I belong to the millennial generation that grew up with a simple, unquestioned formula for success: parh likh jao gay to afsar bano gay; achi naukri hogi; achi jagah shaadi hogi – warna koi poochay ga bhi nahi (“If you studied well, you will become an officer; will get a good job; and get married in a well-off family – otherwise no one will even ask you.”), Perhaps inspired by those old movies where a hero belongs to a low-income family, comes to his mother, who was sitting before her sewing machine, announces that he has cleared his B.A’s exams, and he immediately got a job as manager in a company that belongs to the father of the heroine. This approach prevailed primarily among the middle and lower-middle classes, who believed that education was the guaranteed ladder to respect, stability, and upward mobility. At the other end of the upper class or business class, they viewed education as a waste of time, as they ultimately had to take care of their family business.

What we were rarely taught, however, was that education can help us manage and grow our own businesses or that learning can enable us to innovate, solve problems, or create livelihoods rather than merely pursue clerical or bureaucratic positions. Education was framed not as a tool for understanding the world or shaping it, but as a narrow pathway to employment, preferably in government. This legacy should inspire us to rethink the role of education in shaping Pakistan's future and empower us to drive meaningful change.

Decades later, Pakistan is paying the price for this narrow and outdated conception of education. The time to act is now, as the consequences of inaction threaten our future stability and growth.

According to UNICEF, approximately 25.1 million Pakistani children aged 5–16 are out of school, equivalent to roughly one in three children in this age group. Even among children attending school, independent evidence shows that many do not master basic literacy skills by age 10, pointing to a learning crisis in schools.

Should Improvement in Enrollment be critical or the Quality of ‘Education’?

Does Enrollment alone Solve the Problem?
Let us assume, for a moment, that Pakistan succeeds in bringing all 25 million out-of-school children into the formal education system within a short period. At a conservative average of 35–40 students per classroom, this would require well over 600,000-700,000 additional classrooms. Even if each school had 10 classrooms, the country would need 60,000-70,000 new schools and at least 700,000 to 800,000 additional teachers, administrators, and support staff. The fiscal implications are enormous: salaries, infrastructure development, utilities, learning materials, and recurring operational costs would add hundreds of billions of rupees annually to already strained provincial budgets. Therefore, phased reforms focusing on quality and relevance should be prioritized alongside expansion efforts to ensure sustainable progress.

But the more uncomfortable question is this: what outcomes would such an expansion produce under the current system? If we scale a broken model, do we reduce poverty – or institutionalize it? Do we build a productive workforce – or manufacture millions of certificate-holding yet unemployable young people? Without fundamental reforms in curriculum relevance, teacher quality, accountability, and skill integration, mass enrollment risks becoming a pipeline to mass frustration.

An education system that fails to teach problem-solving, employability skills, ethics, or civic responsibility does not meaningfully contribute to economic growth. Instead, it adds pressure to the labor market, fuels underemployment, and deepens social resentment. The danger, therefore, is not just 25 million children outside schools, but the possibility of turning them into 25 million more young people inside schools, yet outside the economy.

In such a scenario, education ceases to be a poverty-alleviation tool and becomes a mechanism for deferred disappointment – raising expectations without equipping individuals to meet them.

Current System, A Designed for Obedience, Not Innovation
To understand Pakistan’s education crisis, one must briefly revisit its origins. The modern education system in South Asia was not organically developed to nurture critical thinking, innovation, or economic self-reliance. The British colonial administration strategically introduced it to serve imperial objectives.

Before colonial rule, education in the region was organized through diverse indigenous systems – madrassas, gurukuls, apprenticeships, and community-based learning – focused on ethics, administration, trade, craftsmanship, and philosophy. These systems, while imperfect, were locally relevant and socially embedded. The British dismantled much of this structure and replaced it with a centralized, uniform education model designed to produce a small class of clerks, interpreters, and low-level administrators loyal to the colonial state.

Thomas Macaulay’s infamous Minute on Education (1835) made this intent explicit: to create a class that was “Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, opinions, morals, and intellect.” He played a vital role in establishing an educational system based upon the British model and destroying ancient Indian teaching methods. The system was not meant to empower the masses, but to manage them efficiently. Obedience, memorization, and compliance were valued over creativity, inquiry, or entrepreneurship.

This colonial logic did not end in 1947. Pakistan largely inherited and preserved the same structure, examinations, bureaucratic controls, and hierarchy, with only minor cosmetic changes. Education remained a pathway to government service rather than a platform for innovation or value creation. The reverence for degrees, the obsession with clerical jobs, and the social prestige attached to bureaucracy are all colonial residues.

As a result, even today, our education system unconsciously trains students to seek authority rather than create opportunities, to follow rules rather than question systems, and to wait for employment rather than generate it. To break free from colonial-era mindsets, Pakistan must implement reforms that promote critical thinking, creativity, and entrepreneurship, fostering an environment in which innovation thrives rather than conformity.

Until Pakistan consciously breaks away from this inherited design, education will continue to produce conformity – not competence.

The Illusion of Progress
Pakistan’s education debate is dominated by numbers: enrollment ratios, school counts, teacher headcounts, and budget allocations. These figures create an illusion of progress. But scratch beneath the surface, and the reality is stark. A substantial proportion of students cannot read with comprehension, perform basic arithmetic, or apply concepts to real-life situations – even after years of schooling.

We have produced a system where attendance is mistaken for learning, certificates replace competence, and examination scores conceal intellectual emptiness. Degrees are multiplying; skills are disappearing.

This is not merely an educational problem. It is an economic, social, and governance crisis.

Teachers Without Teaching
At the heart of the problem lies the teaching profession itself. In many parts of the country, government teaching posts are treated as assets to be bought and sold, rather than as positions of trust that require aptitude, training, and commitment. Merit-based recruitment is routinely compromised. Once appointed, accountability is minimal and professional development is rare.

A system that does not invest in its teachers cannot educate its children. Yet teacher training remains outdated, fragmented, and disconnected from classroom realities. Performance is measured by seniority and compliance, not by student learning outcomes.

The result is predictable: disengaged teachers, rote-based instruction, and classrooms where curiosity quietly dies.

Ghost schools, real budgets, and systemic mismanagement reflect a decay that threatens the integrity of our education system and Pakistan's social fabric. Addressing these issues is crucial for restoring trust and ensuring resources reach students who need them most.

Few symbols capture systemic decay better than ghost schools – buildings that exist on paper, budgets that are released, staff that are posted, but students that are nowhere to be found. These are not isolated anomalies; they reflect a governance failure in which monitoring is weak, data are unreliable, and political interests override the public good.

Education departments often function as administrative machines focused on salaries, transfers, and procurement rather than learning outcomes. Data is collected, but rarely trusted or used for decision-making. Where accountability should exist, opacity prevails.

Is spending on Education an Expense or an investment?
Despite repeated rhetoric, education in Pakistan is still treated as a consumptive expense, not a strategic investment. When fiscal pressures mount, education development budgets are among the first to be cut. Spending decisions are rarely linked to measurable outcomes such as literacy gains, skill acquisition, or employability.

No serious nation advances without viewing education as capital formation – the long-term investment that determines productivity, social cohesion, and competitiveness. Pakistan continues to pay lip service to this idea while practicing the opposite.

If you throw the peanuts, then only monkeys will come.

A Curriculum Stuck in the Past
Equally damaging is a curriculum that is misaligned with both present realities and future needs. Much of what is taught remains disconnected from the modern economy, technological change, and local contexts. Critical thinking, problem-solving, ethics, civic responsibility, and digital literacy receive little emphasis.

Instead, memorization dominates. Students learn what to think, not how to think.
The unresolved question of language compounds the issue. English is imposed as the medium of instruction without ensuring foundational comprehension. Children struggle simultaneously with language and content, mastering neither. Research globally shows that early education in the mother tongue enhances learning outcomes, yet policy implementation remains inconsistent and politicized.

Education Without Skills
The most damaging outcome of this system is the skills vacuum. Pakistan produces graduates who are academically credentialed but functionally unprepared for work or entrepreneurship. Technical and vocational education remains underfunded, socially stigmatized, and poorly integrated with mainstream schooling.

There are a few pathways linking education to livelihoods. Students are trained to seek jobs that do not exist, rather than to create value where opportunities emerge.

The Business of Schooling
As the public sector faltered, the private sector filled the vacuum – but not always with positive results. Education has increasingly become a commercial enterprise in which profit margins often trump pedagogy. Quality varies widely, regulation is weak, and access is determined by ability to pay rather than ability to learn.

Private education has expanded schooling, but not necessarily education.

The Cost of Being “Out of Education”
The long-term consequences of this silent crisis are severe. A generation that is schooled but not educated is vulnerable to frustration, misinformation, intolerance, and economic marginalization. Weak education undermines citizenship, erodes ethics, and fuels instability.

In this sense, being out of education is more dangerous than being out of school. The former creates the illusion of progress while hollowing out the nation from within.

Pakistan does not merely need more classrooms. It requires a fundamental rethinking of the purpose of education, its delivery, and the outcomes that truly matter.