polarizing educational system

Education is pivotal in social,economic development and intellectual advancement of any country in the world.Without having a high quality educational system and making higher education access able for all people no country can develop in the contemporary world because economic development in the 21 century is dependent on human resources more so than natural resources, a country can only make full and best possible use of its natural resources if it has a skilled work force.

Islam is the only religion which obliges its followers to seek knowledge and for Muslims education is not an option but a religious obligation and their is nothing in Islam which prevents Muslims from attaining and using knowledge for their betterment. The first word of first revelation upon Holy Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) is was which ''Iqra'' which means read. Allah says in the Quran ''And say: My lord increase me in knowledge.''(Quran  Ta-ha 20:114)

Pakistan is a constitutional Islamic republic but ever since Pakistan has came into being no Government has prioritized education,less than 2% of GDP was allocated for education in the budget of financial year 2012-2013,thus the literacy rate is less than 60%

However the problem in Pakistan is not only lack of money which is spent on education even bigger problem is our class based educational system which is increasing polarization in the country and it is also detrimental to the countries progress.Every big country has polarization people of different mindset,ideology,views,life styles are found in every big country but in Pakistan the polarization is created by our educational system, we have at least three types of education system in Pakistan 1.The traditional religious seminaries.2.Urdu medium public/private schools.3.English medium public/private schools. And than the higher education is totally in English.The traditional religious seminaries apart from few exceptions have 100s of year old curriculum and in those seminaries students only study Quran,Hadith and Fiqh and these seminaries produce scholars who are good in theology but they are disconnected with the needs and requirements of the time they are living in and their education in these seminaries make them sectarian and blind follower of their elders. The deobandi/barelvi divide in Pakistan amongst the Sunni scholars is a great example of that, because of the sectarian mindset and blind following of their elder clerics the clergy in Pakistan has failed to play its rule in making Pakistan modern Islamic state,rather than uniting Muslims they divide on the basis of sectarian differences.mostly people of poor and lower middle class background send their children to these traditional religious seminaries,on the other side the Urdu medium public/private schools are where majority of Pakistanis get their education,In Government Urdu medium schools people from poor and lower middle class send their children, And than we have English Medium Public/private schools where mostly people from middle and upper middle class and the elite send their children. Most of the English medium schools are private owned, The tuition fee in the private English medium schools is very high and the poor of Pakistan can only dream of sending their kids to these schools, The English medium schools produce people who can speak good English and many of them go on to graduate from Universities within or outside Pakistan but their knowledge about Islam and Muslim history is second to nothing, and environment of some of the English medium schools is also alien to Pakistani society and culture for example recently in Islamabad a private English medium school announced that it will hold a debate on Homosexuality but after public outrage it was cancelled, because of this class based educational system we have a dangerous class based polarization in Pakistan where Pakistanis have very stereotypical views about each other, The clerics are very sectarian and blind followers of their elders rather than looking things in broader perspective and morally guiding people in the light of Quran and Sunnah uniting and creating awareness about Islam amongst the Muslims to implement Islam in Pakistan they have divided people by spreading sectarianism because of their contradictory attitude about Islam and sectarian violence the image of clergy is increasingly getting negative in the society and specially amongst the educated youth, today the word Mullah has sadly become a demonizing word in Pakistan, 

In between their is a overwhelming majority of traditional and conservative Pakistani Muslims from the poor and lower middle class who are mostly uneducated or semi educated, 

On the other side is the English speaking mentally colonized elite which is out of touch and disconnected from the common Pakistani they see Islam and Pakistan from western perspective, but because of their better economic condition and education they dominate the Pakistani media and power corridors, they want to turn Pakistan into a complete secular state where Islam has nothing to do with our public life and affairs of the state and is restricted to rituals and beliefs, even though majority thinks otherwise, they accuse any one who is religiously observant or has religious views of being Mullah their hatred for Mullah is at such level that whenever they have to say anything against Islam they use the word Mullah,

This polarizing educational system has created and is dangerously increasing class based polarization in Pakistani society and its also detrimental to our economic progress intellectual and technological advancement,Pakistan needs reforms and change in its educational system The religious seminaries should be under the control of the Government and Government should regulate their curriculum and medium of education and curriculum in private and public schools for people of all social backgrounds should be one either it should be in English or Urdu, in my opinion it should be in Urdu including higher education since its our national language but urdu has become just a lingua franca in Pakistan, no country has disowned its language like we have done,it also has negative impact psychologically we are physically free as nation but mentally still colonized, to have a creative and innovative educational system we not only need one educational system for all Pakistanis to create national coherence but the medium of education should be Urdu, you can learn in someone else us language but to match rest of the world in science and research the native and national language of ours which is Urdu has to be the medium of education from primary to university level, Those who say we can't progress without having our educational system in English must be living in a cave,Germany and Japan are technically the most advanced nations ever and in both countries educational system is in national language not English beside them in most developed and technologically advanced countries which are non-English the educational system is in national language,Turkey has the biggest and fastest growing economy in the Muslim world and its educational system is in Turkish language,

so for a developed,progressive and united Pakistan we need one educational system for all Pakistanis regardless of religion,race,gender or social and economic class.