PROBLEMS OF EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN

Introduction

1 here was a time, when India sub-continent was noted all over the world as a glorious
centre of education and culture where students from all parts of the globe used to pour in
the educational and cultures Nalanda, Tax.la and Prayag attracted students from the
places, as far as Egypt, Greece, China, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. It was 'an ideal system of
education, which apart from disseminating sweetness and light, infused into the minds of
the pupils a spiritual urge for coming in contact which the kingdom of the Absolute. But
now when we look at the present state of affairs in our country, the change shocks us
deeply and we cry out in the language of Wordsworth.
"Whiter is fled the visionary gleam? Where is it now, the glory and the dream "400
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Prospective Headmasters

It is asserted with great regret by persons of almost every shade of opinion that our
educational system has not undergone any change with the change brought about by
political independence. It bears no imprint of freedom and appears to be as listless and
academic as it used to be during the days of slavery. Our universities still remain
anchored to the pattern that had been introduced a century ago by our British rulers to
serve their administrative needs. The imperfection of that pattern are now keenly felt and
there is a universal cry for introducing a radical change in the educational system - a
change that will touch not merely the methods and curricular but the very objective and
ideology of education, in accordance with the needs of the new social, economical and
political set-up in the country. Passive and Mechanical System

The crowing defect of our existing educational system that requires the immediate * and
earnest consideration of all those who are interested in the welfare of the country, is its
excessively passive and mechanical character. The students play no active role in the
attainment of knowledge. His entire education is passive and mechanical. Things are
loaded or his mind which he cannot digest, which he only crams and therefore they never
become his own. They remain floating on his mental surface a mere matter of idle
inquires; they never sink deep to become entwined in the mental texture, to help to
constitute a distinct intellectual and spiritual personality. Our educational system in the
words of Dr. Annie, is just 'cramming the boy's head with a lot of disjointed facts poured
into the head as into a basket, to be emptied out again in the examination room, and the
empty basket carried out again into the world."

This is the reason why a student who succeeds so well in his college examination fails so
miserably in the examination of life. The best product of our examination system is an
owlish looking, boy, a veritable bookworm who knows nothing of the world beyond the
world books. He is physically poor, intellectually blank and morally insolvent. He has no
proper grasps and assimilation, no views and visions of his own. He is determined to no
acts, has no desire to form convictions, arrives at no conclusions and his will seems to be
suspended, asleep,