by Misbah Rehman
M.S. Department of Education, University of Karachi.
INTRODUCTION:
Education is an essential component of life. It is a self
enlightening process that brings about an awareness of the world around us. It
develops our perspective of gaining knowledge, which opens up limitless
opportunities improving the aspects of life.
Government is such a social organization that not only keeps
discipline in the society but also influence educational agencies and social organizations.
It is an educational agency which indirectly provides education for people, and
influences thoughts, character and theories of the people. That knowledge is no
knowledge which does not represent its environment and situation. In other
words, education is effected by surrounding happenings. Its syllabus is the
reflection of the environment, whether it is political or social. Education
furbishes in the environment .and it transfers the effects which it gets from
the environment from generation to generation. The changing in the environment
also effect education, whether they are political or social. That is why,
education‘s connection with politics is unavoidable. Plato has linked the
connection of government and education with their aims and goals in his book
(state) riyasat. The aim of education is to make leaders. In other words,
philosophers with high educational abilities will rule and govern, and the aim
of the government is to provide education t6o people according to their abilities
and skills, so that the society become the symbol of justice
DEFINITIONS OF
EDUCATION:
1. Education, or being educated, involves all senses being
exposed to a series of stimuli, which will enhance and grow the mental capacity
of someone, to achieve a set of, or a specific objective.
2. The act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing
the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of
preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.
According to John
Dewey
3. The process of living through continuous reconstruction
of experiences. It is development of all those capacities in the individual
which will enable him to control his environment and fulfils his possibilities.
DEFINITIONS OF THE
STATE:
1. State commonly refers to either the present condition of
a system or entity, or to a governed entity (such as a country) or sub-entity
(such as a province or region).
2. Groups of people which have acquired international
recognition as a independent country and which have a population, a common
language and a defined and distinct territory.
3. The state is a form of a political association, and
political association is itself only one form of human association.
EDUCATION AND STATE
When we discuss the relation between state and education, we
have to first discuss the relation between state and individual. Rousseau in
his social contract theory regards the state as a necessary evil. His opinion
was that a state is an obstacle in the development of an individual. An
individual he had the right to over throw state if it went against his
interests. According to Rousseau, the powers of the state should be confined to
minimum, e.g., checking external aggression, safeguarding internal peace and
protecting the person and the property of the individual. Nobody could imagine
that the state should be entrusted with the responsibility of education. It was
the responsibility of the family and then of the class. Our present culture and
civilization have become very complex and specialized .this has weakened the
influence of the home in education of the child. Necessity, therefore, arose of
establishing a social institution, the main purpose of which was to perpetuate
and spread culture. All that society has achieved for itself is put through the
agency of the school at the disposal of its future members. But the
establishment of the school does not absolve the society or state fro its
responsibility and it remains an important informal agency of education.
Philosophers widely differ so far as the origin of society and its functions
are concerned. But so far as education is concerned most of them agree on the
broad principle that it is the duty of the state to raise its citizens to a
higher plane of life through education and culture. It should remember that in
a class society, education is an important ladder for social mobilization. If
the class or family was unable to give education to its members, there was a
danger that its membership might be scaled down in the ladder.
ROLE OF THE STATE
IN EDUCATION
States have legal responsibility and
authority to provide public education for their citizens. How mach state fulfill its responsibility varies. Whether state education agencies are
supporting education reform efforts, providing technical assistance, defining
and controlling educational content, or assessing the outcomes of education. It
is generally agreed that state is there to assure that colleges and schools are
providing quality opportunities to adults and children, and in a manner that
meets the standards the state has set for achievement.
A variety of studies provide
evidence that college educated persons have fundamental effects on state and
local economies through its association with wages, economic growth, personal
incomes, and tax revenues. As a result, policymakers in many countries try to
increase the percentage of the state’s population (or workforce) that has a
college degree through the use of various higher education policies that have the
potential to influence the supply side of the labor market. Several types of
related to the finance and production of graduate and undergraduate education
within a state, including expansions in degree production and scholarships to
encourage attendance at in-state colleges are discussed
.more research is needed to identify the causal effects of the policies on the
behavior of the students and to sort out the responses by students and
institutions to make changes in state policies.
Following are the areas where the
states play a vital role:
SCHOOL OF DIFFERENT GRADES
The population
of the country can not only be educated by the government able or the people
alone. They both have to work together to make the country and nation great.
That’s why the government should establish educational institutes and also
allow individuals to establish on the personal bases, especially on primary and
secondary level in every small and big town or city. The state should open
schools of different grades___ primary, secondary and technical etc, according
to the needs of the locality.
MAKE EDUCATION UNIVERSAL AND COMPULSORY
The state
should make education universal and compulsory at least up to the primary
stage. If we want illiteracy to end in our country the government should take
steps in opening schools all over the country.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL
The state
should provide equal opportunities for all so far as the field of education is concerned.
There should be no differentiation between rich and the poor.
EDUCATION EXPENSES
The state
should determine how the expenses of education shall be met , how much should
be borne by the state and how much by the parents .some persons are of opinion
that if education is cheapened, parental responsibility will be diminished . But
if the equal opportunities are provided for all, it is best for the state to
shoulder the entire responsibility.
· SCHOLARSHIP AND YOUTH EXCHANGE PROGRAMS
Another important role of the state is to provide national
and international scholarship for deserving students like in our country higher
education commission (HEC) did in recent years. Moreover worldwide youth
exchange programs are developed to broaden the vision of upcoming generation.
· EDUCATIONAL EQUIPMENT BE GIVEN
It is the duty of the
government to aid educational organization. In the present era, latest
technology and equipment are needed in science laboratories. The government
should provide every thing to the institutes. Sports complexes should be built
for the health and fitness of the students. The government should try its best
to improve the physical environment of educational organizations. Our country’s
education commission have also complained about the physical situation of
schools and colleges, like no sports complex, lab and resources, old and
damaged buildings etc. the sharer commission has urged the government to
fulfill materialistic needs provide an excellent and suitable environment for
education.
· HEALTH CENTERS FOR THE STUDENTS
The government should establish
special health centers for students. Small clinics and dispensaries are not
enough on school and college levels. Because student’s problems and diseases
can not be discharged and solved in small clinics. They need special attention
and care in health-centers, which are made for this purpose.
SCHOOL CONTROL
The state should take the general control
of the school in its own hand. The whole community should select the course of
studies. It is also the duty of the state to check the inefficient private
school.
WELL TRAINED TEACHERS
The state
should make arrangements for the supply of efficient and trained teachers. The
pivot of the education system is the personality of the teacher. The teacher is
the nation builder. Inefficient teachers will mar the nation .the state should
open well-equipped and well-staff training colleges for producing well-trained
teachers. Moreover, the state should see that the teachers are well paid and
hold a good position in society.
· ESTABLISHMENT OF TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTES
Individuals co operates with the
government for common educational development by establishing educational
organizations. But usually the government has to establish training and
professional institutes. Therefore, the government should establish these institutes
in every city of the country, and control it by making policies of their own.
Where educating people will be the responsibilities of the government, and
people.
RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTATION
The state
should also promote educational research and experimentation .new methods
should be devised and experimented.
COMMUNITY CO
OPERATION
The community
should give its full co-operation to the other agencies of education. It should give assistance to the school in
discharging it’s properly with resources and active participation.
FINANCING
The basic role
of state is to finance the education set up, since countries spent a
considerable amount of their GDP in education which ranges from 4% to 12%.
PROVIDING POLICIES
State provides
the basic infrastructure and policies to be followed on, as the private sector
also plays its part along with public sector. So in our country state provides
the education policies. it is interested to note here that after independence state
have given the policies showing different perspective ,and we have
experience nationalization,islamization and privatization in a short period of
time , and now we are experiencing public private partnership in education.
CURRICULUM PLANNING
Curriculum
planning is that pivot on which all the system of education reveals, it also
affects the future of the nations; too hence the basic theme of primary and
secondary education is conceived and produced by the state. As in our country
federal bureau of curriculum Islamabad gives the guideline in the light of
federal government policies while provincial bureaus of curriculum function
under the directions of federal bureau of curriculum. In sindh province bureau
of curriculum and extension wing jamshoro is responsible for the preparing the
curriculum of primary and secondary classes while sindh text book board helps
in providing text books.
PROFIT SHARE OF
STATES INVESTMENT IN EDUCATION
Plato was the
first philosopher who declared education as a state matter; he said that
providing free education is the state’s responsibility. Since then it is the
responsibility of the states, but in return the state gets the following
benefits:
· Increase in per capita income
· Increase in individual earnings
· Increase in earning capacity
· Highly skilled professionals and labor
· More taxes
· High efficiency
· Economic growth
· No un employment risk
· Increase in human capital asset
· Search for new resources
· Better social system
· More social returns
· National prosperity
PAKISTAN’S
INVESTMENT IN EDUCATION
According to
the World Bank statistics, Pakistan spends only 2.3%of its Gross National Income
(GNI) on education and this figure is very low even among the poor countries.
Even the average of south Asian countries is 3.6%.well one do not need to be an
expert to understand that if a country does not invest on education then it is
bound to have high rate of illiteracy and Pakistan has an illiteracy rate of
58.9%. It is surely among one of the highest rates in Asia and with such a high
rate of illiteracy, no country can dream of improving its economy. Fortunately,
Pakistani decision makers have understood the value of investment in education
and it is expected that in the next annual budget, allocation for education
will be substantially increased. The increase in investment should touch both
primary education and higher education. On the one hand, there should be more
teachers in the primary education in Pakistan while on the other hand, there
should be more fund for carrying out research in the university level.
CONCLUSION
To summarize all this, the state is the best organization to
fulfill the needs and aims of the country. It is the function of the state to
ensure that its members are educated. The state have provide for certain
homogeneity of mores, behaviors, activity and thought. For this, it should
utilize all the resources which will take country towards betterment and peace.
Especially in this, democratic period, it is the duty of the government to take
all possible steps for the development of education. The state has increasingly
taken measures to ensure that children receive socialization through schools.
