Both Pakistan and China faced almost identical conditions in literacy and education at the time of their respective independence in the late 1940s. While Pakistan began its journey with a literacy rate of 16.3 percent in 1947, China’s was 20 percent in 1949.

The irony was that the two countries with such low literacy levels were heirs to the world’s two most ancient civilisations — the Indus Valley and the Huang He (or the Yellow River) civilisations, whose marks of identity had been their highly advanced systems of literacy and education. 

At this stage, however, Pakistan had a few advantages over China. For instance, with a population of 33.7 million, Pakistan had to educate only 28 million more people to achieve universal literacy. On the other hand, China, with a population of more than 500 million then, had an almost fifteen times bigger task, of educating about 400 million people.

Another advantage that Pakistan enjoyed over China was its better economic conditions.

In 1950, Pakistan’s per capita income was around 100-120 US dollars, while that of war-ravaged China was 50-70 US dollars. In other words, Pakistan had more per capita economic resources than China to invest in human resource development.

From that point, the two nations moved on two different trajectories. While China made education a cornerstone of its national development strategy, Pakistan chose different priorities.

In their early years, Pakistan and China had rather similar literacy levels. But while China’s education system has flourished over the decades, the one in Pakistan has been stymied, resulting in an appalling gulf in numbers. Educationist Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh compares the learning trajectories of the two countries and what policymakers in Pakistan can learn from the Chinese model…

China’s interest and investment in education soon started bearing fruits, in the form of a highly developed and skilled human resource, which served as China’s backbone in its economic development. The selection of the right set of national priorities has brought China today to a stage where its per capita income has reached USD12,758, almost eight times of Pakistan’s USD1,650. 

This article attempts to compare and contrast the two countries’ educational systems, their priorities, strengths and weaknesses, and to draw lessons, particularly for Pakistan, on how to

improve its education system in light of the Chinese example.  

PAKISTAN’S EDUCATION LANDSCAPE

One of the most significant features of Pakistan’s educational landscape at present is a large number of out-of-school children.The Pakistan Institute of Education (PIE), working under the Government of Pakistan, calculated the number of such children to be 26.2 million in its 2022 report. A Unicef report calculates them to be about 44 percent of Pakistan’s school-age (5-16 years old) population. This is despite the fact that Pakistan’s constitution, under Article 25-A, guarantees that the state would provide “free and compulsory education” to every child.

Then, the access and denial of the right to education depends on the basis of geography, gender and socio-economic conditions of children. For instance, 78 percent girls in Balochistan province remain out of school (with only 22 percent fortunate ones availing this right). These huge disparities result in uneven national growth, misunderstandings among various societal groups, social disharmony and, above all, it weakens Pakistan’s nationhood.

Another significant feature of Pakistan’s education system is the presence of more than 43,000 religious schools or deeni madaris [religious seminaries] spread all over the country. The government has minimal role in their affairs, despite several attempts made during the last few decades.

These madaris are controlled and affiliated by one or the other of five wafaaq or federations, on the basis of their maslik or religious school of thought. These wafaaqs prescribe curriculum, take examinations and issue certificates to the students of their affiliated madaris. Mostly running on charity, these institutions offer free food, lodging and boarding to their students, which is a major attraction for the poor to enroll their children in them.

Then there are government schools, a hallmark for most of them being poor governance, lack of basic facilities, and low academic standards. Highlighting the state of basic facilities, the PIE report stated that 85 percent of primary schools in Balochistan had no electricity and 67 percent had no toilets. 

Regarding the overall standards of Pakistani schools, an international evaluation organisation (IEA) carried out an assessment exercise in 2019. The results showed Pakistan at second position from the bottom, in the ‘dismal’ category. Since then, Pakistan has not participated in the IEA evaluations.

In 2021, a local organisation, ASER, brought out its own evaluation report, which stated that 45 percent of Grade Five students in Pakistan were unable to read a Grade Two level story, in Urdu or English, and to perform a two-digit division.  

The next category of schools is the so-called private or English-medium schools, which offer relatively better facilities and charge fees for their services. Most of the middle-income families prefer to send their children to these schools.

On the top of this category sits a small number of expensive ‘elite schools’, which cater to high-income groups, and are mostly affiliated with international educational chains and examining bodies.

In the higher education sector, Pakistan has 244 accredited universities: 145 public and 99 private. Incidentally, none of them is included in the world’s top 100 universities in any of the reputed rankings.

There is a widespread complaint that academic standards have been continually falling. Even the apex national body, the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), stated in one of its reports that many university graduates could not even do elementary mathematics, while some others did not know the direction of a simple compass, confusing north with south and east with west.

One of the greatest weaknesses of Pakistan’s education system is the almost complete disregard for technical and vocational training and education. As per PIE statistics, the number of such institutes in Pakistan is only about one percent of the total number. Those, too, teach outdated disciplines with substandard quality of skills.  

One of the major reasons for Pakistan’s poor performance in education has been the allocation of meagre financial resources. For instance, in 2022-23, Pakistan’s total expenditure on education (both federal and provincial) was less than five billion dollars, or 1.5 percent of the GDP. A significant part of even this meagre amount fell prey to corruption and corrupt practices, leaving the nation uneducated and undereducated.  

EDUCATION IN CHINA

On the other hand, during the last seven decades, China has developed an extensive, elaborate, highly organised and adequately funded system of education. The priority that China attaches to education can be gauged from it spending USD812.79 billion on education in 2020, of which USD657.61 billion, equalling 4.22 percent of its GDP, came from its national budget. In the same year, China spent USD178 billion on its defence, only one-fourth of its expenditure on education.

Under the Chinese system of education, every child has to complete nine years of compulsory education, of which the first six constitute elementary education, followed by three years in a junior secondary school, chuzhong.

In the initial phase, China too faced the large-scale dropping out of girl students, but the government made it a point to curb this practice. At present, almost the entire population in the school-going age receives the nine-year compulsory education without fail, the figures for 2020 being 99.96 percent for elementary education and 99.5 percent for junior secondary school.

The focus during the compulsory education stage, by law, is “to achieve all-round development — morally, intellectually, and physically — so as to lay the foundation for cultivating a well-educated and self-disciplined workforce, with high ideals and moral integrity.”

Among subjects, emphasis is given on learning of the Chinese language, mathematics, physics, chemistry and an elective foreign language. Mathematics is given extra attention, as many Chinese believe that a strong foundation in that subject helps in developing rational thinking. 

The public schools, which are completely free of charge, cater to about 90 percent of the population, while the remaining ten percent go to private schools, which charge fees for their services.

However, all the schools teach curriculum approved by the Chinese education ministry, to the standards set by it. The responsibility of ensuring compliance to these standards rests with the provincial and municipal governments. 

On completion of this segment of compulsory education, two branches of education open: one leads to the regular academic stream, through admission to senior secondary school (known as gaozhong) and the other to a technical and vocational school (zhongzhuan).

To determine the placement of a student in either of the two branches, on the basis of their aptitude and intellectual abilities, a nationwide examination, known as zhongkao, is administered. The students enrolled in gaozhong study for three more years to be eligible for university education, while those in zhongzhuan learn technical and vocational skills for three to four years, before entering the job market. It is this highly skilled segment of the Chinese population that has helped China achieve rapid industrialisation.

From here begins the realm of higher education. There are 3,012 universities in China, of which 75 percent are public and 25 percent are private. Those interested in pursuing their education in the public universities have to again take a nationwide, very competitive, entrance examination, known as gaokao, which determines the suitability or otherwise of a candidate for university education. At present, more than 44 million students are pursuing their undergraduate and graduate (including doctoral) programmes in these institutions.

There was a time when none of the Chinese universities was in the top 100 of any reputable international universities rankings. However, things changed in 1993, when the government initiated a scheme of designating a coveted title of the “world-class university”, with an accompanying set of incentives as well as enhanced prestige to the universities ending in top 100 of three internationally reputed university ranking systems.

This gave birth to a positive competition, resulting in several such universities in China today. 

THE LESSONS

There are many lessons that Pakistan can learn from China to improve its education system. First and foremost is that economic development of a modern nation, with limited natural resources, such as Pakistan and China, is based on their levels of human resource development. Accordingly, Pakistan, like China, should pay full attention to develop a robust, modern and all-encompassing national education system. 

Secondly, a good education system requires generous financial outlays. It is an investment in the future. Following the Chinese example of spending USD813 billion on education in a year, Pakistan should find ways and means to drastically enhance its funding from its current dismal figure of less than five billion dollars.

Thirdly, female education is a must for national development. No nation in the modern world can even think of achieving progress and development while keeping half of its population illiterate and uneducated. China has set an example by showing us that all the obstacles to female education can be removed if the state is determined to do so. 

Fourthly, in the present era of

scientific and technological advancements, Pakistan, similar to China, should shift the focus of its education system from the study of myths, half-truths, romantic versions of history etc, to subjects relating to science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. As happened in China, the people well-versed in these disciplines can change Pakistan’s destiny. 

Fifthly, vocational and technical education holds vital importance for a country’s agricultural, industrial and mineral, as well as overall socio-economic, development. Pakistan would be well advised to reform and replace its obsolete and outdated technical and vocational education system with a vibrant one, imparting skills in the most modern trades. 

Sixthly, Pakistan’s higher education system is in ruins and needs immediate attention on the part of policy makers. China’s universities have brought China to the forefront of technological advancement in very diverse areas, from information technology (IT) to agriculture. Pakistan can also do that, if the higher education sector is entrusted to a visionary leadership, with clearly designed targets.  

Seventhly, Pakistan can learn a lot from China in laying the foundation of a just, meritorious and aptitude-based evaluation system at various tiers of the education system, to help students pursue their education in the disciplines better suited to their natural talent. This will not only benefit the students individually, but also the country, by channelling the youth’s talent in the right direction. 

Considering the importance of education in the present world for any nation’s development, I wish the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would have initially stood for the ‘China-Pakistan Education Corridor’, adding the ‘economic’ component only subsequently. This would have taken care of many issues the ‘economic’ CPEC is facing today.

The writer is a development consultant and a former vice-chancellor. He can be reached at drshaikhma@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, October 27th, 2024