NGO Education In Pakistan

In the last few years, education sector in Pakistan has changed dramatically. The rise of parallel education systems such as the Cambridge International Examination system and Edexcel system has made educational inequality much more serious and visible. In the midst of the rise of private educational institutions, a major development has been the rise of the NGO-led educational institution. These NGOs are mainly concerned with the education of underprivileged children in the society. Although, the student enrollment in these NGO-led schools is significantly less than the student enrollment in private and government schools. It is still important to analyze the pedagogical methods and techniques being employed in this education system as it

Through an education which promotes self-interested behavior, the idea of collective struggle is made to seem like an abstract and unreal concept. As each becomes more and more self-centered, the lack of collective struggle becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The NGO education system is especially important in raising collective consciousness in the society as it deals with the education of the people who are at the fringes of the society. And individuals who are the vehicles of a Marxist revolution. The NGO education system in Pakistan inadvertently produces a disoriented and politically powerless working class. Even if the immediate aim of the NGO education system, which is to empower the people from lower classes economically, is met, it fails to rectify the structural inequalities in the society. Thus, the positive effect of educating the people from marginalized communities does not produce a long-lasting effect and fails to empower them. The famous Marxist economist, Samuel Bowles mentions in his book, Schooling in Capitalist America, that schools catering to the needs of people from lower social classes also give the illusion of equality of chances and meritocracy to the pupils which provides legitimacy to the socioeconomic inequality in the society (Bowles and Gintis 22). This illusion especially

In the modern-day schooling system, one of the primary targets is to produce a workforce which is completely subservient; this is achieved through ensuring that pupils are subservient to teachers, especially by inhibiting the process of critical inquiry and questioning. Another target is to motivate students through external rewards rather than the joy of work, which is why work by itself is almost unanimously considered to be mundane and repelling. Through this mode of education, the pupils are prepared to become a cog in the wheel of the capitalist education system. As these students enter the workforce, they experience what Marx calls ‘alienation.' The ‘alienation of labor' is a central theme of Marx's work and a defining feature of capitalism. However, the preparation in school means that this alienation and the lack of fulfillment, which comes along with it, is normalized and even glorified at times. As most of the NGO schools, including the TCF which is the biggest NGO school network in Pakistan, follow the state curriculum means that they also inadvertently become a part of the capitalist education system. The reproduction of class inequality through the present-day education system is also a well-documented and well-researched concept. The research of Carmen Mills has been instrumental in this regard as it provides us with ample