establishment learns to accept and implement a view that Pakistan is for safeguarding interests of her citizens and not those identified above in bold. The ultimate purpose of a viable independent state is to lift human beings to a phase where they are free of the worry of where their next meal comes from, can meaningfully exercise their freedoms and live a richer and hopefully creative cultural existence. As it stands today in terms of development Pakistan is likely to continue to project Islamic extremism for next few decades. For an outsider looking in at political developments of Pakistan it is hard to escape the conclusion that politically it has been governed by a cliché` of elites with a feudal mindset. Successive Pakistani governments had created conditions for unhindered population growth and it failed to provide for rational development of its human resources. Population growth without adequate development has resulted in flourishing of Kachi-abadis. Flawed education model has created a nation of Jihadis ill-prepared to face challenges that are coming with increasing levels of globalization. Failures to develop human resources to garner economic growth have put Pakistan into a group of nations that are among poorest. India also is a poor nation but it has developed a world class educational infrastructure plus a nitch in three areas that have global reach: software development, manufacture of generic pharmaceutical and automotive parts sectors. It has now reached a stage of economic development that provides a sustained GDP growth in excess of 7 percent. The GDP growth rate would be increased to 8% to 9% if reforms being introduced in India can reduce or eliminate national deficit due to subsidies to farmers and other interest groups. Contrary to bravado displayed by some members of ruling elite, lacking development of human resources to improve its economic strength Pakistan can no longer pursue either regional or global aspirations. Under today’s global conditions based on the demise of USSR in 1980s it is proven beyond a shadow of doubt that military power without adequate economic strength is a national disaster, waiting to precipitate disintegration of the nation. In today`s global environment, any nation that confines a half of its population behind four walls of home to breed as many children as possible in its reproductive years and to raise under-educated children is a sure recipe for poverty for generations to come. The other half, male population, is not a very productive group as it lacks what it takes to generate wealth to escape from cycle of poverty. In this sense the madrassah brand educational system dominated by a religious dogma has failed its students. Politics in South Asia is colored by misinterpreted religious teachings, not reason. Proponents of religious intolerance justified partition and now they are showing off their latest ding-dongs and WMDs as frequently as possible but they are going nowhere. Looking back at the reason for partition of British India, it occurs to me that any creed that substitutes faith for reason is incompatible with religious tolerance. Reason is the only basis on which men can live peacefully with those who disagree, knowing that reality is the common court of final approval. Only reason makes possible objective theory of the good, one which holds that the private immorality of others is not per se one’s concern. On the religious theory of the good, there is no such thing as private immorality – anyone’s “sin” stands as an affront to God and simply cannot be allowed. On such a basis, how can one tolerate the “evil” done by those who worship the wrong God or perform “blasphemous” rituals – or no rituals? The social danger of fundamentalism is what follows when dogmatic faith in sacred texts replaces reason. The voices of reason are now playing a center stage in Pakistan. India’s experience shows that it takes about two generations or forty years for education to deliver desired results. I would like to see that Pakistanis speak with one voice for a dramatic change in its educational system so that in a generation or two they two will join the main stream in global villages. Kishan Bhatia
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