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Equal Opportunity and the Education System in Pakistan

发布时间:2018-06-08
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Equal Opportunity and the Education System in Pakistan


The article in hand is a sociopolitical critique about prevalent situation of equal opportunities (EO) within the context of primary education in public sector in the educational system of Pakistan. The research is based on available published statistical data to describe the issue of lack of EO. Researcher states that due to lack of documented data, primary, secondary and higher education levels of private sector are not discussed in this paper.

Rukhsana Zia is a teacher in government colleges for the past 25 years so the issue of EOs has been evident to her, moreover her participation in social work motivated her to highlight the issue of EO for the social consciousness of the policy makers and planners. This paper tends to analyze the lack of equal opportunities in education system of Pakistan to identify determinants of the existing situation. Researcher also provides a comparison between Pakistan and western world regarding the consciousness about resolving the issue of EO.

Researcher used critical social theory to analyze and reflect on the situation to identify possible determinants for the EO, as critical theory criticizes society from some general theory of values and norms. The data studied for research reveals a wide difference in the educational figures for the various provinces, urban and rural areas and for boys and girls.

Researcher studied the documented data about gross enrolment rate (GER) and the school entry rate of primary school children and concluded that there is an immense difference between the school entry rate among the provinces, the rural/urban and the male/female. She claims that the highest school entry rate was found in Punjab, followed by Sindh and NWFP and then Baluchistan. Furthermore GERs were higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas (87 and 63 percent respectively) and for boys comparative to girls (78 and 61 percent respectively). In the light of the above, researcher believes that a bias exists in the educational system and EO is not a viable force in the scheming of the education system of the country.

Researcher analyses the prevailing education system of the country to identify the determinants of the existing situation. She believes that quality of education, access and condition of schools, insufficient funding by government and poor management of the education system are the causal factors of existing situation.

Researcher uses data collected by PIHS (Pakistan Integrated Household Survey) to ascertain that 57 percent of girls whereas 18 percent of boys are not allowed by parents to attend the school which establishes the fact that discrimination against females dominates in the socio-cultural patterns of the country. In spite of all variations, the common factor observed by researcher in every province and region, was the relationship between parents’ income/education and school attendance i.e. poorer families do not send their children to school as stated by Shavit and Blossfeld (1993), the impact of parental socioeconomic status on children’s educational opportunity remained stable or even widened. Treiman, Ganzeboom, and Rijken (2003) argue that father’s educational level increased children’s chances of gaining higher education. This delineates the fact that socio-cultural biases are further amplified by poverty.

On the basis of PIHS data, researcher provides a discourse about non-government (NG) schools. Researcher states that unexpectedly, many children even from low-income families attend NG schools because they often provide higher quality education than government schools. This evidence confirms that quality education is a prerequisite along with issues of equal opportunity and access. Researcher articulates that the private schools are highly priced, and provide a better quality of education than the public sector. Consequently children from the lower socio-economic strata lose their chance to quality education, and this factor places them at a disadvantage when competing for jobs in later life. Desai, Adams, and Dubey (2006) argue that we have come across many instances in which inequalities in education result into discrimination in access to government services and employment. Same viewpoint is supported by Halsey, Heath, and Ridge 1980; Hauser and Featherman 1976, that inequality in education between different social strata continues and sometimes even widens in spite of educational growth. This increases the responsibility on the public sector to provide education to all so that income discrepancy does not affect the opportunities to a better quality of life, either at home or at work.

Researcher then compares the situation of EO in Pakistan to similar situations in other countries and observes a vast difference in perspectives of developed countries and Pakistan, an underdeveloped economy. Both are tackling the issue of EO, but at different levels. The West has the added advantage of 100 percent enrolments in its schools, which is not so in Pakistan. Moreover most developed countries of the world have introduced the concept of EO in their curriculum, teaching objectives, classroom environment, teaching materials and strategies. West is dealing with the issue within its classrooms whereas Pakistan has yet to instigate a socio-cultural attitudinal change in the populace.

By keeping the limited access of children to education in mind, researcher emphasizes the quantity requirements for education along with the quality issues. She suggests that Pakistan clearly needs to resolve the issue of EO at the community level so EO practices should be commenced inside and outside the school at the same time. In the closing researcher emphasizes the need for effective and sustainable solution to the existing situation of lack of EO in terms of area, gender, and social class.

Researcher picked up a very sensitive educational and social issue but in my opinion could not justify the problem as there is repetition of same issues throughout the paper. Data is not handled, displayed and discussed in an effective way. Pie charts would be more effective for comparison of variables. Although it was mentioned in the limitations of the study that due to non availability of data, NG schools are not included in the research but there were discussions about NG schools throughout the paper.

Writing style and language of researcher is not clear consequently the research does not magnetize the interest of reader. Possible solutions are not suggested to the issues discussed in the research paper and if suggested, those are quite vague. Moreover private sector plays an important role in education system of Pakistan which is completely neglected in this paper. An empirical research is suggested to analyze Equal Opportunities issues in private sector OR a comparative study of either equal opportunities or quality of education in private and public sector could be conducted.

REFERENCES

Desai, S., C.D. Adams, and A. Dubey. 2006. “In the Margins: Social Inequalities in Children’s Educational Outcomes in India.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, March 30–April 1, Los Angeles.

Halsey, A.H., A. Heath, and J.M. Ridge. 1980. Origins and Destinations. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Hauser, R.M. and D.L. Featherman. 1976. “Equality of Schooling: Trends and Prospects.” Sociology of Education 49:99–120.

Shavit, Y. and H.-P. Blossfeld, eds. 1993. Changing Educational Attainment in Thirteen Countries. Boulder: Westview Press.

Treiman, D.T., H.G.B. Ganzeboom, and S. Rijken. 2003. “Educational Expansion and Educational Achievement in Comparative Perspective.” California Center for Population Research Working Paper CCPR-007-03. University of California, Los Angeles.

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Ayesha Khawar

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