Check commoditization of education.

Byline: Syed Fazl-E-Haider

Government should work out a roadmap for development of human resources in the country

Education continues to be commercialized in Pakistan. The businessmen took interest and invested heavily in education sector turning education into a commodity on sale in lieu of high charges in terms of fee. Private schools, colleges and institutions witnessed a mushroom growth all over the country as the major business groups and tycoons made substantial investment in education sector. On the other hand, the government schools, colleges and universities remained stuck to their obsolete syllabi, old teaching methodology and worn out system of examination to judge the knowledge and ability of the students.

Universities in public sectors have so far produced an army of jobless Graduates and post Graduates, most of them are incapable to compete in practical fields. They have only one distinction of having a bachelor or master degrees in various disciplines to accomplish the formality of required job. Truly speaking, their degrees are worthless in practical scheme of the things.

A common man cannot afford to pay even the fee for a semester being charged by the quality institutions offering professional degrees. In fact, getting a professional degree is becoming not only difficult but impossible for the middle class. It is beyond the reach of the lower middle class and the poor cannot even think of getting a professional degree in the given circumstances.

Friendly and peaceful environment, standard educational facilities, high-tech computing services, institutional infrastructure and the necessary paraphernalia are considered the requisites for establishing a quality professional education institution today. These requisites can be met at high costs in terms of investment capital.

These are the tangible elements for a quality educational institution. But there are intangible factors, which are even more important for achieving the desiderata vis-a-vis quality education. The intangible factors include discipline, communication skills, professionalism, educational ethics, standard teaching methodology and meritocracy. It is a hard fact that if tangible criteria for the quality education are met only, ignoring the intangible factors, the education becomes a 'commodity' on sale. This leads to commercialization of education - greater the investment, higher the price for 'commodity'.

A cursory look at the campus building complex of a...

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