Beside, the factors that have been put into spotlight in the last two blogs, there are many more multifaceted issues that are the real hindrance not only towards provision of quality of education to the existing enrolled children but also to the enrollment 24 million children in the country, who have been left behind. As the country suffers from extensive educational crisis, those who attend do must deal with absence of teachers, poor infrastructure and low key learning beside the other prevailing challenges.
Lack of interest: Most of the middle and lower middle class of the country, who don’t take interest to educate their children, views it as a wastage of time and their limited available resources. It is predominant thoughts that they cannot see the economic benefits to spare their children to attend school. They let their children to get involve in their businesses or earn independently to sustain their families rather than supporting them to educate over the years and eventually they won’t be able to find a job to compensate their families for their long years investment on them.
Terrorism: Terrorism is one of the menace that has put the education system into grave danger over the last decade. In the Federally Administrated Tribal Area (FATA) of Pakistan, over a thousand schools have been completely destroyed by terrorists violence and bombs. Moreover, over a million of people have been forcibly internally displaced from their homes due to terrorism and fight between the security forces and terrorists. This relocation and traveling to Internally displaced peoples (IDPs) camps has further limited their access to education, especially in FATA and Baluchistan.
‘Madrasa’ System: In a conservative or religious led society like Pakistan, where the role of religion cannot be denied, however, disconnection of this religious schools from the modern or scientific education has also intensified the polarization among the different segment of the society. In the KPK (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ) province, 1 out of 3 children attend Madrassa education, a religious education system. After their graduation, the Madrassas graduates do not well fit into the job market due to their lack of skills and acquaintances with modern scientific education, except their contribution in theological work.
Separate Gender Schools: In pakistan, each gender has assigned with separate set of schools, mostly in rural areas of the country; where boys cannot study in a girls’ school and vice versa. Due to lack of resources Government is partially successful to expand the network of boys schools but here gender inequality and socio-cultural taboos limit the opportunity for girls to study with boys. Some parents do not want their daughters to get education in the co-education system and feel it shame for their family.
These are the some of the obvious challenges that Pakistan would be facing to achieve it Sustainable Development Goal-4 by 2030 to provide inclusive and equitable quality education to promote lifelong learning opportunities for the million of children, who are out of school. On the other hand, many may leave school without being equipped with basic literacy due to lack of quality education and absence of sound national education system of textbook, policies, and curriculum, where each province has different set of standards and policies. Though the challenges are very interconnected and complex, but still there is a strong hope and prospect to improve the pitiful situation to not only attain the SDG-4 but also to put the country on the track of development, prosperity and peace.