Hardly any conference or event discussing socio-economic and political challenges of Pakistan goes without acknowledging its vast, untapped asset – the youth. While it is encouraging to see government officials recognising this valuable resource, one must question whether both federal and provincial governments are genuinely serious about harnessing this potential.
One of the main indicators of our rulers’ commitment to this issue is education, which lies at the core of human capital development. Recently, at an international conference on education system strengthening, I heard the chairman of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan remark that there is pervasive negativity surrounding the country. For this reason, he said he chose to emphasise positive developments in Pakistan’s universities over the past two decades.
Among these, the structural transformation of the Universities Grants Commission into the fully independent HEC marked a pivotal change. Since then, the number of universities have grown from 51 to 244, and research publication has surged from 850 to around 40,000 – a remarkable increase, though the quality of these publications remains a top for a debate. In terms of gender equity, the enrollment gap has also narrowed, with 48 per cent female and 52 per cent male students.
However, despite these achievements, budget constraints overshadow much this progress. Only 0.24 per cent of GDP is allocated to higher education, and less than 2.0 per cent to education overall – a meager allocation that reflects the low priority given to education in the national agenda.
Another question arises: Are our universities equipping students with the necessary knowledge and skills to........