May 13, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 7, 1429

RAWALPINDI, May 12: The mushroom growth of official and private housing schemes in Cantonment has left no room for establishment of any educational institution.

Towards the east of the cantonment, mammoth housing schemes are grabbing the land in a phased manner while dozens of official and private housing schemes in the west of the area have almost diminished scope of further opening educational facilities.

The situation inside the cantonment limits is even worse following the unchecked growth of apartments and housing complexes. There is neither any land available, nor the government is determined to make investment in the education sector.

With the start of academic session in schools and colleges every year, parents run from pillar to post seeking admission for their children.

The federal and provincial governments have virtually stopped opening new schools and colleges in the cantonment areas leaving the field open to the private sector to sell education at a higher cost. Moreover, the quality of education offered by most of the private institutions is not up to the required standards.

The cantonment area once used to have limited number of schools and colleges owned by the federal government. However, those institutions were taken over by the Army Education Directorate in 1977 on the directives of then military ruler General Ziaul Haq. Since then, opening of a couple of institutions proved inadequate for the growing population.

During the Zia rule, the cantonment area not only lost a polytechnic institute on Peshawar Road but also a vast land adjacent to the institute which could have been transformed into an educational city. The previous regime in the Punjab had promised to build a similar institute but seemingly the project demised with the departure of the regime.

The most unbelievable fact is that the cantonment area does not have a single postgraduate college for boys. F.G. Quaid-i- Azam College for Boys was the last built by the federal government after the F.G. Sir Syed College.

In terms of population growth, Rawalpindi is placed at number three in the province but it lags behind when educational facilities are taken into account. From the current state of affairs, it would not be wrong to say that Rawalpindi remains in the low priority of the federal as well as provincial governments. The federal capital fairs far better than Rawalpindi in terms of educational institutions. The Capital Development Authority has allocated one whole sector for educational institutions. Enough land was available in the cantonment areas to build an education city but regrettably establishment of housing schemes has been given preference, indicating that we need luxurious living standards, not quality education.

With the growth of population, the number of schools and colleges has proved totally inadequate. Despite the fact that the cantonment area in Rawalpindi is the largest in the country, the government continues to neglect the area. According to an estimate, the population of cantonment areas would soon touch the one million mark.

Army Education Directorate, after taking over the schools and colleges from the ministry of education opened army public schools and colleges, in which civilian population was being meagerly accommodated. After being hopeless, majority of brilliant students search for their future in private institutions. This is how human development is taking place in Pakistan in the 21st century.