WHY is it that all government decisions are based on circumstances or
happenings as they existed fourteen centuries ago? Could it be ignorance
stemming from lack of education?
The prime vital issue of the nation's education has from the birth of
the country been the last on the lists of priorities of all our
governments. The majority of the ministers who have been given the
education and science and technology portfolios have not only been
unconnected with either the field of education or of science and
technology but have largely been uneducated men, the word uneducated'
being here used in the profound sense of the word. For instance, in the
last two governments, the second for both Benazir and Nawaz, Benazir's
federal education minister was one Khurshid Shah, building contractor by
profession, and Nawaz's, of all people, the proven corrupt and uncouth
Ghous Ali Shah. And this in a land where the world's first university
was established in 700 BC at Taxila, the ruins of which still stand at a
few miles distance from the capital city.
By comparison, the government of General Pervez Musharraf has chosen an
educationist as its education minister and the science and technology
portfolio has been handed over to a scientist, Professor Dr
Atta-ur-Rahman. Professor Rahman, in a speech delivered at Islamabad
last Friday, told his audience that good governance is not possible
without there being a merit-based challenging education system." If
Pakistan wishes to forge ahead, he rightly said, education must be the
main priority. Worthy of remark is the startling fact that the total GDP
of all the Islamic countries put together is half that of Germany and a
quarter of that of Japan in spite of the fact that the Islamic
countries control 74 per cent of the world oil business. This low GDP
rating is the result of a low level of education, the only area in which
countries such as Germany and Japan have the advantage.