Abstract
The role of government is critical in providing key services to education, so is that of
decision makers. People sitting in the parliament make the most important decisions
about the education system in the country and it is very important to know their
opinions about creating system for quality education in Pakistan. Although all political
parties emphasize upon their own agenda about education quality and improvement,
yet practical actions have been missing. The aim is to discover the complexity of
political will and governance of education system in Pakistan, why it is what it is and
what it should be to fulfill the national aspirations of Pakistan as quoted in Qarardade-Maqasid, the vision statement for education system in Pakistan. A qualitative study
was carried out opting phenomenological approach and Internet Mediated Research
methodology (IMR) to understand the political mindset and conception of quality
education of the key players of politics in Pakistan. The textual media related to party
manifestos and the independent reports published on the quality of education in
Pakistan was triangulated against the statements of the leadership of eight political
parties obtained from the visual media, ‘The Great Debate on Education’, a special
talk show hosted by Hamid Mir on GEO TV[1]. Data analysis has been done in two
stages. At stage one, the media content analysis was performed and themes were
allowed to emerge from the repeated discussions on the interviews and other
secondary data selected for the purpose, i.e. party manifestos and Education
Performance Reports. At stage 2 comprehensive interpretive analyses was done by
comparing and contrasting various views emerging across themes. The discussion led
to the implications that quality education might suffer in Pakistan due to a particular
mindset. The study is unique for its use of visual and textual media for critical analyses
of the political vision and attitude towards quality education.
