System of Education in many developing countries has fundamental weaknesses and imperfections. Education Departments are rarely focusing on latest trends of innovation causing serious issues in School Industry.
System of Education in Pakistan
Today Pakistan is suffering because of various reasons and one of the major reasons is lack of skilled professionals, many may not agree with this but it is a bitter truth that we have to accept it. My major concern of writing this article is to enlighten Education system of Pakistan in general where literacy race is 47% estimated in 2019 and Azad Kashmir where literacy rate is 74%. Not just this Azad Kashmir has many degree holders (Bachelors, Masters and PhDs), but with no practical exposure and skills except few. Fact that Pakistan is ranked one of the worst countries in Education System, imagine where Aazad Kashmir will be, and our Education system will never help our nation and economy to grow, until we take some steps now.
If we see top brands and products in the world whether it belongs to Computer and its components, Plants and Machinery, Cars and Engines and other motor vehicle specific products and brands. Top electronics brands. Nothing is from Azad Kashmir or Pakistan, though Pakistan has less literacy rate than Azad Kashmir but still Pakistan has Industries and some products that are well known, but why nothing comes under Azad Kashmir. I will elaborate this further, somehow it is related to Pakistan, but my major target will be Azad Kashmir.
Firstly, Azad Kashmir’s total population is more than 4 million which is more than many developed countries in the world and literacy rate is also more than many developed countries in the world, but fact is that a single company in developed countries has more revenue annually than our 10 years development budget. We don’t have any industries despite many degree holders. Now there are many Questions in one’s mind. Why Azad Kashmir is neither a developing or developed region? Can Azad Kashmir become a developed region? Can Azad Kashmir have industries? Can we export our Products? Do we have products to export? Do we have ability to find natural gifts hidden in our soil? Answer is big NO. There is various reason, I will not discuss them all because these all can be treated like political issues, religious differences, caste system etc, but my major I will raise my concern on a specific area which is our Education System.
Our Education system has flaw, our system is producing degree holders, but not the Skilled professionals, we know how to debate on politics but we don’t know how to improve production of our crops which is less technical. We have many degree holders in Science & Technology, but we don’t have scientists who can convert natural energy in electricity. We couldn’t make dams or reservoirs where water is major visible natural source we have.
I am not generalizing it, because we do have many Kashmiris who are living everywhere in the world and they are skilled, but the fact is that they got higher education either in Big cities of Pakistan or in Europe, US, Australia, Canada or any other countries.
If I list few random brands or products here e.g; (Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Google, LG, Canon, Kodak, Toyota, Honda, Isuzu, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Acer, Dell, HP, Garmin, Casio, Hyundai, Tanks, Helicopters, Micro Controllers, Computers, Servers, Washing Machine, Fridge, Television, Motor Bike, Cycle, Bottle, Crockery and Needle), the fact that can be seen from my short list is that we are even unable to manufacture a needle even we have Masters and PhD degrees. Now, you might be thinking we don’t have industries, I will not agree to it, tourism is our major industry but most ignored. This proves our degrees are useless, we got education but we didn’t get enough skills to develop our economy. Do you think Azad Kashmir can become Japan or China one day? I will say it can become if our Education System changes.
System of Education by Developed Economies
I discussed many times with many education professionals about Finland which #1 in world for education system followed by Japan and South Korea. These countries are producing skilled and technology specialist and degrees. Students from primary classes are focusing on developing their skills, even primary school drop outs can do some business without depending on anyone, and if you read about billionaires in the world, you will find most of them are college drop outs and have not even got their degrees, but because they had developed enough skill so they are billionaire today and many degree holders are standing in queue for hours to get job in their company.
Whiteboard and Blackboard concept is obsolete, though this is still being used as one of the tools for education but there are many other tools which such countries are using.
Tradition is not changing
Our education system forces child to memorize the lessons and then our bogus exam system is actually examination of memory, not the skills, whereas in modern education system even primary school students are given projects to complete and their system is task based and practical, where students become innovate and some are able to invent something that never existed, that is where IOTs, Smart Technologies, Facebook and Google were invented. I am not criticizing here but can you please look by your self, how many degree holders we have BBA, BCS, B.Sc, B.Com, BA, MA, M.Sc, MBA, M.Com, M Phil, PhD and many were shining stars in schools and colleges with toppers, even many with 100% marks, but can you identify any of billionaire from them or even any millionaire, there might be few but I don’t know any of them?
We are in fact increasing number of degree holders but reducing skilled person, even if you see in Azad Kashmir, those who have never gone to school are doing very good business, but all degree holders are looking for Government or private jobs. And those who want to start the business they focus in only one Industry which is Education. We have few companies in Azad Kashmir which we can count on fingers but countless private schools and colleges.
Nonexistence of vocational training institutes is also one of our major problem. Our traditional qualification is a career disaster. We even don’t have career counselling and skill development plans and programs. We force our children to be Doctor and Engineer but we don’t show them other paths.
We have education system with no vision, Kashmir has enough natural resources which can help us to become developed region in the world where as Pakistan had strategic port Gawardar, but due to lack of our skills, other countries are taking benefit from that.
I can list various countries in the world who were worst than Azad Kashmir but today their skills are being demanded everywhere in the world.
Field of Study
We generally say Kashmiris are overseas they are professionals, trust me there are only few Kashmiris who are doing white collar jobs or doing their businesses. Most of Kashmiris are doing blue collar job, even Masters degree holders too. You can see in Gulf many Masters degree holder are working as security guard and many other odd jobs, and this is because of our poor planning because we had no vision.
When I talk about vision, I mean here vision as an individual, as a group and as a society, if a Person does M.A. Islamiyat, MA English or any other common discipline and expects to get a job in overseas on a senior level because has Masters Degree, it is not possible. Take an example of people from Philippines, who are qualified in Hotel Management, Sales and Marketing. Most of the companies in Gulf and other countries prefer to hire them, do we have any hotel management course, degree, diploma, certification?
You might have noticed I used degree or diploma. Yes, degree and diploma are in fact a proof of your skills, but unfortunately our education system awards degrees and diploma based on the grades that we get by passing exam. That is the reason even a master’s in computer sciences or Information Technology can’t even develop a mobile app, If you don’t agree just do a survey that I already did.
Even we didn’t learn customer service and hospitality, we are not able to give proper welcome to tourists, a shopkeeper can’t retain a customer. We have many tourist attractions but with no facilities. Because our youth is more educated and less skilled that they struggle and hunt for job, but due to lack of technical skills they are unable to earn without job.
What is solution?
Solution is simple, our traditional education system must change, we have to focus on activity-based learning, introduce new subjects that can help our future job seekers to get better placement. I have already mentioned in a different article about Education System and New Industrial Revolution. Matter that we teach is also old, we need to introduce new subjects, robotics and software programming should be taught from primary. Skill should be developed from Primary Education. Introduce Raspberry PI Computer in primary schools. Technology is cheap these days, schools don’t need to invest a lot in computer labs now School Bag is costlier than a computer. If you child wants to be a Doctor, he will still need to learn programming and robotics. Even every job in future will be replaced by robots (Pilots, Doctors, Chefs, Drivers, …. A long list), but who will program these robots? SME (Subject Matter Experts) and to produce subject matter experts one must have enough skills.
When I gave examples of Finland and other developed countries, I must give example of China as a solution, there education reform is not very old. They brought revolution in their education system, they learn engineering in their primary school. They provide basic engineering tools (screw drivers, solders, wires, testers etc) to their students in additional to color pencils and geometry boxes. How china is manufacturing electronics with precision? it is because their engineer learnt engineering from primary school when they were given devices to open and check what is inside. From a child progress up to 4th standard parents and teachers can analyze that what field the child will most likely to chose so they chose the field and start developing the competency from the childhood, but we take 12 years to decided which field of education student will chose. remember there are countless fields to chose from, but later you decide more confusion you will create. We must consider Chinese education system as a benchmark to develop our nation's skills.
To conclude, education reform is most important aspect for an economy to develop, though we have various problems, in our society like poverty, terrorism, energy crises, political instability, inflation and various other problems, and fact is that these problems will not end if we don’t develop a skilled nation. An educated, skilled and civilized nation can only bring change, and first change to implement is change in our education system.
