Private Schooling and the Extravagant Nation of Pakistan
Proliferation of private schools in Pakistan has harmed the state owned schools alarmingly. Education in public schools has extinct and they have turned into ghost schools. The route cause is not the administration or teachers but the mindset of public that ‘a paid item is always high in quality’, has been developed for last two decades.
If parents are alive, make a living and are not oblivious of children’s future, it is considered their parental obligation to send their children to any but at least private school. ‘any’ denotes the quality of not necessarily being qualitative but quantitative in terms of fees structure. This attitude is same as customers’ attitude towards products which have high price tags are believed to be qualitative.
After denationalization in 1990s the rapid increase of 69% in the number of private schools in 1999-2008. The private sector was catering to the educational needs of about 6 million and then 12 million children in 2000 and 2007-08 respectively, the number of teachers also doubled. But it did not keep pace with Pakistan’s literacy rate 43.9 percent in 1998, 57 percent in 2009, 58 percent in 2012, and according to UNESCO it is still 55 percent in 2015 for which it stands at 160th in the world.
It will not of course keep pace because it does not offer “education for all” but actually “education under the hammer”, and being professed the quality education, which needs to be vetted.
Curriculum is well designed but it is not well implemented. Courses are in English and as it is not first language and not spoken widely here, therefore rot learning is practiced. Extra/co-curricular activities do serve as eye candies and then just euphoria for the children and result in lavishing and sometimes lasciviousness.
The teachers’ appointment is claimed to be on merit, as opposed to government schools where teachers are recruited on the basis of what they contributed in elections to the winning party and will keep on serving in polling stations in future for the party. In private schools teachers with average 13.5 years of education are appointed who never dare to bargain with masters in private school. Why do such schools compromise on teacher’s qualification? Purpose is to exploit their ordeal which made them opt for a job with less than minimum wage rate Rs.13000 instead of continuing education.
Being too much merit conscious not only do the schools interview the candidate but parents must also prove to be well-educated & well-mannered in interview. Are we going back to Middle Ages when in Europe the only children that were able to attend school were the sons of wealthy, aristocrat families before 1852?
The merit, private schools purport does not reflect in evaluation and assessment; Taking admission in private school is not only means to end but the parents have to access the tutor who would ‘make a difference’ in children’s results as well. Tutors assist the student (whom they tutor) in the same way as a printed guide in govt. schools’ exam, I have seen my friend forging a student’s answer sheet and giving him good grades in assessing the school’s exam copies, and ‘making a difference’. In this way education is being sold.
Concept of stick fear and drill has been replaced by motivation and recapitulation, but motivational techniques actually motivate for not to be motivated in acquiring knowledge and embolden them in enjoying the “bought life” and obtain a degree.
Mostly the teacher in private school is not even allowed to scold or punish the pupil as it will discourage him (from the mischief he has been doing), you find head’s offices bulging with parents; mothers teach the teaching staff the recent vogue with teamed up dresses, shoes and accessories, grumbling about teacher’s attitude—so meticulous about the money they spend! The person at helm of affairs frowns and admonishes the teacher and with the nightmare of again standing guilty at ‘trial’ s/he makes the pupil apple of his/her eye that s/he has ever been reckless at treatment.
Having “profit making” a goal private schools’ focus is customer satisfaction and they never condone the ‘laborer’ who displease or repulse the ‘customer’.
Both, parents and students are well versed that one who is compelled to work on a meager salary should never dare turn harsh on the payers (students).
Eventually brats succeed in buying degree and being waited on – gone were the days when teachers were waited on in exchange of the knowledge they imparted; knowledge was priceless those days.
Instead of being extravagant heed could be taken in the prosperous era of government schools. If parents had scrutinized the teachers’ behavior, curriculum, evaluation and assessment, the government schools would not be devoid of teachers and education in Pakistan.
[ Source :- Edarticle ]