One way forward

Today, again and again, we are hearing questions being asked about how Pakistan can possibly overcome its current crisis in so many different spheres. Of course, there are no easy answers. And change can only generally come if there is a holistic approach to the problem. And then you look at the kind of nation we have become. This should mean alterations in many different areas of policy and expert help in putting these on the right footing one by one while altering the economic priorities of the nation. Already experts have appeared on interviews, broadcasts internationally, and podcasts to suggest what these could be.

But there is one area in which it seems progress may come relatively easily and quickly. If we could educate the women of our country, there could be new steps forward in many areas. Currently, barely 50 per cent of Pakistani women are literate. Literacy is also a difficult term to quantify in a nation where it is often measured simply by the ability to sign a name or read a single newspaper headline. But other than this, the facts also are that despite a considerable and encouraging growth in enrolment of girls in schools over the last two decades, less than 30 per cent matriculate or complete 10 years of education, move on to higher learning.

The academic setup of these institutions is also dominated by men in administrative positions and very few women are either teaching or adopting roles in running our universities. Sadly, the HEC has done very little over the past years to alter the situation but it needs to be altered, beginning at the primary stages.

There are statistics such as those from Kerala in India, which now has a literacy rate of almost 100 per cent, that show how educating women can have a dramatic impact on the situation of people in that particular region. For instance, women are able to fight for rights in health and in education, and point out wrongdoings in the government sector if they are educated and empowered to do so. So, it is unfortunate that here we have a situation where in some parts of the country barely one per cent of women are educated. These areas include pockets in Balochistan and many parts of the former tribal areas which are now districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. With these statistics, we simply cannot progress.

And when it comes to education, we must also offer all our children and all our girls meaningful education that can encourage them to acquire jobs and move on in life. India has, for example, achieved this through its institutes of technology, which offer jobs to graduates in all areas of technological learning, a rapidly growing field across the world.

The truth is that too few women go to school for the sake of acquiring work later in life. Families still discourage this in some cases, but the entire argument against allowing women to work is thrown out the window by the economic realities we now face. An educated mother can not only ensure she is able to look after her children better and take care of them in cases of domestic violence, which according to some figures occurs in 80-90 per cent of households, but also take care of them if she is widowed or left to fend for herself or help with home finances. After all, in today’s age, with inflation reaching record proportions, it needs two incomes to enable a household to function and run effectively. In addition, as we hear families pulling children and especially girls out of school in order to save on fees, in times of high economic stress, we need a situation which would allow girls and women to go out and work.

Indeed, women who have children themselves and need to care for at least some of them, could even find opportunities to work from home with education helping them in this manner too. An educated woman can better manage the affairs of business and of running a workshop or performing whatever other work she is able to find at home.

There is no doubt that a country where huge sections of the population are not educated will struggle to progress. We cannot fall into this category. It is therefore essential to promote education amongst women, especially beyond the matric and intermediate level. It is also essential that they be given technical education which allows them to perform various functions. This has been taken on by institutes in northern areas where girls have been trained as carpenters, land surveyors, landscape artists, or in other fields so that they can earn a living and help support families who need income and also need examples set for other girls in their areas and their villages.

The key reason for girls failing to acquire an education is often not based on parental choice but on poverty, with families choosing to send girls and young as12, even less than this, out to work. Another reason why many parents do not send their daughters to school is the distance to educational institutions. Schools which are often located too far away from villages for girls to get to them easily. Long trips by bus are not visible even when such facilities exist. In most cases, they do not exist in the first place anyway. So, introducing and improving transport services for girls and female teachers is important. Empowering women first of all through education and then through work could be a key step in taking forward a nation which appears to have lost its way.

We can wonder and question when this wave was lost. In many ways, this has happened because of a right-wing religious shift as well as the role of autocratic and democratic leaders who do not see education as a priority. But change has to come as it did in nations around the world. In some cases, they have changed remarkably fast.

Pakistan is now one of the least literate nations in the world, falling behind even sub-Saharan African countries. It cannot continue like this. It has to change its outlook and to ensure that women are first brought into classrooms and universities, and then into the workforce. Again, Pakistan has one of the lowest number of women in the workforce anywhere in the world. Change is needed and mainstreaming women to bring this about could help Pakistan immensely at a time it needs to grow and find ways of doing so as quickly as possible.

The writer is a freelance

columnist and former newspaper editor. She can be reached at:

kamilahyat@hotmail.com