Education is said to be the backbone for the progress and development of any country and its nation, Pakistan is said to be a third world country in a developing stage and for progress it need to improve education system, Pakistan education system is divided in name of caste, class and status; a lower class cannot send their children to upper class schools because these high standards schools are unaffordable.
The formal education system in Pakistan is generally divided into six levels: preschool (for the age from 3 to 5 years), primary (grades one through five), middle (grades six through eight), high (grades nine and ten, leading to the Secondary School Certificate or SSC), intermediate (grades eleven and twelve, leading to a Higher Secondary School Certificate or HSSC), and university programs leading to undergraduate, graduate Doctorate degrees.
Overall we can divide three Categories of Institutes systems functioning in the Pakistan
- Government Institutes (School to Universities) called Public
- Private Institutes (School to Universities) Private
- Madrassa (Religious system of education govern by state authorities)
According to some surveys & reports the following approximate ratio are students enrolling in overall in Pakistan (These figures varies from Province to Province)
- Government 65%
- Private 34%
- Madrassa 1%
Government Institutes are government funded and are the responsibility of the state. These institutes start from grade 1 and the finishing point is grade 12. The curriculum followed at these institutes are regulated by the government and is similar till the senior year of high school. They prepare their students for the local examination- matriculation and intermediate by the all Boards as per divisions of each province of Pakistan.
Some of these institutes are English medium while in the
others the medium of instruction is Urdu. Public schools located in urban area
are mostly English medium while schools in rural areas are Urdu medium.
When a student graduates from a public institute then eligible to apply to any
Public or Private universities of Pakistan.
Private Institutes are not state owned. These are founded and run by organizations and individuals who feel that they can work for the betterment of the education condition independent of the government. Much like the public schools the basic structure consists of pre-primary, primary (1-5), secondary (6-10) and high school (11 & 12). The private institutes have slight variation in the curriculum at the primary level, but it is the same all through secondary till the final external exams. These are use English language as a medium of instruction, with a few rare exceptions.
All the leading Private institutes have set a standard which is being followed by the mushrooming private schools. These schools mostly prepare their students for the external Cambridge exams, like O/A levels.
Many institutes have both the examinations systems being offered in parallel. It is the choice of the student to switch to any one of the sub-systems. These Institutes even gauge the aptitude of the student till the eighth grade and then give the option to either continue with their ordinary level or to switch to the local system. Students graduating from private institutes are eligible to any Public or Private universities of Pakistan.
The third sub-system is that of the Madrassa. These are the institutes which provide the religious education to the students. A significant number of Pakistani children attend these institutions. The curriculum followed by Pakistan Madrassa Education Board. Usually students graduating from these institutions pursue to become clerics. However, students are also eligible to apply to any university of Pakistan depending on the subject curriculum studied.
Current Literacy rate of Pakistan is about 65% overall.
