My Experience with the Education System of Pakistan

Hello everyone. I am Farrukh Hijaz and I will be writing on this blog from now on. To start with, I will be writing a 3 part article series on Education System of Pakistan. Today’s article will be about my own experience with the system. It will be followed by a general overview of the pre-university education available in Pakistan and the huge divide in the different systems implemented in the country. Finally I will be looking into the university education systems. In the last article I will discuss the differences between different universities and something more specific to my own university i.e. NUST-SEECS…

I remember when I was a kid, I used to go to school and learn things by heart. I memorized questions and answers and aced exams after exams. Advancing through the classes, I just did the same i.e. memorized things for a short period of time and passed my exams in flying colors. Our school had a computer subject from class 6 onward till class 8. We were taught QBASIC in those classes. I remember that we even memorized the computer programs (which were around 10-15 lines each). Time went on, I reached class 9. It was time for Board Exams. We were supposed to understand and solve the paper. I can easily claim that a huge majority of the class just memorized whatever came in their way and reproduced it accurately during the exams. I was one of them as well. Although I did understand Computer Science and Maths pretty well, I just memorized all the proofs in Physics without knowing what it really meant. And then we got into college. By now our minds were supposedly mature enough to grasp the knowledge and basic concepts. It was time for us to understand and gain knowledge and leave behind the “Rata System”. But, it was all the same. The exams were made in such a way that you got to memorize stuff and only those people got marks that were able to reproduce the stuff as it was written in the book or notes.

I have a friend who has done O/A-levels. I used to discuss the education system with him. I realized that we have a lot to learn from their system. Their course is made in such a way that the student have to understand the concepts. The exams are made such that it tests the basic problem solving ability and main concepts of a student. We can easily sit down and analyze what’s wrong but I doubt anyone is willing to do so. We need to realize that we are doing something wrong and that we need a change. Let’s hope that we live long enough to see that much needed change.

A new era began for me when I got admission in NUST. I was lucky enough to be taught by one of the best Calculus teacher present in SEECS. Thanks to him, I was able to cover the deficiencies in Maths. But then there still was room of huge improvements in other subjects. I saw different kind of teachers here at NUST. Some brilliant while other just OK and there were some from whom I never gained any knowledge. Some of the teachers taught us real knowledge, made us use our minds while others just kept on going with the same old system i.e. memorize and reproduce…

One thing that I noticed was that I never felt a problem in getting good grades in those subjects in which I had developed interest. But getting a good grade in subjects in whom I had no interest was a gigantic task. Now, I realized that my interest in a subject was heavily dependent on the teaching style of the teacher. I was lucky that I got very capable and qualified teachers in most of my relevant and core subjects. But others were not so lucky… During my bachelor’s studies, I felt that too much emphasis was given on getting grades rather than learning, too much emphasis was given on theory rather than practical skills. I think more emphasis should have been on lab work and projects. Also, the marks division should have been such that it should have forced the students to concentrate more on their practical skills.

This is what I feel about the education system that I went through. Pakistan has got a lot of talent, a lot of untapped brain power. BUT it is all going to a waste. We need to change our education system or face the music. The world today, as it stands, is controlled by those who have knowledge. Our progress and prosperity is solely based on educating our next generation, THE RIGHT WAY. So, let’s start thinking about how we can bring about a change. We can start by spreading awareness. So let’s spread the word and start working towards a better Pakistan…

Comments, suggestions and criticisms are welcomed in the comments sections…