Education has never been the priority of our successive governments, both civilian and military.

That's why our eudcation system is lagging far behind. There were times when we thought that the education system in Punjab and KP seemed to be good before Imran Khan's arrival in the Govt corridors in 2018. However, when Tehreek-e-Insaf came to power there, millions of children were left out of schools. On the other hand, Punjab, where the entire country praised the education system, but after the arrival of the Buzdar government, the situation of the destruction of educational institutions was often in the newspapers.  It is heartbreaking to see such scandals in the education system of Punjab in the last few years. Neither the media nor any newspaper is ready to talk about the condition of the education system there.  The schools of Sindh are easily seen, but the schools of Punjab and their dilapidated buildings are not seen in our media.  Imran Khan government had full hand in the destruction of education system of KP and Punjab.  Just as they destroyed government hospitals with the health card, what they did to the education system here by making Buzdar the Chief Minister of Punjab is unprecedented.  Countrywide statistics as revealed by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef), are three million out-of-school children in the country, particularly the rural areas. According to a report by the Pak-Alliance for Math and Science, the number of out-of-school children in KP province has reached 3.8 million during the previous PTI government in the province for the last eight years.  Schools with no boundary walls, dilapidated and broken structures of buildings, non-availability of drinking water and toilets are the main issues of schools in KP province.

The tall claims by the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to be focusing on improving education system have proven hollow and false. The number of schools which lack basic facilities stands at over 18 thousands due to neglect by the government. Last year, Punjab's Minister of School Education revealed a shocking scandal regarding the Class IX annual examinations under the auspices of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Lahore.  The Punjab minister reportedly revealed that some elements of the Lahore Board sell exam centers for Rs 80,000 while the rate per paper is between Rs 4,000 and Rs 7,000.  Moreover, the minister revealed, persons who had not even cleared the IX or X grade examinations were found doing the duties of supervisors at various examination centres.  The Punjab Teachers' Union also criticized the board, saying it misrepresented the shortage of government teachers and appointed private individuals as supervisors.  How is it possible that matriculation pass or less qualified people give invigilation duty during examination papers?  Exams, of course, are meant to assess student learning. The results, especially at the matriculation level, are of great importance as admission to higher education institutions depends on the marks obtained in these examinations. In the present instance, the use of unfair means puts honest, hardworking students at a disadvantage, makes the evaluation process random, and therefore the able and gifted children fail to compete with the incompetent children despite getting good marks.  The education standard of Pakistan is not satisfactory before and where it was a little better now after this statement of the  Punjab Minister, there is also a disaster. This is the situation of only one board of Punjab. Just imagine what will happen to the rest of the boards, but the thing to think about is that if such a revelation had happened in Sindh, the media anchors would have been criticizing the PPP for many days by doing live programs.  But a welcome thing is that the government has taken notice and is trying to tighten the circle of this mafia, but why have the people involved not been arrested yet?

 The usual course of action in such cases is that the officials involved are posted elsewhere where they continue to engage in dishonesty for personal gain, although any government official found to be involved in any kind of criminal activity should be punished at least as much as the punishment must be to terminate his/her job. If the students are also involved in cheating or such scams, they should also be caught. To improve the education system, all the stakeholders should sit together and introduce a method of examination that makes cheating impossible. It can be done and the education boards can also be monitored so that they do not do illegal work.  All the four provinces including Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan should introduce such a transparent system of examinations which will end the cheating of male and female students and develop the ability of children to pass the examinations with hard work and dedication.  It is hoped that the four provinces will immediately abandon the current series of examinations and introduce a system of annual performance evaluation of students on a modern and scientific basis, which will discourage anti-education mafia and close all doors of copying and cheating in exams. Our education is system is already in doldrums and such moves, it will go down to irreparable stage. Rather, we should focus on improving our education system, it is time to prioritize education sector.  The education sector has never been short of challenges in our country, but right now it is faced with huge crisis due to lack of funds  at almost every level due to economic crisis that has badly impacted almost every sector. Though the previous  governments had promised remedial steps for bringing education back on track, but on the ground there seem to be no steps intact which can help revive the fortunes of the education sector across the country. In the  budget 2023, a good amount of  funds to the tune of Rs59.7 billion has been allocated for the ongoing and new schemes of the Higher Education Commission under the Public Sector Development Programme.As reported, an estimated Rs52.8 billion and Rs6.9 billion have been allocated for both the ongoing and new schemes of the HEC respectively. The education losses since the Corona pandemics have reached an alarming level and now the unprecedented economic crisis has also caused a dent to the field. The higher education has suffered the most during and after this period as it was already a subject of neglect on part of the successive Federal governments. Right now the HEC has been faced with multiple problems, the foremost being the lack of funds. The previous coalition government had promised an increase in HEC budget and the same was announced in the budget , which was greatly welcome as for the universities that are facing the dilemma of coping with their rising expenses including the 15 to 20 increases in salaries of the employees and staff. The Single National Curriculum issue is also persisting and it needs a lot of work on part of the government to redress the apprehensions of parents and other stakeholders.  The previous government of PTI willfully neglected and ignored the issues raised by parents and provinces with regard to the SNC but time has come the current government must remove those issues before further educational losses occur. As a matter of fact, it is a serious issues and educationists think that it will require a lot of time and deliberations to  removes  the controversial contents from the curriculum to set things right on the education front which is on the receiving end for decades under the successive governments.

Not only the higher education, the school education is also in doldrums and the Annual Status of Education Report Punjab Rural 2021 showed that ratio of out-of-school children in Punjab province has risen to alarming 14%, up by almost 5% from the 2019 statistics.  The out-of-school-children dilemma is also alarming in Balochistan and Sindh. And serious efforts are needed to overcome this issue. It is hoped that the four provinces will immediately abandon the current series of examinations and introduce a system of annual performance evaluation of students on a modern and scientific basis, which will discourage anti-education mafia and close all doors of copying and cheating in exams. In Sindh the grading system is going to be introduced and others provinces should also follow the lead.