Right to education is theoretically considered to be on the list of fundamental human rights in our times. Education in a wider sense is what distinguishes us from other species on this planet. It makes us what we are; humans. It is a reflection of knowledge we have acquired in a long evolutionary process spread over eons.

Knowledge has objective and subjective dimensions which are umbilically linked. The objective dimension deals with how we interact with and change nature to make it what in our view is more hospitable for us.

The subjective dimension is concerned with the inner world created by natural and socially evolved forces individuals are forced to deal with. This is what poet Sultan Bahu hints at in his famous verse: `the heart is a river deeper than the ocean / who can fathom its secrets?` Human effort apparently has been to create a balance, however, delicate it might be between the two.

Education has always been part ofhuman society regardless of its form shaped by historical conditions.

Traditionally, it was imparted orally i.e, it was transmitted from mouth to mouth and generation to generation. Informal education was the responsibility of parents, extended family and the community. Children learnt from what their elders transmitted to them by word of mouth and example. In South Asia it was institutionalised as Gurukul tradition: students lived with teachers.

The education not only emphasised learning but also took care of moral and spiritual training along with practical life skills. The printed word was scarce. But informal and formal pedagogies co-existed and cemented each other. The invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in the 15th century in Germany revolutionised educational practices. It made the dissemination of information and l
The printing press was intro-duced in our region by European colonialists. The first press was set up by Jesuit missionaries in 1556 in Goa. During the era of British colonialism in India its use became widespread not because of general and literary books but due to printing of text books. Colonial administration in Punjab established a vast network of schools and colleges which started imparting education based on the British model.

Students enrolled from cities, towns and countryside were large in numbers. They needed text books and other learning material. The printing press made it possible to meet the demand. The quality of education wasn`t as high as back home in Britain but still it was a jump forward as it had secular character.

Education from primary to secondary level was almost free. Charges were so nominal that even poor parents of students could afford it.

About the quality let me remind you of our Nobel Laureates, Har Gobind Khurana and Dr. Abdul Salam. Former`s father was a Patwari, a village agricultural taxation clerk. Khurana says in his autobiography: `Although poor, myfather was dedicated to educating his children and we were practically the only literate family in the village inhabited by about 100 people.` It is said that for the first five years he got his education under a tree which functioned as the government school. The latter`s case isn`t much different. Dr. Adus Salam got his early education from the government school and college in Jhang. Both great minds touched the height of knowledge in physical sciences.

After the emergence of Pakistan as an independent state this system of education gradually suffered an irreparable loss, both in terms of infrastructure and quality of education due to criminal neglect of concerned departments and dereliction of duty by officials. Things have come to such a pass that the Punjab government instead of rectifying the situation has started outsourcing government primary and middle schools to private individuals and entities, to its cronies, to be precise. During the last few decades the private sector, propped and supported by various governments and officialdom, has enteredthe education sector with a bang.

All the racketeers, private individuals and officials, can smell money.

The children of the poor and lower middle class have been counted out as if they don`t deserve education at all. Middle classes pay through the nose; they sell their family assets to get their children educated. The fees and unnecessary charges are exorbitant, and are arbitrarily raised every few months on one pretext or another. The regulator never takes notice of such malpractices.

No one keeps an eye on the quality of education. The teaching staff is underpaid, to say the least. The curriculum isn`t broad; it is conservative and ideologically driven.

High-end schools and colleges ape the western model abjectly.

Nothing about real Pakistan finds space in their text books. History of the land, culture, flora and fauna, music, theatre and film-making are taboosubjects.SpeakingEnglishis considered an epitome of knowledge. Rote learning is the norm even. This banl(ing system in education was brilliantly analywed and exposed by Paulo Freire in his highly celebrated book Pedagogy ofthe Oppressed. Education treats the teacher as if he is a depositor and a student a depository. No questioning, no critical thinking. What would come out of students` accounts (minds) would be what has been deposited. Conformism is prized as an intellectual value which would take anyone nowhere in today`s highly competitive world premised on innovative ideas and practices. Our phoney elite instead of bringing 24 million out-of-school children to school, standardising syllabus and curriculum intends to add to their number by washing its hands of the whole project of primary education. Such a foolishly cruelactis bound to add to already existing inequality. The super rich send their children abroadfor education. The rich go for snotty schools inside the country where learning is imbued with deep contempt for anything this country can be proud of. The end resultis that we end up creating two different worlds and two different worldviews based on class inequality in our society. The yawning chasm thus created would soon suck us in.

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