If you want to fix an entire world, there is a problem: you care less about making your bed, forgetting it is a very part of the world! This comes to my mind as I read the lofty claims of our Einsteinian ministers about our role in international politics and helping other countries deal with natural catastrophes. Realities at home, however, are not so rosy.

An inward approach with a pinch of rationality is highly advised. Corrosive, toxic and painful it may be but reality checks are essential — especially for chronic ailments. Every day, the common man sees them, experiences them and lives with them only to know to his disappointment that we hold little substance in our commitment to the masses.

Lately, as the rudderless ship of our country tries to sail through the turbulent sea of economic default, there have been many talks about elite capture, as mentioned by Ishrat Hussain, and the one per cent ruling class, a term coined by Miftah Ismail.

If we assume the one per cent has not let the country flourish, will this make a point that the remaining ninety-nine per cent of the population played their part or no part in bringing Pakistan where it stands now? In the world, the middle class of the country is considered to be the strongest driver in steering the country forward and devising a civic sense and preserving the culture of the society which all seem extinct today in our society. So why have the upper middle and middle classes not been playing their part?

A few days ago, there were pictures making rounds on social media showing the main gates of a government school in a suburban area of the country. The point to note was that instead of young guys and girls coming out of that gate with eyes filled with dreams and minds thinking about how they can attain lives of eminence in the world, there were magnanimous, massive, mindless and careless dark buffaloes coming out of the school.

Many public schools in the country are used as cattle farms where cows and buffaloes are nurtured instead of educating children. One can see cattle roaming around, but no students or teachers in the vicinity. The reality is that such ‘schools’ are good for nothing because there are no funds available to run them. This gives the local influence to ‘salvage’ the structure and bring it into some kind of ‘use’.

Why does the government not release sufficient funds for these schools? If the funds are released, where are they going? Why are these schools forgotten like a bad memory? Why is there no check and balance system in place? Why have the middle and upper middle classes failed to play their role in the uplift of these schools?

Apparently, the school building was used to house the cattle by some local influence. One feels compelled to think in decades and decades of political, economic and technological changes in the countries those buffaloes still reside in schools. These buffaloes must graduate now!

If that is too uphill a task like taxing the rich, then at least a truth and reconciliation committee must be formed telling the nation why executive heads and district administrations all seem helpless in the face of these Buffaloes and why they only find solace in buildings reserved for education.

This makes our country a wonder in the world where Buffaloes go to school and kids walk on the street! In today’s world achieving transparency is a piece of cake. Only the will is needed. Drones can be used for the surveillance of government schools to ensure that the infrastructure is used for the rightful purpose.

Civil society must play its role in the uplift of such schools with a spirit to pay back. It’s time for self-reflection.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2023.

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