Improvement in economic conditions is important for development. For the purpose of capitalizing on improved economic conditions, it is essential to be aware of the relationship between social and economic policies and reinforcing their amalgamation. In Pakistan, due to feeble governance for a longer period of time, social sector development has not been given much attention leading towards underdeveloped human capital (State Bank report, 2016-17). The status of socio-economic characteristics such as population, literacy rate, employment, poverty, access to health facilities, and their implications for educational reforms are discussed in detail as follows.
Demography
It is said that increasing population reinforces poverty and therefore, low fertility rate remains a key element in reducing poverty. In Pakistan, fertility has been reported as declining after the 1990s but the population growth rate is within the region is relatively very high. Currently, Pakistan stands on number 7 in terms of larger populated countries in the world and stands on fourth in Asia. Although the population growth rate is falling in Pakistan the swiftness and size of fertility moves are slower than in neighboring countries.
Pakistan’s efficiency in improvement in total fertility rate per decade is not encouraging. Thus, it can be deduced that declining birth and death rates are not important ingredients of economic development but population policies have necessarily a key role in declining birth and death rates (SBP, 2016-17). With these increased population growth rates, educational policymakers can get insights in providing necessary education facilities looking at the trends in population and their projection in the future.
For example, mobility ratios of masses from and towards a particular area will indicate whereby educational policymakers and planners will plan in such a way that in the future their planned educational facilities will cover up the projected population of that particular area. The slower fertility move has substantial implications for educational reforms brought about by looking into a higher dependency ratio. The high dependency ratio affects the pattern of consumption of educational facilities as well as the quality of life. Therefore, educational reformers need to keep such types of trends in mind while providing education services to the masses.
Employment
According to the Human Development Report (2017), in Pakistan, the increasing population affects employment negatively and is because of the poor interplay of demography, economy, social status, and political conditions. The rate of unemployment in Pakistan has increased. Females are more unemployed than males and it is predicted that this scenario of unemployment will persist until a significant increase in economic growth and investment. How to increase economic growth and investment will be answered by reformers in the education system. Through educational reforms interaction of demographic, economic, social, and political factors will be ensured.
Literacy rate
The literacy rate is a major socio-economic characteristic that impacts significantly other indicators of human development. According to Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) Survey (2015), the literacy rate increased up to 60 percent. However, the difference is significant between males (70 percent) and females (49 percent) as well as rural and urban areas 76 percent and 51 percent respectively (Ministry of Finance, 2016). The literacy rate with respect to other regions of South Asia is far behind. This situation puts a challenging situation for the policymakers and educational planners to meet the level of the regions with the same geographical and climatic factors.
Education
In the education sector, the success is measured by the gross enrolment ratio (GER) which in Pakistan is 89 percent. It is calculated by the ratio between the number of students attending primary schools and the number of children aged 5 to 9. Net enrollment ratio (NER) which is 57 percent in Pakistan is calculated by the number of children attending age 5 to 9 divided by the number of the same age for the same level of education. High GER indicates that the country is performing well in terms of primary education.
However, Pakistan needs to work hard to achieve this target. Comparing with neighboring countries shows that Pakistan is left behind which indicates that the education sector is given less attention while devising economic policies. The concern is that the low quality of education does not match with the required skills in market-leading towards a lower rate of return in human capital. Thus, reformers in education need to bring reforms in providing missing facilities, teacher training, design engaging curricula, ensure community involvement, and so on to achieve a very high level in the education sector (Ministry of Finance, 2016).
Health
According to UNDP (2017), the health sector is another socio-economic characteristic that includes infant mortality rate, life expectancy at birth, access to basic health services, and expenditure on health care. The quality of basic health facilities is indicated by a low infant mortality rate. In Pakistan, the infant mortality rate is 29 per 1000 which has reduced but still needs to combat with. Mostly infant moralities are due to unhygienic food, infectious diseases, malnutrition, and lack of health education, particularly of mothers.
The maternal mortality rate ranges between 35 and 50. Pakistan falls on a medium category on the health index with 0.79 in 2015. Life expectancy at birth is about 65 years in Pakistan has which has improved from earlier years. However, regarding the health index, Pakistan is behind in relation to other countries in the region. These analyses have implications to improve health conditions through health education and awareness programmes by policymakers and reformers.
Poverty
Poverty is measured by the estimation of the number of people living below the poverty line that is the minimum level of income of an individual or household. Poverty has increased in Pakistan after the 1990s because of poor initiatives by democratic governments to reduce poverty. It is also because of people’s inability to access public goods and services. Increasing poverty is explained by the trends in income inequality that largely follow the economic growth rates.
However, poverty declined after 2000. According to Pakistan Economic Survey, 2017-18, poverty has declined from 50.4 percent in 2005-06 to 24.3 percent in 2015-16 (Yousafzai, 2018). There are strong implications for reformers in education in order to reduce poverty through increasing access, equity, and relevance to the masses to a larger extent.
References
Brennan, J. (2008). Higher education and social change. High Educ. 56:382-393. Retrieved
August 03, 2018, from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d137/83910e6ecb01bd8441dfca067ec751865410.pdf
Ministry of finance, (2016). Education. Retrieved August 05, 2018, from
Patil, N. P. (2012). Role of education in social change. International educational e-journal.
1(2). 205-210. Retrieved August 02, 2018, from http://www.oiirj.org/ejournal/Jan-Feb-Mar2012IEEJ/38.pdf
Tilak, J. B. G. (1994). Education for development in Asia. New Delhi: sage publications.
Qureshi, M. (2005). Social aspects of Education. New Delhi: Anmole publications
Sara, N. (2015). Social change and women. International Research Journal of Social
United Nation Development Programme. (2017). Pakistan national human development
report 2017. (2847). Retrieved August 06, 2018, from http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/2847/pk-nhdr.pdf
Yousafzai, F. (2018, April 27). Poverty goes down more than 50 percent. The nation.
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