LAHORE, July 4: A Supreme Court bench on Tuesday observed that the country’s education system was in a complete mess, particularly since it was handed over to the private sector, which kept its commercial interests above any other consideration. As a result, imparting of learning has been reduced to the lowest priority.

The bench presided over by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry observed that it was yet to be determined who was responsible for the deterioration of the most vital sector of social life, and that the time had come for responsibility in this negligence in meeting the national obligation to be fixed.

The court was hearing a complaint communicated by a citizen from Faisalabad, Rafiqul Islam, through a letter, which the chief justice turned into a writ petition.

It issued notices to the federal education secretary and education secretaries of the provinces with instructions that they should file their replies.

The complainant stated in his letter that the government had abdicated its role in the field of education and left the citizens at the mercy of the private sector, which hardly had any interest in promoting education.

The private sector, he submitted, had made education so expensive that the parents could hardly afford the tuition fee and other expenses. The new educational methods, he stated, had become so unwieldy and burdensome for children that they could not apprehend any discipline of educational life. As a result, education had been reduced to a meaningless exercise that had nothing to do with the promotion of educational standards.

The complainant submitted that the federal and provincial governments had time and again said that education was not their responsibility.

He stated that the constitution held the government responsible for making arrangements for imparting quality education.

He submitted that getting his children educated in private schools was extremely difficult when he was running a family of five with a monthly income of about Rs5,000.

He prayed to the court to issue directions to the Punjab government to augment its schools besides allowing the functioning of private schools so that he was able to send his children to a good school.