The current Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan has focused on education and kept it an essential point during his government. His plan for the first hundred days of his government was to revolutionize social services which were focused on improving both, health and education. This step was required in Pakistan as the public education provided was of very low quality as well as there was a lot of corruption in the exam boards with increased cheating which lead to a weakening nation.
According to the education emergency statistics in Pakistan, it is shown that about twenty-five million of the children there are not going to schools. Firstly, it is a priority to get these children into a formal education system but at the same time importance is to be given to improving the quality of education.
The basic driver of economic growth is a worthwhile education rather than the number of years a child attends school as shown by a World Bank Study (2007). Even after this the policies and reforms of education still focus on having better administration and management with better facilities rather than paying attention to the learning outcomes. This is done because it is much easier than having better learning within the classroom which would require increasing standards of teaching.
According to various comprehensive assessments of children in public schools, it is seen that there is a great amount of accomplishment disparity in Pakistan as mostly the students of grade six do not pass a general grade three math assessment. In other words, it can be said that a student of ten years of age would already have an accomplishment disparity of four years. Moreover, some children from these schools will even be enrolled in matric, proceed to very well reputed universities or be employed for skilled and professional positions.
The main idea of the educational reform of Pakistan should be to provide education in technology, science and mathematics because if this is not done then the spending made on hiring more teachers, betterment of management of the school and development in the infrastructure will not result in well-educated students who are able to evaluate and solve complications critically and work out with numbers in an effective manner.
Therefore, in order to improve the quality of education much quickly, it must be integrated with technology. With the use of technology, the teachers, as well as the students, can gain access to all educational material that is otherwise difficult to be attained. If technology can be used side by side when providing education, it can improve the competencies of the teacher and at the same time deliver a high level of teaching to the students that are custom made to what is required by them. Also, the use of technology will allow independent and impartial evaluation of the knowledge and understanding of the students. However, the use of technology will not substitute teachers but those teachers who do not use technology will be substituted with those who do make the use of technology integrated education.
In the modern world, education that is integrated with technology and brings outcomes for the students is obtainable in Pakistan. The effort made with the government schools and other educative associations located in the province of Sindh, in this aspect has shown that if technological solutions are efficiently applied in mathematics and science then the benefits can be seen prominently. Many of the students achieved the capability of mathematics of one year in only four months when one of the partner schools had applied the national syllabus affiliated with a technological tuition program which was given in both languages of English and Urdu. All these outcomes show that if the technology is associated with education and is applied in a considerate manner then a transformational revolution can be brought up.
However, technology is not just the answer. It is much more important to consider and pay attention to how technology is applied. The teachers must be appointed with thorough evaluation when hiring them as it is essential for them to have their training and certification. When the application of this process starts then it is also important to have basic tests of the students as they continue with the program as required.
This application of technology should also go through a pilot process before it is implemented at a much greater level. A suitable pilot plan for a period of one year which consists of about thirty to thirty-five primary schools with about two hundred students in each of them could provide proof of accomplishment if it is applied with proper care. The benefit of this small startup is that it is a trial at a lower expense and can be repeated at a faster pace to describe a prototype for effective technology implementation at a greater level.
It is important for us to identify that the new government should adopt a quick and shrewd method to provide education that is integrated with technology. If this is not done, then the vow that the education system in Pakistan will be transformed will stay the same.
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In the modern world, education that is integrated with technology and brings outcomes for the students is obtainable in Pakistan. The effort made with the government schools and other educative associations located in the province of Sindh, in this aspect has shown that if technological solutions are efficiently applied in mathematics and science then the benefits can be seen prominently. Many of the students achieved the capability of mathematics of one year in only four months when one of the partner schools had applied the national syllabus affiliated with a technological tuition program which was given in both languages of English and Urdu. All these outcomes show that if the technology is associated with education and is applied in a considerate manner then a transformational revolution can be brought up.
However, technology is not just the answer. It is much more important to consider and pay attention to how technology is applied. The teachers must be appointed with thorough evaluation when hiring them as it is essential for them to have their training and certification. When the application of this process starts then it is also important to have basic tests of the students as they continue with the program as required.
