Educational Conundrums of Pakistan 
By Dr Faisal Bari
Aks Publications
ISBN: 978-9697312368
560pp.

Dr Faisal Bari’s book, Educational Conundrums of Pakistan is a collection of his articles published in Dawn from 2012-2023. It highlights the crises in education in Pakistan, trying to find solutions.

Throughout the book, we notice the poetic refrain of Article 25A of the Constitution of Pakistan, which gives the right to free and compulsory education to all children. Backed with empirical and anecdotal evidence, Dr Bari has lucidly explained how this basic right has been snatched from millions of children who are either out of school or attend private schools. This situation defies Article 25A, which was added to the Constitution for all these children. They are still waiting for this right to be given to them.

Education should be about experiences directly related to life. However, graduates enter the job market with no skills for work. When you get prefabricated answers to all your questions, you cannot get accustomed to struggling and toiling for solutions to real life problems. Years of rote learning from a curriculum that is a monocultural hotchpotch of syllabi with excessive religious content has left them intolerant and prejudiced towards people who think differently.

School is an essential place to experience diversity, where students can study and play together and have open debates on social issues. But school children are perpetually trapped in the vicious cycle of ratta [rote memorisation], exams and grades.

A collection of articles focuses on the education crisis in Pakistan

The book is an excellent resource for researchers and students of education. Being an educationist, it has left me with sombre reflections. The nuanced language — with a hint of sarcasm at times but perpetual undercurrents of genuine concern and sincerity for the betterment of education in Pakistan — touched my heart. What if the government starts investing in children’s education? Only that could give the returns that this shattered nation desperately needs.

The reviewer is a teacher and researcher

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, November 17th, 2024