Failiure of Pakistani Education System

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Back in 50's and 60's the education standard of Pakistani schools was well know , with limited resources , the quality of students produced was on par with many world standard school systems. I heard from my parents students used to come to study in Pakistani Universities and schools back then

But that system has faced gradual decline since 70's and became neglected more during 80's and 90's it became a norm to look the other way.

Before we look at the overall system in place, the Pakistani system (Metric , Grade 10) the final exams bear a heavy load on students as generally almost 100% of passing or failing is dependent on that exam, and the students are forced to Memories whole "books" and page by page aspect of lectures and and memorize the material rather then understand the concepts or really benefit from understanding the material being taught in the books.

Before we go in deeper , we have to understand the schools in Pakistan

a) The privileged , army's children and kids they go to schools were standards are high and the education
standard is high and such thing are not abundant , and the result is quality students are produced.

b) We have private schools or in case of children who live abroad , they can go to designated schools
in foreign countries , in many instances the quality of education is still very high , and parents supplement
the education of children with Tuition (extra teaching by teachers after school) this gives their children
a solid base for future development , and many of these children end up finding successful jobs word wide
not only Pakistan.

c) Elites in Pakistan, majority of them send their kids inside Pakistan in high level private schools and
schools that also focus on O level from British schools etc and curriculum is high standard and after
that the children are sent to UK or US to complete their studies.

d) Then we have the Public schools , the public schools , there is neglect
That does not means there are no true "Geniuses in the system" that still get 90%-99% marks
but that talent sits with perhaps who knows 60% of students that really should not be passing their
courses

1) Lack of proper teachers
2) Lack of desire or finances to properly train the children
3) Lack of education needed to succeed at higher levels example (College , University etc)

Students that attend the public school range from children of

1) Working class folks but who understand the system and give help to their kids with tuition
2) We have Middle class people who send their children to schools just so they can be better in life
3) Poor people who send the kids to school some of them quit school by grade 7-8


However, the cheating culture is highly visible once the kids reach the grade 9 and grade 10th examination
and due to pressure to pass any means are achieved so that there is no shame if the children do not pass and the problem exists greatly in the public schools and specially the children that did not had proper training or education during the course of the year or no guidance on what to practice for exams. This forces them to
Cheat.

Many of our courses and exam papers have "rules" that you can "NEVER" get more then this % in a particular course. Does not matter how many pages you write in exam going thru the system I realized there were some exam papers where I was told by my peers that you must write at least 10 pages in essay in order to get any marks over 5/10. Again. I later realized my mistake , that it's not really the number of pages but rather the quality of content you write that determines what you write however the system we have has no way to determine the quality.

In-fact one of the most painful memories of my school life is from my school internal exams where we used to internally calculate who got the most marks in tests, in fact I the years specifically when I started to show up in top ranking , I think there was a particular year (Grade 7) where I was #1 in ranking until the final day only to see myself dropped to #2 due to someone I knew cheated in few of finals tests to jump ahead. I thought I would forget that day but when every I look back I for what ever reason remember that day. Obviously , later I face the same scenes in Metric exams (of course not to the extent above), however I saw the problems even then in system. But regardless I breezed thru Metric and then grade 11 and grade 12 , I needed help from my parents to get thru Grade 11 and 12 as the advance science courses the teacher's teaching was so limited
But I was still a A-1 or A level student

I still remember those exams , having 100-300 page books and not know what question will come out of that book that I must know the pressure was huge. I remember doing every single solution in Math Book 1 by one , and lastly the examples before exams just to cover every thing. It was tough.

I did not know the "Application of the algebric equations" or the concept behind trigonometry but I just had to know what these formulas meant and how to solve it when it comes in exams

The Urdu or English courses were same pattern exams , that repeated question for essay that came after every next exam paper so the formula we developed was get papers of last 10 years and the questions would be similar. But we still studied hard.

Comparison vs the Western School system:

Me and various others in our groups went out of our school system once our names showed up in passing list on Grade 12 again I was above most of my friends perhaps 1 in our group was above me but all of us ended up getting spread out the world after that as our parents did not see any value in Local school systems and security situation. Some of my talented friends did end up going back to Karachi / Islamabad and they finished their University , and yet they maintained their brilliant minds.

For me next came the 1-1 with Western School system very different approach to learning
a) Your year was broken down into Weekly homework marks 15%
b) Quizes 15% mini exams
b) Your year year had 2 major exams (Mid term 30%) and Finals (30%)
c) Your attendance also was recorded and it merited marks from Teacher (10%)

Aced thru that greater then 80% average. There saw students getting 95% averages for year from Hong Kong etc and local kids so really knew that the level of competition has risen

There was a different mind set , in high education institutes , huge libraries in Universities , research material and mini small size classes. And of course some of the high Universities had "$$$ funding for research for students"

I wonder now its 2014, and I see the video and I see same images I saw when I was going thru that system , it seems nothing has changed much and some where there must be a smart mind wondering why this is allowed when they are not cheating as the one around them.

Those kids that cheat they get their pass (temporary win) , but later in life they really don't reach their full potential and that is the sad part.

Listen to comments by students in this video just mind boggling

 

[SrNair]

Why GoP dont take any action?