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State of Education under GlobalizationMarch 26, 2006

Price tag to education deprives thepoor of access to knowledge

By Shafqat MunirGlobalization undermines state's role inall services and welfare sectorsincluding education whereas educationfor all is essential for knowledge anddevelopment. If we give a price tag toeducation, it deprives millions of thepoor of access to knowledge anddevelopment.

These views were expressed byspeakers at a seminar on "State of

Education under Globalization" organized by ActionAid Pakistan at the World Social Forumon March 26, 2006. Sabina Ahmad organized and moderated the session. A book titled"Education under Globalization-The case study of Pakistan" proceeding of a conference wasalso launched on this occasion. The speakers discussed various aspects relating toEducation and Globalization.

Speaking on the occasion, Akbar Zaidi said though we resist globalization but we have toaccept that we cannot simply avoid globalization, which is no doubt impeding the humanneeds rather focusing on commercialization. Education loses its real spirit if it is priced andthat too a profitable one. Education is generally linked to employment and not withknowledge. The questions arises as to who is going to decide on curriculum and type ofeducation particularly under globalization. Whether World Bank, IMF or other operators ofcorporate world are going to decide what education is all about or our democratic forces aregoing to decide about it.

He said globalization is not the only process that is damaging traditional education system,there are other factors too that are really damaging the education making it irrelevant to theneeds of the people. Privatization of education is being promoted and quality is beingcompromised. Private and public sectors should be brought at par. The governmenteducation sector needs to be improved. We only spend 2% on education whereas we spendmore on defence. Globalization is proving to be a catalyst to further categorizing educationwith commercial aspects. Earlier, education had a connection to civilization and cultural andindigenous perspectives but now education is fast becoming market oriented commodity. Nowthe people go for degrees, which can generate better employment, particularly employmentabroad.

Mr Zaidi said we need to create space according to our priorities despite being trapped inglobalization. Pakistan, being protector of the interests of the United States and the elites, didnot adopt polities that could have helped benefit from the opportunities provided byglobalization while India and Malaysia's policies helped benefit from it. He was of the viewthat unless democratic forces are not given free hand to devise and adopt policies, we cannotexpect any pro-poor policy formulation. Only the people of Pakistan jointly can get our policieschanged on education. Education system in Pakistan has never been egalitarian andprogressive as it has been ignored by rulers under their vested interests. Military governmentsare largely responsible for damaging education system in Pakistan. It is not Bush, Musharrafand others who can bring about an egalitarian system.

Kaiser Bengali said the way the liberalization is being imposed under IMF agreements,

deprivation of the people in terms of education and health is growing. There are largely profitbased private schooling or education systems. Some of education institutions set up byphilanthropists are different than those based on commercial approach and a price tag. If we

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hand over all the services to market forces, then it would further plunge the poor into abjectpoverty. If education is privatized, it would be a dangerous trend as common people and theirchildren cannot think of changing their fate as they cannot get education and achieve anyexcellence. It is very easy to blame World Bank and other institutions for all of our ills. Theeducation is an old subject. Education is learning. If we look at the syllabus at primary level,we find that it only speaks of making children Muslim, rather making them biased. The poor

children are taught ordinary things while the rich children are taught the syllabus which istaught in the United Kingdom. So, there is huge gap between the two. This discriminatoryeducation system gives all rights and privileges to the rich while depriving the poor of eventhe right to education, to development and to employment. We need to try to develop thestate as the peoples state and not of the elites. Education is sold as product. Even in preliberalization era, we had problems in educationssystem.

Aftab Alam said unfortunately that our basicdecisions are being taken by outside forces at theglobal level. He said WTO is making such ruleswhere in our water and food needs are beingaffected badly. There is a general agreement on

service (GATS) which impacts all our servicesincluding education. GATS is a WTO agreementunder which multinational companies oruniversities can invest in any country even withoutthe control of national governments. Noweducation is being opened as commodity under WTO regime. Foreign universities can set uptheir facilities. Privatization of education has already being in process even before the WTOregime. The government would have no role on curriculum and fee structures and the peoplehave to pay whatever the foreign institutions would demand as price of education. We willhave no right to decide which kind of education we need. All books are already written byforeigners. With more foreign private sector involvement in our education sector, we wouldfurther lose our own choices. The syllabus is not already matching our needs. Withliberalization, we would have to further face such problems.

He said the foreign universities and education systems will not provide education to the poorpeople across Pakistan and the education would reduce to the children of the elite who canpay. All the rich countries even do not bother to the flexibilities provided in education. UnderGATS, countries have the right to select certain sectors for liberalization and opening them forforeign investors but this flexibility is not being allowed as the rich are forcing the poorcountries to open up even water, food, health and education sectors.