Analysis of UK and Pakistan Education System Essay

UK is one of the renowned trading power and financial hub of the world, stands at third position in European Union following Germany and France. The agriculture sector of the region is particularly strong and mechanized. Its efficiency can be ensured through the production of 60 percent food needs with only 2 percent of workforce. The region has significant energy resource but due to increasing demands it is importing energy from 2005. The insurance and financial institutes in addition to bank are generating the largest portion of GDP of the region. The recent financial crises particularly influenced the economy of the region during 2008 because of the financial sector of the region (www. cia. gov). Literacy rate of the region is 99 percent while 5. 5 percent of GDP is fixed for the development of education sector. According to such percentage of GDP it stands at 44th position as compare to other countries (www. cia. gov). There were 89 universities and 131 higher education institutes operating till August 2011 (www. universitiesuk. ac. uk). The expansion in higher education system of the region is relatively slow as compared to the other countries competing with the region according to the report of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2007). There are several countries coming up with significantly higher number of college and universities although the growth of education sector in recent years in UK is also remarkable. The increase in the educational institutes positively influence the graduation rate in UK as it was 37 percent during the year 2000 and reached upto 39 percent in 2005. On the other hand the position of the region was dropped from 3rd to 10th position as compare to around 20 countries while considering the educational performance (www. guardian. co. uk). The recent financial crises negatively influenced all the sectors therefore the government was planning to reduce the educational expenses by 25 percent during the upcoming four years. It was mentioned the chancellor that the reduction in the budget for educational sector depends on the treatment with the other sectors which are influencing the budget of the region. No guarantee of not cutting the educational budget was given by the chancellor. It was further mentioned by the government official that the possible saving through reduction in welfare budget may positively facilitate in reducing percentage of cut in educational budget (BBC, 2010). UK is also famous as an esteem education provided all around the world and students of different continents are presently completing their education in UK. Recently the government particularly focus the immigration process of students for making amendments. The seniors of UK education sector that the shift of government towards Tier 4 student immigration program may adversely effect the higher education institutes and the whole economy. The government particularly deployed for deciding about the student visa system of UK according to the new rules and policies. In addition the numbers of immigration given to the skilled workers also threatened the education sector because the student which will not take higher education may reduce the scope of universities and it will be quite difficult for the region to compete with the other countries as far as the educational sector is concerned (www. orkpermit. com). Pakistan is facing severe law and order situation in addition to political disputes which negatively influencing the trend of foreign investment. The recent energy crises are also one of the factors which badly effecting the overall development of economy. The unemployment rate according to the government is 6 percent but the real rate is very high because of the slow economic development. During the recent years the growth of the country significantly reduced while the inflation rate is particularly increasing. On the other hand food prices have also remarkable increased. The UN Human Development Report estimated the poverty during 2011 around 50 percent population. The inflation rate was recorded at 7. 7 percent during 2007 which was crossed 13 percent during the year 2011. The currency value of Pakistan has decreased by 40 percent since 2007 due to such circumstances (www. cia. gov). The education facilities in Pakistan are although developing but still require significant attention to compete with the global market. The literacy rate of the country is very low and estimated as around 50 percent in which 63 percent are males while remaining are females. The government declared 2. 7 percent of annual GDP for the education sector so that further schools can be developed and established according to the need of population. Keeping in view the expenses declared for education sector as compared to the remaining world the country is at 142nd position which is considerably low rank (www. cia. gov). Ministry for education is performing critical role for the development education sector in Pakistan. The key aim is to promote education according to the policies and plans defined by the management of the firm. Under this ministry education policy for 1998-2010 was prepared for significantly focusing the overall development educational sector within Pakistan. In this policy the education of the nation and Islamic knowledge was particularly focused for reasonable development. Literacy, non-formal, elementary, secondary and teacher education were also included. The government particularly focused vocational and technical education in addition to higher education for the students so that the need of the market can be fulfilled. The government also particularly focused the private sector which is consistently and rapidly developing within Pakistan for providing upto the mark quality education to the nation (http://www. moe. gov. pk). The higher education sector of Pakistan is facing problems due to significant reduction in the budget during the last two years (2010 and 2011). Presently the government is spending around 1. 8 percent of its GDP on education and in the world there are only six countries found which are following Pakistan. The upcoming problems for the education sector of Pakistan are further critical as the government has planned to devolve the higher education system to the provinces till 2014. It will be a huge loss to the upcoming generation as the standard of education will be decreased in addition to huge wastage of money invested for the development of the sector. The policies of the government are negatively effecting the development of education sector although there is crucial requirement of central authority which ensures the development of education sector (newsweekpakistan. com).