Pakistan

According to Dawn, Pakistan, Monday, 06 Jul, 2009

It's an open secret that investment in education is the best investment. However, we don't find allocation of due resources and efforts in our country. The reason is very simple. Education is a long term investment. Investments made by one government can not be reaped by it. So, we find that a lot of lip service is given to education but few practical steps are taken. Our politicians, rulers and leaders are all interested in short term gains, mostly, for their own selves, and the goals which they try to achieve for the masses are all oriented towards political benefits of being elected next time. It's the private sector in Pakistan which has to take the lead to improve the education statistics. The least our government can do it is to facilitate and encourage the private sector to come forward to spread education in our country in quantity and quality.

Government has allocated 50 billion rupees for Benazir Income Support Program; a fund to support the poor families in Pakistan. Rs. 24.3 billion have been allocated for Education. The allocation for Benazir Income Support program is twice that of the funds allocated for Education.

The above speaks of the priorities of the government. I wish the government had instituted Benazir Education Support Program in stead of Benazir Income Support Program. Investment in education will make the people stand on their own feet and earn for themselves. Paying a paltry sum of Rs. 1000.00 to a family per month will hardly alleviate their sufferings and will also make them dependent on this charity.

All public and private sector educational institutions have been closed two weeks earlier than their usual schedule. Summer camps, planned by most of these institutions, too, have been done away with. All this has been done in view of the prevailing security situation caused by Taliban. It's more of a reactive rather than a pro active approach. Loss of a couple of weeks of academics may be bearable. However, it's worth considering as to how we are going to proceed after Summer vacation. Is the threat to our security likely to minimize or is it going to be the same or is it going to increase further? The present trends indicate further deterioration in the security situation. Whatever be the situation we should be planning for the worst. So, the question is as to whether we are going to close our educational institutions indefinitely or we are going to face the threats pro actively. It is this period of three months which needs to be judicially utilized to plan and put the plans in place if we want education to go on after Summer vacation.

There is a vast network of Madrassas (private education institutions of different sects offering Islamic education as per their own perceptions and political agendas). These Madrassas offer free education, boarding and lodging, stipends and even free clothings to their students. Who finances these Madrassas and what is taught therein is not known to the government. Government officials are not allowed to enter these Madrassas what to talk of monitoring them. With soaring population, ever increasing poverty, inability of the government to provide affordable education and the bias of the society, in general, and, that of the poor in particular, towards the teachings of Islam without truly understanding them, the poor, who generally have more children and less resources to feed them readily send their children to these Madrassas. Our society on the whole has handed over its religion to the Mullahs; a convenient way of shirking its responsibility to understand and follow the true peaceful teachings of Islam. It's common knowledge that the impressions formed in childhood go along with a person right till the grave. Not all, but certainly some of these Madrassas hammer incorrect concept of Jihad into the mind of these innocent children of the poor. It is propagated that Islam should be spread through force and the followers of unislamic teachings as per their perceptions should be done away with by force if they don't fallback to the fold of Islam. Poverty and teachings of pseudo Islam put together alienate the poor youth from the rest of the society. It is this youth which is available to Taliban and the likes for recruitment.

All of these Madrassas are run by Islamist parties most of which have their political and militant wings. A number of efforts have been made by the government including Musharraf's regime to register these Madrassas but in vain. Political conveniences and the fear of reactions from the Mullahs have not let the registration and monitoring happen. The governments have been deferring it which has facilitated the stregtheningn of the Mullah and Madrassas. Lest it is too late, it is high time that registration and monitoring of these Madrassas is undertaken irrespective of the opposition which may have to be faced. The government should know that people of Pakistan have time and again rejected these Mullahs as is evident from the results of the elections held to date, and that the poor send their children to Madrassas not as a matter of choice but compulsion.