KARACHI: Higher education needs to be fixed in the country which in itself would fix many other problems stemming from it, said Dr Riaz Ahmad Shaikh, head of the social sciences department at the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, on Sunday.

Speaking during a discussion held at the Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences, speakers presented their ideas on the current education budget while asking students, teachers and concerned citizens to assert their authority when it comes to discussing and debating the budget.

Organised by the National Students Federation, a quote at the back of the pamphlet handed out during the discussion read, “When politics decides your future, decide what your politics is.” The quote is said by Aparajita Raja, president of the All-India Students Federation of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, in March, a month after student protests against the hanging of convict Afzal Guru at JNU resulted in the state slapping them with sedition charges. This resulted in similar protests across India.

In the same vein, speakers highlighted the need to know and understand prevailing politics of the country as it will help in understanding the current crippling state of various sectors, specifically education.

Dr Shaikh said the state is working on two things at the moment, hate and insecurity, which is prevalent in the curriculum. He said speaking up against the system or bringing in a change means death or the threat of death as was seen in the case of Dr Bernadette L. Dean, director of VM Institute for Education and former principal of St Joseph’s College for Women who left the country in May 2015. He said that very little attention is paid to the current brain-drain from the country as “a result of state-sponsored academia where free speech is not accepted.”

Dr Shaikh added that 35 per cent of education is provided by the private sector which is a cause of concern in itself “as around 90 per cent of private education is provided in urban centres creating a sense of deprivation in other parts of the province.”

Speaking about the current budget for education, Dr Fahd Ali, assistant professor at the Habib University, said the current expenditure on education is around 1.8 per cent. And around five per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) is invested in defence.

The last budget (2015-2016) is said to have invested 3.5 per cent of the GDP on defence. “Even if we accept this explanation and add up our expenses on health, education, and law and order, we’d still not be able to come up to 5 percent of the GDP which the state is currently investing in defence,” Dr Ali added.

What can be done about it?

Dr Ali said that as students, teachers and concerned citizens we can take a look at the copy of the budget which is a 5000-page document, available on the website www.finance.gov.pk. Once it is downloaded, we can look at the universities, libraries and institutes which were given a lump sum from the budget and call each one of them up or visit them to ask what they did with the budget, he added.

The system, he said, can be changed by continuously asking questions and keeping the debate alive. “You might not get the answers at first, but consistency in questioning the status quo is the best possible route to get to it.”

Shahram Azhar, assistant professor at the department of social sciences at Habib University, said that questions about distribution of wealth are pertinent to ask as they give us an idea about the direction in which the state is heading. “It might seem irrelevant to the debate regarding the education budget, but these decisions, even the ones regarding education and health, have seeped in politics,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016