By Muhammad Hanif Gul: Pakistan is passing through a historic moment of self reflection, self awareness and possibly of course correction. Interestingly, this desire is not fueled by some kind of doubt about the viability of her statehood. On the contrary, this renewed quest for soul searching is triggered by the euphoric feelings of victory in a historic air battle on the May 7th. Modi, a hardliner Indian PM, who thrives on hatred, division and violence attacked Pakistan with the false assumption that India could beat Pakistan under pseudo pretext of terrorism and would get away with strong retaliation from Pakistan. This false pride of Modi was shattered in the air. The narrative of Indian hegemony has fallen sooner than the big birds in the sky.
The feelings of victory are sweet. The enhanced sense of security that Pakistanis enjoy now is super fine. But the real battlefield is neither ground, nor air, nor oceans. The battles of future are won and lost in the class rooms of STEM schools and Institutes of Technologies. If Pakistan doesn’t redefine her security doctrine to include this aspect in to the full spectrum of deterrence, Pakistan will never become a high-tech top economy. Without a strong economy, the future warfare can never be conceptualised as it is heavily influenced by electronic warfare. Pakistan is at the bottom of the ladder. It is necessary that educational emergency is imposed across the country in both public and private sector for making Pakistan a first world country by 2047.
STEM education focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics through interdisciplinary learning, critical thinking and project based learning. In STEM schools, the emphasis is on innovation, creativity and problem solving. The use of technology like electronic boards, 3D printers , coding platforms, virtual laboratories is essential feature of STEM environment. The work force for future is trained in space sciences, software development, renewable energy, biochemical engineering, and artificial intelligence. The children are trained in python, CAD, and artificial intelligence applications. The real life problems are given to the students for developing sustainable solutions by applying an integrated approach. Children are engaged in community related issues like urban planning, water purification, and public health issues etc to gain critical insights about the issues, value of team work and application of multidisciplinary solutions to improve the outcomes. This method is useful for gaining global competitiveness in emerging technologies like quantum computing and biotechnology.
In USA, there are many streams of STEM education. The supremacy of USA is based on the quality of these school as well as the high quality research universities. The Magnet Program was initially designed in 1960s to promote voluntary desegregation. Later, magnets schools became a key driver of stem education. The charter schools of USA are publicly funded but independently managed schools. These schools are required to meet their goals specified in the charter. Thomas Jefferson School of Science and Technology (Virginia), High Tech High (California), IDEA Public School (Texas), and Summit Public School (California) are one of the important institutions imparting STEM education. Pakistan can develop their prototypes in both public and private sector. In each Tehsil at least, there should one high quality STEM school for boys and girls.
Program for International Students Assessment (PISA) is an OECD managed triennial assessment system for 15 years old students proficiency in mathematics, science and reading. The last PISA assessment was carried out in 2022. In that assessment, 6,90,000 students from 81 different countries participated. Singapore with a score of 560 topped the chart, followed by Macau (China) 535, Taiwan and Japan tied at 533, South Korea, 523 and Hong Kong (China) 520. Among the European countries, Estonia topped with a score of 516. With a score of 480, US ranked 18th out of 81 countries.
India and Pakistan didn’t participate in PISA, 2022. India last time competed in 2009 edition and was ranked 72 out of 73 countries. Türkiye scored 468 in math, 470 in science and 456 in reading. It ranked 39th in math and 34th in science, the highest among Muslim countries. Indonesia ranked 70th out of 81 with a score of 366. UAE ranked 45th with a score of 431 in math, 432 in science, 417 in reading. Qatar with a score of 414 in mathematics, 419 in reading, and 432 in science ranked 48th among 81 countries. This shows that among Muslim countries Turkey, UAE, Qatar and Indonesia are investing in the future.
International Olympiads in Mathematics and Sciences are another platform to assess the global competitiveness of different countries and their future prospects. In Math Olympiad, held in UK in 2024, the students from 108 countries participated. Each team comprising six students is required to solve six problems each with an assigned value of 7 points per solution. A student can score maximum 42 points and a team score of 252 could be awarded. US with a score of 192 topped followed by China 190, and South Korea at 170. India performed well and was ranked 4th. The Physics Olympiad was held in Tehran where China topped , followed by US and South Korea. In Chemistry Olympiad hosted by Saudi Arabia, China, US and Taiwan were among the top three. In Biology Olympiad held in Kazakhstan, USA, China and Singapore were the top ranked teams. This clearly reflects the changing balance of power in the future.
Pakistan has good relations with both China and USA. Pakistan must prepare Joint Ventures with top schools of these countries to uplift the level of her public schools. The elite private schools are so rich and have plenty of resources but their focus has never been on developing cutting edge human resource for the future. Our top tiers schools must be linked with top tiers schools of China and USA through educational diplomacy.
Pakistan’s close ties with Türkiye, UAE, and Qatar warrants the development of collaborative frameworks for the promotion of STEM schools and possibilities of student exchanges at school levels. This will help Pakistan greatly to break the intellectual barriers thwarting the actualisation of true potential of Pakistan.
If Pakistan wants to be an active and respectable participant in the emerging world, transforming the current educational system is absolutely essential. The sooner we move towards this direction, the better.
About Muhammad Hanif Gul
Muhammad Hanif Gul is a distinguished Pakistani civil servant with a background in rail transport and public service. He holds a degree in Railway System Engineering from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom and was a SPURS/Humphrey Fellow at MIT in the United States. He is also a respected teacher and blogger. He currently works as a senior civil servant in Pakistan Railways.(+92 301 4188853)
