T HE quality of education in Pakistan can be gauged from the decades-old curriculum that is being taught in most schools and colleges. In this era of technology, when students elsewhere are empowered with modern education gadgets and tools, we feed young minds with old f acts and obsolete information. Nonation can move ahead with an old, rusty curriculum.

We need to come up with fresh ideas and update our curriculum according to international standards to overcome thechallenges of quality education in Pakistan.

There are different curricula followed by dif ferent educational systems within the country. The national education system comprises matriculation and intermediate level that are further divided into English and Urdu mediums. The Cambridge education system includes O and A levels.

Then, we have government and private sectors that follow different types of syllabus and textbook. And, finally, we have seminaries that are attended by thousands of children. These multiple systems create disparities in society.

Fresh schools, colleges, institutes and academies keep cropping up at a frequency that is as amazing as it is alarming, because they do not plan to provide quality education but to earn a fortune in the name of education.

Unfortunately, the approach of the students is not much different. They, or at least most of them, only want to pass exam after exam till they get a job. There is concern about society at large. As for the parents, they invest in their children to get a return on their investment later in life.

Mahpara Tunio Larkana