There is a desperate need to have increase science education in the country to cope with the rapidly changing technological world.
At a time when the developed world is reaping huge benefits of education in terms of nation building and progress at all levels, Pakistan which is taking, what it says, vigorous initiatives, but with wrong priorities, to get parallel to the developed nations is still at the elementary stages of promoting science education from primary to higher education level.
The low enrolment rates at the primary level, lack of trained teachers, deficiency of proper teaching materials and poor physical infrastructure of schools and most important of all the lack of vision have emerged as a potential challenges sending one into deep surprise.
Gone are the days when battlefields were the deciding place for nations fate. Today is the time of educational institutions. Advancement in the field of science and technology is the only alternative Pakistan can have as it could dawn an era of economic development.
No doubt we have a network of educational institutions but what is lacking is the dedicated and professional academia besides a regulated curricular mechanism.
Furthermore, non-provision of science laboratories especially at secondary education level public sector schools coupled with the non-serious approach of official authorities has aggravated the situation.
Though some positive initiatives have been taken regarding provision of necessary facilities and quality science and technology education institutions like LUMS, FAST, COMSATS, NUST, GIKI, yet there still much more needs to be done to come at par with the developed world.
Lower government spending on education has always been a dilemma. Even shrinking of monetary allocation towards higher education is creating financial woes of those students getting higher education abroad on government scholarships.
In fact, it is a chain of issues that emanates from the primary education. The extremely low level of public investment is the major cause of the poor performance of Pakistan’s education sector.
While on the teaching side, the quality of education is on the decline and quality of teachers especially at primary level is still questionable. It is evident that without teachers transformation we cannot transform the education system for improving the quality of education.
There is a desperate need to have a force of science teachers trained in using modern teaching methodologies and conducting science practical at the required level.
Until and unless we take stringent initiatives to reform our education, the promotion of science and technology culture would remain a distant dream. And of course we are no longer in a position to sustain with the declining situation.