I am Malala, by Malala Yousafzai is a book that took the world by storm. In this book, Malala describes her life, what she stands for, all that she has endured through pushing for an education, and her journey as she continues to speak out against the current oppressive regime. Yousafzai puts up a remarkable fight for girls education, even with the knowledge of the repercussions. At the age of 5, Malala was shot in the head on her school bus by the Taliban to get revenge for her campaigning for the education for girls in Pakistan. She took so many risks just to better the lives of other girls who were being deprived of these rights that girls in the United States might take for granted. It was when I read this book that I initially became interested in the types of conflicts happening in Pakistan related to their educational system. I am an education major and feel that educating myself about school systems in other nations will benefit me in the long run as I work to become a teacher.
In Pakistan, the education system adopted from colonial authorities had been described as one of the most underdeveloped in the world. The rate of youth literacy within Pakistan is a little over 60% and over half of the adolescents who are not enrolled in school are female. Barely 60% of the students enrolled in primary school comple
te grades one through five, even though there are programs such as play groups, nursery, kindergarten, etc., that attempt to effectively prepare those students moving onto the next grade. Once you get into middle school or middle education, single-sex education is preferred; meaning they would prefer to teach boys only rather than girls. The education system in Pakistan is separated into three main groups: Public, private, and Madrasah system. The Madrasah system, cater to the poorest segment of the society and have the greatest divergence with contemporary economies. The syllabus taught in these seminaries is grounded in religious biases and portrays a narrow-minded worldview (Pakistan Today, 208), while the public and private schools, cater to children representing the middle class, and therefore, the majority. These schools follow a syllabus which is strictly regulated by the government and has a particular emphasis on rote learning (Pakistan Today, 208). The few students that then reach the university level are left with a lack of knowledge of research-oriented education and even creativity, as creativity is discouraged, especially among young children in school. A typical university graduate in Pakistan emerses unprepared for the real world and lacks the essential qualities of a marketable and hireable person.