The Pace of Education in Balochistan
Miskaan Baloch
The Balochistan Post
When an occupier wants to strengthen its occupation and influence on a territory, the very first thing they do is to control over the minds of youth through different tactics of oppression. The most common of such tactics are to attack and disrupt educational institutions, and empower the criminals in the occupied area.
Many religious extremist groups, which are sponsored by the state, have attacked educational institutions in Balochistan.
In Kech, state sponsored Islamic extremists burnt a library of a private school, destroying more than 1500 books. After the attack the extremists proudly stated that “our honor does not let us allow girls in co-education setup, therefore, we will not let any institutions to educate girls”. This illogical statement became the reason of immediate shut down of the school leaving behind two thousand students deprived of education.
In another incident, Islamic extremists attacked a bus, which was carrying fremale students of Sardar Bahdur Khan university, on 15 June 2015 in Quetta. The attack killed many students. It also provided Pakistani forces an excuse to directly intervene in the matters of University on pretext of security. This University now resembles more like a military camp than a varsity.
In September 2014, Pakistani forces abducted a well-known Singer and Principal of a high school, Rafiq Omaan, from Dasht area of district Kech. He was the only science teacher in the locality and is still missing.
There are numerous examples, which are enough to prove how Pakistan has been trying to disturb the education system in Balochistan.
Furthermore, Balochistan is the only province where only about 50,000 students appear in matriculation exams, this is only a tiny fraction of the total students. This raises questions why so many students abandon their education before reaching the 10th grade. The psychologists believe this is due to constraints imposed by the military, any education system under a barrel of gun is destined to crumble.
So, undoubtedly, Pakistan has been trying everything to disrupt education system in Balochistan with an intent to exploit the Baloch youth. It has been 7 decades since these tactics are being used.
Pakistani colonial policies have intentionally effected the education system of Balochistan. There is no any Higher educational institution left in Balochistan where there is no presence of Pakistani forces. Balochistan University, Bolan Medical College and several other colleges have deployments of military or its auxiliaries.
The following figures and points will evidently prove how the colonial state (Pakistan) has been intentionally affecting the education system of Balochistan.
1) According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics literacy rate of Balochistan is only about 41%.
2) According to the report of National Education management system 60% children in Balochistan mostly give up before they reach secondary level of education.
3) 66% girls of primary age are out of schools.
4) According to a recent report, more than 6,000 primary schools have only one teacher each. More than Two thousand schools are without rooms and other basic facilities. There are at least 700 ghost schools, which only exist on papers.
In last five years, 3 governments have claimed to spend 60 billions on education system of Balochistan , However, the education system remains exactly the same.
Similar injustices resulted in Fall of Dhaka and creation of new country, Bangladesh. Now the same behavior has encouraged Baloch nation to struggle with more vigor for their independence too.