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Introduction
Education, without a doubt is one of the most important aspects of human life. Equality in education presents a means of leveling opportunities available to every individual regardless of geographical or social difference. Providing a high quality education to its citizens should be a chief objective of every nation, but a countrys financial position may fault this need. Opinions to the dimensions to be taken to effect this course is however so divergent from country to country. Pakistan and United States fall among the top sixteen most prosperous countries in the world, the way educational matters are being treated in the countries are quiet different. These are the factors that will be analyzed in this paper. The education System in the United States is more advanced than that of Pakistan due to the economic disparity, but going by the research evidence presented in this paper, it will not be long before the literacy level in Pakistan catches up or surpasses that of United States.
Discussion
Literally, all the programs related to public education in the United States are run by the government. Funds to manage the program are drawn from federal, local and the state governments. It is compulsory for all the children growing in the United States to attend elementary and high school; these are the levels that are commonly known as primary and secondary levels. It is also the responsibility of the state government to set standards to guide the education system. Students can either attend private, public or approved schools to satisfy this requirement. The US system of education is divided in three levels namely: elementary, junior high and senior high school, the levels range from kindergarten to twentieth grade. The twelfth grade is the last year of high school, then student proceed to college. By the year 2000 about 85% of United States adult population had successfully finished the first twenty grades, and 27% were already crowned with the Bachelors degree (Broder, p.12).
By the time Pakistan gained their independence in 1947, the education system that was in force was still very poor, very few Pakistan were interested in pursuing higher level education, especially in the higher leaning institutions like colleges and universities. But since then, education has greatly expanded; both in quality and the number of scholars, though questions are still being asked about the curriculum of the education system used in the country. By 1992 adult literacy in Pakistan stood at a mere 36 percent; this was though a great improvement a compared to two decades earlier where it was 21% (Hoodbhov et. al., pp.28-29). Pakistan had been reluctant in allocating resources for education; very mean has been the government that it only reserved 1.1% of the countrys GNP to education expenditure&defense on the other hand receives over 33.4% of GDP in the country (Hoodbhov, p.31). The amount set aside to assist education is too little to march the demand leaving the public to shoulder the larger burden to finance their education; both at the lower and higher level. Education system in Pakistan is organized in five successive levels, that is; primary (comprising of grades 1-5), middle (grades 6-8), high (grade 9 and 10), intermediate (grade 11 and 12) and the last level is the higher institution of specializing in an F.A or F.S leading to undergraduate and advance degrees.
Education is a vital part of American population, the level of education is reflected in the amount of money educated people carry home from their professional work. For instance Broder reveals that by the year 2005, people who have not gone beyond high school diploma level in United States earn about $23,000, while bachelors and diploma holders fetch around $51,000 (p.13). To this effect many people have sought to improve their lives through education by advancing to the highest possible level. In 2008, Broader compiled statistics indicating that the literacy level of the nation stood firmly at 98% among individuals over the age of fifteen. But the country ranks below most development countries in Science and Mathematics. This realization shook the countries education sector and the government called for enactment of the long standing policies that could see them bounce to the top of the world as far as literacy level is concerned. There was a No Child Left Behind Act which was geared to boost the overall performance in both public and private schools in US (Broder, p.14).
In America, education at high school level (grade twenty) calls for little specialization and students study general broad based subjects, there is no special emphasis put on a particular subject. The syllabus is very wide at this point so that the students can get exposed to as many fields of study before settling on a particular one&this goes a long way in getting them to unearth hidden potential. The education curriculum for this level are so rigid, in most states, one has to score at least an average of 60-65% to proceed to the next level. Curricular in the United States vary across districts, but there has been calls from several quarters on the needs to standardize and harmonize the curriculum nationally. English is the most preferred language in the nation as it is being spoken by over 95% of the entire population, it is therefore a drive in the states to ensure that all education matters are officially communicated and coordinated in English (Tariq, p.75).
The government of Pakistan on the other hand has been uploaded for its involvement in developing the national curriculum, accrediting and funding all the research projects in the country. Most of the course content which has been blamed to be too shallow and below international expectation is now fully recognized worldwide. To date the programs that the nation put in place has seen one of its top cities, Islamabad having literacy level of 72%; though there is still a sorry case of Musa Khel which is trailing way behind at 10%. The state is not one to praise, but it is improving though at a slow pace. It is believed that two decades to come, the average literacy level of Pakistan will be 60% (Tariq, p.73).
There is a push from the countries top management to make English the official de facto language in America. Compulsory subjects that have to be handled from kindergarten up to grade twenty are Mathematics, English, Science, Social Science and Physical Education. The compulsory subjects go together with several elective subjects which individuals can chose from depending on their interests and ability. These include; Athletics, Foreign language, Arts (performing and visual) Publishing, Technology and Junior Security Officer training (Tariq, p.77).
In Pakistan, English has never been so famous with the locals or the educationists. May be that is the reason why most of the Pakistani graduates do not find opportunities to secure jobs across the boarders. For any country to spread its wings and show its adept qualifications to the world, a famous foreign language is compulsory so that interaction and sharing of knowledge with other academicians can be made easy.
Some parents in the United States also opt for home schooling which was said to be hosting more than 1.5 million children by 2007. The reasons that drive parents to chose this system is based on religious or moral issues; another reason is the decision of a parent to prefer more non-standard approach to education to their children. Homeschooling advocates hold it that the education system in the country is so secular and non-religiously based unable to satisfy their conservative nature (Lloyd, p.43). There are church operated schools base on church principles but some parents may not be in a position to afford the cost, hence they are left with no choice but to settle for home schooling.
The same strategy of homeschooling has been embraced so much in Pakistan more than even in the United States. Due to the fact that Pakistan is a Muslim dominated society, issues related to religion are taken very serious and therefore most parents prefer to take their children to Islamic based Madrasas where apart from being taught the world skills, they will also be required to uphold Islamic principles and go by the teachings. While Americans parents go for homeschooling because of its content quality and learner convenience, Pakistanis are driven into it because of the need to strengthen their young ones Islamic beliefs.
In the US Specialization in a given line of study comes in when students join post-secondary level of education where students go for what is known as major. Because of the high cost of education at the higher level, the government chips in with student loans and scholarships of up to a tune of 70% for the needy ones. The responsibility of funding the tuition cost of colleges and universities in the US is left to the state government which also regulates the number of students who come to enjoy from the program (Broder, p.14).
Management of technical academic institutes in Pakistan is left to the Ministry of Education in the Federal Government. It oversees the coordination of all intermediate educational programs. But the universities enjoy unlimited freedom to manage their own affairs. All higher learning institutions in Pakistan are responsible for managing their own programs including examinations and finances&the government can only fund and audit. The provincial administration through the education department has on its mandate the organizing training workshops to improve teaching skills, but this initiative has failed to meet its purpose. There is severe lack of incentives to facilitate the program and very few teachers attend the function; this in turn jeopardized the quality of education in the country. In an overall sense, there is a ratio of one teacher to nineteen students in the country (Hoodbhov, pp.33-35).
Regarding the competitiveness of American Education, some scholars believe that it has grown obsolete. US scores far below what is expected of it and hits marks way behind many developed nations. Education international reveal that in 2003, the country was ranked 24th and 19th in Mathematics and Science out of the 38 countries that were sampled. In the year 2005, it was 35th and 29th in Mathematics and Science respectively out of 57 countries (Lloyd, pp.44-47). But in an overall sense, American education is still high and many are still pursuing it at all levels. The government is able to fund all learning operations as opposed to Pakistan which is struggling in its new initiatives to improve adult literacy level.
The situation in Pakistan is not very pleasing and needs a lot of improvement. School drop-out rate in Pakistan was worrying with boys at 7% and girls at 15% by the year 1986 (Tariq, p.70). The government came up with the 1988 plan to reverse this trend through the Seven Five Year Plan purposed to see every child above the age of five in school, but due to some financial difficulties, the plan remained a far off dream. The plan was revived in 1992 with full support of the government which committed itself to democratize and decentralize the education sector. The 1992 plan had it that the management of primary and secondary schools would be left to NGOs and have parents say matter in running the same. Future plans were that all levels above primary would be made autonomous. The initiative of privatizing the educational institutions was referred to as the 1990 reformation (Rubina, pp.31-33). The move that the Pakistani government made has gone down in history as one of the best in the world. The change was almost instant, significant in the increase of literacy level during the time. The aspirations that the working class got was immeasurable, quiet a good number of individuals got drawn from poor backgrounds to help in the professional fields in the civil service and the army. A country which was initially ruled by an iron hand by ruthless army, owned by rich landlords operating on bureaucratic rules changed almost instantly, thanks to the changed education system (Rubina, p.36).
Conclusion
Education systems of the two nations are so divergent, and from the facts presented in this paper, it can be said US standard of education is much higher than that of Pakistan. But one thing is also clear that the Pakistan literacy level seems to be picking up while that of United States is losing ground as compared to other developed countries in its caliber. Because of the resources that America has set aside to facilitate education, it is not surprising to note that their literacy level stands at 98% , while that of Pakistan still lags at 40%. This is attributed to the disparity in the financial positions of the two nations. While the US supports education through all its government branches, Pakistan still finds it hard to invest in education and this is what evident in the wide difference. In Pakistan, one can get to hear of supposedly government sponsored (public) schools which lack text books and receive no grants from the government, not to mention schools that only existing paper form and phantom teachers. On top of these, a good cross section of Pakistan adult population still believe in Madrassas which greatly affects the enrollment of children in schools. There is also the difference in gender issues when it comes to education. While United States practice equality across all genders, Pakistan are still locked in giving the male child the first option when it comes to education, but this is since changing with more and more Pakistani women joining the professional camp& There is though still room of improvement in the education sector in Pakistan (Rubina, p.37).
Work Cited
Broder, David. College affordability about future. Burlington Free Press. (2008). pp.12-14.
Hoodbhov, P. and Nayyar, H. Rewriting the history of Pakistan, in Islam, Politics and the state: The Pakistan Experience. Mohammad Asghar Khan (Ed.). Zed Books: London. (1985). pp.28-35.
Lloyd, Janice. Home-schooling numbers rise. Gannett News Service: Burlington Free Press. (2008). pp.43-47.
Rubina, Saigol. Knowledge and Identity: Articulation of Gender in Educational Discourse in Pakistan. ASR: Lahore (1995). pp.31-37.
Tariq, Rahman. Denizens of Alien Worlds: A Study of Education, Inequality and Polarization in Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press. (2004). pp.67-80.
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