We Will Accompany the Inkpot Until Our Death

[Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal]

Between the years 1985 and 2004 the literacy rate in developing countries hovers between 68 – 77% according to the Global Monitoring Report issued by UNESCO. Averaging this out overall, the world’s illiteracy rates are about 82%. Except in Pakistan where literacy still remains at around 50% – not far above the 49% in Nepal and 43% in Bangladesh. If you compare these figures with India whose literacy rate is 61% and Sri Lanka which is a very impressive 90%. Even the various provinces show incredible variances: Balochistan, for instance has just 33% literacy rate with only 27% of the women in Balochistan being literate. So why, in a Muslim country, is there such a dire rate of literacy – not just amongst women, but generally?

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Social values, you would assume, would put education high on the list of priorities in an Islamic country Muslims are exhorted to ‘Seek the knowledge from the cradle to the grave’ – yet the infrastructure simply isn’t there to be able to do so. Young men nowadays are do adept at being misdirected into entering into a campaign of terror, blowing themselves up in the belief they will go direct to Heaven yet, if they were actually familiar with the Quran they would understand that education was of more value to them:

“Seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim”

[Saying of Holy Prophet, P.B.U.H.]

So, what really is the problem with education in Pakistan? Is it lack of generalized priorities amongst the populace? Or lack of funding? Or even the presence of too much terrorism? None of these questions can give a true answer as to what is wrong with a suitable program of education in Pakistan. I think, in part, the education of adults needs to be a priority if children are to receive widespread and adequate education. The adults closest to them need to be made aware that by educating their children they are acting within God’s Will and they will be blessed for it:

“Whoever seeks a way to acquire knowledge Allah will make easy his way to Paradise”

[Saying of Holy Prophet, P.B.U.H.]

Clearly, better trained teachers and more designated teacher training institutes are needed to ensure sufficient teachers would be available to teach the children but, without the children to teach that is rather a wasted exercise. Many things are being blamed for illiteracy – things that are really the symptom rather than the illness: lack of teaching aids [a good teacher can easily manage without]; lack of school buildings [teach in the open air when the weather permits]. What is needed is more value being placed on education – both formal and informal education. Education is vital for improving the overall levels of literacy of the country in general but, more than that: literacy can lead to improved industry and skills which, in turn will enable Pakistan as a country to hold its head up high and enter into the global economy on the same basis and with equal status to the more advanced nations of the world. Education is the key that opens the global economy to Pakistan’s future: it certainly isn’t in becoming a martyr to a perceived cause!

“The ink of a scholar is more sacred than the blood of a martyr.” [Prophet Muhammad Ibn Abdullah]