Engineer Zahid Qaisrani
Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by area and the most backward province in terms of development. Although it is full of natural resources and people of all other provinces are benefiting from these resources especially natural gas (Sui gas), but common man is not aware of the real situation of the province.
Saindak gold reserves, Rekodiq Copper gold project, Chromite from Muslim Bagh are major projects which could change the condition of people of the province economically, but it did not happen. Now new era is going to start with China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) from Gwadar (Balochistan) to Kashgar (China). So in this century, every person of Balochistan wants real change in the province.
We have to first analyse the root causes of the poverty, illiteracy, poor infrastructure, lack of basic facilities in hospitals, number of technical institutions, colleges, universities and last but not least the involvement of local staff in all running and upcoming projects. It is scientifically proved that results can never be gained suddenly. The development is a continuous process and takes hundreds of years; however a journey starts from the first step. So this is time to start the journey. If we wait further, then we can’t give a bright future to our generations.
Everybody agrees that education is the key of progress and development. But we did not start our journey yet. There are three basic levels of education in the world known as school, college and university levels. Although its results will start to appear after 10-15 years provided that we did not quit the process, but there is no option to make the education system so strong for real change. For this we have to do three things.
We should establish Intermediate and Secondary Education Boards in all six divisions of the province. Each board should follow rules and regulations set by a central directorate in capital city of Quetta.
We should have zero tolerance for cheating culture. Every responsible person should be punished strictly according to a law passed from assembly.
Merit should be followed strictly throughout the province.
This is the basic way to change the lives of people in province. No doubt, we are to increase the number of medical and engineering universities in the province however there should be no compromise on merit in existing institutions at any cost.
It is already proved that the states in the world cannot be developed without real education, merit and accountability. The corruption from all departments will automatically finish, if officers come through merit. Although teaching is a noble profession in the world, but teachers should be able to show their strength to the world through competition in relevant fields. Corruption, law and order situation, cheating culture etc. will totally change if such initiatives are taken seriously.
Writer is a graduate fellow at University of Technology Brunei (UTB)
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