There are several reasons behind low literacy rate in Pakistan like poverty, lack of proper facilities, awareness among people, cultural tendencies and motivation. Lack of motivation seems an odd reason here but it is probably the most important reason these days. When parents see a large number of highly qualified people unemployed they are reluctant to send their children to schools and colleges. They prefer to send them to a place where they can learn some sort of skill which will help them earn a living in future.
Thousands of students graduate from universities in different disciplines every year but few are able to find a job comparable with their qualification. Government is setting up new universities; the existing universities are starting new programs; the intake of students is increasing in the existing programs every year. These factors have led to an abrupt increase in the number of graduates in the country but unfortunately there is no infrastructure and industries to accommodate all these qualified people. Also, quality of these graduates is not according to international standards so they cannot compete for job on international level. It has led to frustration and resentment among the educated youth over the last few years.
Higher education in Pakistan is regulated by Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan which evaluates all the higher education institutions every year and then ranks them. Several factors are considered during this ranking process some of which are; the number of PhD professors in a university, the number of research publications published, the number of students successfully graduated and so on. Most of the factors are quantity based. Quality based factors are given little or no consideration in this process.
In order to get high ranking, the universities focus only on their numbers. If a person holds PhD, they will hire him whether s/he has the ability to teach a particular course or not. They increase the students’ intake every year whether they have the requisite facilities or not. Same is the case with research publications. Whether the research is genuine or not, the data is original or manipulated, is it relevant to the conditions and industry of the country or not. They do not care, they just want to publish it in a local journal and add it to their publications’ list.
These factors have severely undermined the higher education. Under these circumstances, what can we expect from the graduates of these universities? They are in no position to apply their knowledge in the practical field.
Some fields are already super saturated like business administration, telecommunication and computer science. Every year thousands of graduates are added up to the already existing unemployed lot. Even the fields of Engineering, medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, agriculture and natural sciences are saturated. Whenever there is an announcement for a few vacancies, there are hundreds of applicants per single post. But still some of these fields are thriving and creating some vacancies from time to time.
However, there are some disciplines started in different universities for which no infrastructure exists in the country. Hundreds of students graduate in the fields of Bioinformatics, Space Technology and Robotics but there is no industry for these disciplines here. These graduates either join the faculty of the same university from where they graduated or go abroad. It clearly shows these programs were started without proper planning.
A limited budget is allocated for higher education every year. The concerned authorities need to spend this budget according to the needs of the country.
But on the bright side, there are few top quality universities in Pakistan where not only quality education is provided but also state of the art research facilities are available. These universities focus both on theoretical and applied aspects and produce high quality graduates. These graduates can outclass their competitors not only at national level but also at international level. Higher Education Commission needs to set these institutions as benchmarks for other universities.
Entrepreneurship seems to be a rare commodity in Pakistan. All the educated people look for jobs but unfortunately job opportunities are limited. The alternative is to start something of your own. It is the duty of educational institutions to infuse awareness among students and prepare them for entrepreneurship. A couple of universities have already started such programs where research projects of the students are evaluated by a team of experts and if they approve the project then the concerned students are trained accordingly. These students also get funding for their startups from the university. All universities need to start such programs. It eases the unemployment situation to some extent.
Government should prioritize quality over quantity. Universities should revisit their admission criteria and only those students should be admitted who show a strong aptitude towards a particular discipline. Technical institutions should be set up at district level for those who cannot get admission at universities where they will learn different skills. Moreover, holding a degree does not make one eligible for teaching so training programs for the teachers should be set up so that they can prepare students for the challenges of contemporary world.
Research in the universities should not be for the sake of completing a degree or getting promotion, rather it should be conducted according to the country’s requirements. These factors will restore the people’s faith on the education system and they will not hesitate to send their children to schools which will help in improving literacy rate of the country.
