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Schooling

Education Challenges

There is some light visible at the end of the tunnel for students in Pakistan.

By Anmol Irfan | July 2021


Over a year on from the time when global lockdowns caused daily lives to stand still, Pakistani society is slowly but surely regaining its footing as familiarity comes back to our lives. Like many other countries where education came to a halt, one of the first lockdown measures taken by the Pakistangovernment was the closure of schools, which then shifted to online in some cases. But the country’s lack of digital penetration meant online communication remained a rarity. A recent World Bank study estimated that within an already low literacy rate, an added 930,000 students were estimated to drop out of school in Pakistan, following the onset of the pandemic.

Class inequalities also mean that experiences vary greatly across the board. Online education has brought about its own set of challenges. Sajeer Shaikh, a university student and journalist in Karachi says that adjusting to e-learning has been a struggle. For her, and many other students, it feels teachers and students are no longer finding themselves on the same page. “We’re expected to still print assignments even when online submission is possible,” she says, adding that the extra difficulties brought about by changing education systems have impacted her attention span and interest in studying as a whole at times.

For younger students, whose mothers have to supervise them during online classes, the situation has been even more draining. Bushra, a young mother in Lahore with two children under the age of 6, says she’s had no time to herself - or for anyone other than her children - in this new age of online schooling. With one child needing constant attention, and the other now needing supervision for classes, then homework and then finally needing to be entertained, she feels that she has become unable to truly be there for either of her children.

Online schooling still remains a privilege and those who don’t have access to it believe that those who do are still benefiting from some form of education. Rukhsana, who works as domestic help in Lahore, says her children’s school has given them no clarity or support during the pandemic. Even in the pockets that school did open, she says, “they opened at different hours which made it very difficult for me or my husband to pick and drop my kids as we both work and my kids have lost out as a result.” Her son, who was meant to enter 10th grade last year and sit for his Matriculation exams, is among many who have lost out on a key educational year of their lives.

Aanya Niaz, an education researcher, says there is not enough understanding of the diversity of educational experiences across Pakistan. “Digital penetration varies greatly, across provinces, urban-rural divides and socio-economic classes. This is impacted by gender as well, none of which can be taken into account with blanket initiatives that are meant to be applied on a national level,” she says.

One of the main contributing factors to the uncertainty in the education sector has also been the fact that this is one of the areas where provinces have autonomy to make individual decisions for their own jurisdictions. Studies have noted that Pakistan’s economy risks suffering a loss of $65-155 billion, if learning losses continue. But the loss is not only monetary. Even where e-learning portals, such as the government funded e-Taleem and tele-school programs have been implemented, their impact in a labour-led society - where digital literacy remains low - has been ineffective. Marvi Soomro, the founder of IEI Pakistan, who conducts most of her work in remote areas with little to no internet or even cellular access, says that learning poverty has been threatened and would increase from 75%-79%. “For working class communities, it’s often hard to see the immediate value of education. You simply can’t ask a working family to suddenly understand that the TV is now educational and sit down and watch when there’s work to be donel,” she says. She talks about how a major reason for the failure of the tele-school programmes has been a complete lack of awareness initiatives and long-term educational reform that is needed in the majority of Pakistan’s rural and remote areas.

There is no doubt that the pandemic will drastically increase educational inequality across socio-economic classes.

There is no doubt that the pandemic will drastically increase educational inequality across socio-economic classes. Education experts further fear the impact of being forced to implement a new and very demanding Single National Curriculum in these already trying times. Hybrid systems are being put in place where students can come in for a days every week to stay on track and while these systems may seem to be helping, experts like Marvi Soomro believe the impact of the pandemic will still be severe. “There’s a need for trust-building. Someone needs to tell them we are here, that whatever your child has missed can be covered. A child who is constantly been seeing failure in school due to learning poverty will lack motivation to continue education,” she says, while adding that more focus needs to be put on long-term awareness programmes.

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