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Pakistani education?
Oct 31: The topic being banal and much argued for, I still feel the
necessity to highlight it as no convincing strategy has been proposed to
eradicate this anomaly. Here I refer to the education system of our country
which is torn between double standards – local and foreign. Yet this is not
about the FSc. – A level controversy but more significantly the suffering of
students in both types of education systems. Despite the fact that truth cannot
altered which is supposed to be taught at all educational institutions, there is
a stark difference in the academic courses offered in the local system as
compared to the foreign system.
The local board concentrates on rote learning
and give little importance to actually 'educating' students. This is clearly a
deprivation that the FSc. students suffer. On the other hand, the foreign
studies are far too expensive for the majority population to afford. Whereas A
level students, who seek to rise above the local standards of education which
are understandably not very high, spend a lot of their parents hard-earned money
to acquire this qualification. They consequently have to work harder to meet the
international criterion. However, if they continue to study in Pakistan, they
have to convert their grades to the local boarding system which has set an
unfair scale which seems like a conspiracy to discourage the foreign system of
education. Moreover, medicine in Pakistan has even more challenges to offer
which have no possible solutions to be thought about.
The A level students can,
in fact, not exceed a certain amount of marks no matter how well they perform in
their Advanced Level. On the other hand, after passing several ordeals, an entry
exam is compulsory for admission in a medical college. Students who perform
exceptionally well in FSc. still fail to get admitted due to this added test.
Hence, little is expected of the A level students as the MCAT (Medical College
Admission Test) is based on the local board. When the crucial acceptance or
rejection in a university is confirmed to a student, Medical universities take
the longest to decide their lot of students who are hung in mid-air and are left
with virtually no choice if they get rejected. They either have to change their
career lines or waste a precious year to have another chance to apply to the
universities yet again.
Therefore, the government and education committees are
chiefly responsible for the brain drain Pakistan as future skilled personnel
leave the country due the unfair practises employed here. Above all, monetary
benefits and influence create an even slim chance for sincere candidates. While
the international educating systems focus on character building of students by
carefully balancing academics with extra-curricular activities and making this
an important part of the admission procedures, learning textbooks by heart is
all that is efficiently taught here. For a lay man, it is easy to grasp that
irrespective of the board under which a student is studying, hard work is
necessary for a good result. It is not easy to memorise each and every line of a
book like crazy neither is it any less difficult to grasp the true essence of
every subject and expect about anything being set up in the examination. But
against the obvious law of inevitable mess under a dual policy, I fail to
understand why the government offers local as well as foreign education when the
authorities cannot be fair to both types of systems. This debate can be delayed
indefinitely as seems to be the intention but students have limited time and
injustice must be stopped. This issue needs to be addressed urgently as the
future of the country depends on it. F.P
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| Education News | | Updated: 14 Oct, 2014 |
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