Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Rasheed Ali
Degrees without discovery: Pakistan’s universities in crisis
A university is supposed to be a place where questions challenge established beliefs, discoveries transform industries, and research offers solutions to society’s most difficult problems. It is where a country prepares not merely its graduates but also its future scientists, inventors, policymakers and thinkers.
Bridging the gap between labs and markets
On paper, Pakistan has built much of the machinery needed to turn university research into industrial innovation. There are Offices of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation (ORICs), business incubation centres, technology-support programmes, research grants, patents, industry liaison platforms and an increasingly visible policy vocabulary around the “knowledge economy”.
Balochistan: A generation caught between fear and hope
For a child in Balochistan, the distance between home and school can sometimes be measured not in kilometres but in fear. A school may stand only a short distance away, yet insecurity, militancy, displacement and the threat of violence can make the journey seem impossibly long. In a province already struggling with poverty, inadequate infrastructure and teacher shortages, violence has added another formidable barrier to one of the most basic rights of childhood: education.
Entrance test dilemma: Gatekeeper or wrong turn?
For thousands of Pakistani students, the race for admission to a professional or prestigious university has entered its most decisive phase. Across the country, institutions are conducting entrance tests for the 2026-27 academic session, turning examination halls into gateways to careers in medicine, engineering, law, computing and other sought-after fields.
Why Pakistan is losing the social sciences race!
On a humid afternoon outside a university admissions office in Lahore, a young student clutched two admission forms — one for sociology, the other for business administration. Before he could make up his mind, the debate had already begun. “Choose business,” his uncle advised. “At least you’ll find a job.” His mother nodded in agreement. “What will you do with sociology?” The young man fell silent.
The vanishing allure of civil service
EducationNationalVOLUME 21 ISSUE # 36 Once the ultimate symbol of prestige and power, the civil service is losing its appeal as fewer graduates gamble years of their lives on an exam with shrinking odds of success. For generations of Pakistanis, three letters carried almost mythical weight: CSS. The Central Superior Services examination was more than a competitive test. It was a passport to prestige, authority and social mobility.
Why Pakistan's education emergency is failing 25m children
EducationNationalVOLUME 21 ISSUE # 34 More than two years after Pakistan declared a National Education Emergency, the country’s biggest classroom remains the one that never existed. Across dusty villages in south Punjab, flood-ravaged settlements of Sindh, remote valleys of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the vast deserts of Balochistan, more than 25 million children wake up every morning without a school to attend.
Slow death of social science research in Pakistan
On a humid afternoon at a public university in Islamabad, a young sociology student sat alone in a nearly deserted department library. The shelves around him were lined with dusty books, many untouched for years. Across the campus, lecture halls for business administration and computer science were overflowing with students preparing for careers in the corporate and technology sectors. In the social sciences wing, however, silence prevailed.
Education: Four provinces, one persistent failure
On a dusty roadside in southern Punjab, a boy no older than ten balances a tray of tea glasses between speeding motorcycles and donkey carts. At the same hour, somewhere in Lahore, elite private schools are preparing students for robotics competitions and international examinations. The contrast is not merely economic; it is the portrait of Pakistan’s widening education divide.
Producing doctors, losing standards: A system under strain
EducationNationalVOLUME 21 ISSUE # 26 On a warm afternoon in Lahore, a final-year medical student sits outside her college’s skills lab, waiting for her turn to practise a clinical procedure that may or may not be supervised that day. Inside, the lab contains a few basic diagnostic tools, and limited simulation equipment. “We study a lot of theory,” she says cautiously, asking not to be named. “But when we enter hospitals, we realise we are not confident with real patients.
Free education: Article 25-A on trial in Punjab
EducationNationalVOLUME 21 ISSUE # 24 In the constitutional architecture of Pakistan, few provisions carry the moral and legal weight of Article 25-A — a clause that promises free and compulsory education to every child between the ages of five and sixteen. Modified through the landmark Eighteenth Amendment, this provision transformed education from a policy aspiration into a justiciable fundamental right.
The curriculum conundrum
EducationNationalVOLUME 21 ISSUE # 22 In a modest classroom somewhere in Pakistan, a science teacher stands before a blackboard, carefully sketching the structure of an atom. The students copy it diligently into their notebooks, line by line, curve by curve. There are no models to hold, no lab to test hypotheses, no experiment to bring the invisible world alive. The atom remains what it has long been for generations of Pakistani students — not a discovery, but a diagram to memorise.
The skill gap: Pakistan’s forgotten workforce
On a quiet morning in the suburbs of Rahim Yar Khan city of Punjab, Rashid Mahmood Matela pushes open the creaking gate of the vocational training institute where he once dreamed of building his future. Inside, rows of outdated electrical panels gather dust. A lathe machine sits idle in the corner, its parts worn out from years of use and little maintenance. Rashid, now 22, completed his diploma months ago. He had imagined stepping straight into a job.
AI training reshapes teaching in Pakistan
On a quiet morning at Allama Iqbal Open University in Islamabad, a classroom full of teachers sat facing their laptops instead of chalkboards. Some leaned forward with curiosity, others with hesitation. On the screen in front of them were words that until recently belonged more to technology labs than lecture halls: artificial intelligence, AI tools, digital assistants. For decades, the tools of teaching in Pakistan rarely changed — chalk, textbooks and handwritten lesson plans.
Literacy lost in the ledger
EducationNationalVOLUME 21 ISSUE # 16 Every year in the hushed corridors of Islamabad and the bustling halls of provincial secretariats, politicians and technocrats unveil a familiar ritual: the annual budget speech. Television anchors dissect page after page, highlighting allocations for infrastructure, defence and healthcare. Inevitably, there’s also a section devoted to education — promises of increased funding, new schools, teacher training and lofty targets for literacy.
Balochistan’s stolen school years
For hundreds and thousands of children across Balochistan province, the classroom should be a place of possibility — a sanctuary where knowledge promises a brighter tomorrow. But for over a decade, that promise has been battered by the relentless drum of India-backed insurgency and Taliban militant violence. In the province, the echoes of gunfire have long overshadowed the school bell, and the lessons learned in textbooks increasingly feel like distant dreams.
Pakistan’s classrooms enter the AI age
In a sunlit classroom in Karachi’s Clifton neighbourhood, a group of students sit before tablets, following an AI tutor through an interactive lesson on world history. The tutor pauses frequently to ask questions tailored to each student’s pace, offering hints when needed. For many here, the robot voice is less a novelty and more a collaborator, guiding them through material at a pace that traditional lectures rarely allow.
Human cost of terrorism on education in Balochistan& KP
In the unforgiving mountains and vast deserts of Pakistan’s Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces, the promise of education, a beacon of hope for a brighter future, has been cruelly eclipsed by the relentless shadow of terrorism and insurgency. Explosions shatter the morning calm, gunfire echoes through valleys, and fear grips the hearts of children who once dreamed of classrooms filled with laughter and learning.
Turning professional degrees into social trophies
EducationNationalVOLUME 21 ISSUE # 03 When Khadija Mastur Chaudhry scanned matrimonial ‘rishtas’ for her businessman son, she had a very clear — and very status-driven — wish. She wanted a ‘doctor bahoo’. Among all prospective matches, she found a young woman: a fresh MBBS graduate from a public medical college, then doing her house job at a government hospital. Exactly the kind of ‘rishta’ to parade before relatives — a doctor in the family.
Who’s experimenting with education and why?
When the 18th Amendment to Pakistan’s Constitution was passed in 2010, one of its boldest moves was to transfer the subject of education — curriculum, syllabus, standards, and planning — from the federation to the provinces. The aim was to bring governance closer to communities and improve responsiveness. It also introduced Article 25-A, making free and compulsory education for children aged 5-16 a constitutional right. Fifteen years later, the pendulum may be swinging back.
Invisible research, invisible impact
When Fahimullah, a young MPhil student at the Faculty of Arts, University of the Punjab, began searching for a research topic, he expected to find guidance toward something meaningful — an issue that reflected the real challenges Pakistan’s society faces today. But instead, he found himself stuck in a cycle familiar to many postgraduate students: a list of topics so overused and disconnected from reality that even the titles seemed relics of the past.
Hidden cost of floods on literacy in Pakistan
When the floodwaters rose around her village in southern Punjab this summer, fourteen-year-old Ayesha thought she might miss a week of school at most. She remembers standing with her younger brother on a rooftop in her village near tehsil Dunyapur town of district Lodhran, pointing at the swollen river that had swallowed the road, their fields, and finally the single-storey school building that had been the heart of their community.
Pakistan’s vanishing classrooms in floodwaters
When the monsoon finally loosened its grip, the children of Baiji Katcha returned along a path bleached gray by silt. Where their school once stood — two rooms and a verandah painted the colour of a mango peel — there was only a rectangle of cracked mud and the remnant of a swing set jutting like a rib from the ground. The headmistress, Madam Zahida, carried the school register in a plastic bag and set it on a brick. “We will hold class here,” she told the students.
Learning lost in the dust of rural Sindh
Sindh, the province already struggling with one of the lowest literacy rates in Pakistan, particularly in its rural heartland, has witnessed a troubling chapter in its education sector. For decades, the Pakistan Peoples Party has ruled the province, promising uplift for the poor and marginalised.
Cholistan’s children chasing learning across dunes
As dawn spills gold across the shifting dunes of Cholistan — locally known as Rohi — the desert’s stillness is broken by the rustle of school bags and the low murmur of lessons. Not in a proper schoolhouse, but beneath a lone acacia tree or inside ramshackle shelters of mud and brush.
School for sale: Free education vanishing in Punjab
EducationNationalVOLUME 20 ISSUE # 37 In a province where more than 10 million children are out of school, the Punjab government’s education policy has become a source of growing frustration and fear for parents already overwhelmed by poverty.
A tale of two realities — Education in Gilgit-Baltistan - Weekly Cutting Edge
EducationNationalVOLUME 20 ISSUE # 35 For the rugged, breathtaking region of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), known for its soaring peaks and resilient people, the story of education is both inspiring and troubling — a landscape of progress scattered with deep inequalities. Despite its rich cultural heritage and strategic significance, the region has long been neglected in the national conversation, especially when it comes to its most vital sector: education.
AJK schools fight for the future
In a region where the distant echo of gunfire and shelling often punctuates the stillness of dawn, a quieter, more powerful revolution is taking root — one built not on weapons, but on chalk, books, and unyielding resolve. Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), long known for its proximity to the volatile Line of Control (LoC), has quietly emerged as a literacy leader in Pakistan — a remarkable feat given the region’s recurring brushes with conflict.
Punjab’s quiet education crisis
In the sprawling heartland of Pakistan, there lies a silent emergency — one not carved by sudden disaster, but by slow neglect. It is a crisis painted not in broken buildings or crumbling roads, but in the absence of children in classrooms. In Punjab, as of the 2023 census, a staggering 9.6 million children between the ages of 5 and 16 remain out of school.
Education on the edge in Balochistan
Nestled between rugged mountains, arid deserts, and the Arabian Sea, Balochistan — Pakistan’s largest yet least populated province — tells a story of contrast. Rich in minerals but poor in schools. Abundant in resources but barren in classrooms. The province, often seen through the lens of geopolitics and security, is quietly waging its most vital battle yet: the battle to educate its children.
Despite billions spent, over 4.7m KP children remain out of school
In the sun-drenched valleys and remote mountain hamlets of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the voices of millions of children echo in silence — not in classrooms, but on fields, in markets, and at home. Despite a decade of soaring education budgets under Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rule, more than 4.7 million children in the province remain out of school. The contrast between policy and outcome is stark. Since 2013, the PTI has ruled KP for 11 of the past 12 years, with a brief intermission in 2023.
PPP’s Sindh and education crisis - A quarter century of neglect
Since its formation in 1967, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has remained a dominant political force in Sindh, holding power in the province for over 26 years. From the early days of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s ambitious reforms to the current leadership of Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, the party has had every opportunity to transform Sindh’s public sector—especially education.
Punjab’s education paradox: Prosperity without progress
Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous and economically pivotal province, remains mired in an education crisis despite being under the governance of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) for much of the last 30 years. With the latest term beginning in February 2024 under Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif — the first woman to hold the office — the party continues to fall short in prioritising education.
Education: A crisis of priority amid political failures
Pakistan, home to a population of 242.8 million in 2024, has made little progress in addressing one of the country’s most urgent issues: education.
Classrooms under siege: Climate’s growing threat to children’s futures
EducationNationalVOLUME 20 ISSUE # 19 Picture a child’s school day—not filled with lessons and laughter, but halted by a flooded road, a collapsed roof, or a classroom too hot to think in. In 2024, that was life for 242 million students across 85 countries, their education upended by climate-fueled chaos: heatwaves, storms, floods, and droughts. A new UNICEF report lays bare how these disasters are clawing at an already fragile learning system, with South Asia and beyond reeling from the fallout.
Minor siblings’ campaign owned by State of Palestine
It is a matter of great pride not only for young Pakistani siblings, Ubaydah Al Fiddhah Hafiah (11) and Ghulam Bishar Hafi (13), but for the entire Pakistani nation, that the Palestinian Ambassador to Pakistan, Dr Zuhair Zaid, has acknowledged their struggle as part of the State of Palestine’s cause. The two siblings have steadfastly raised their long-run campaign titled ‘voice for the voiceless’ to save the children from a situation, which held all major hallmarks of a ‘Systematic Infanticide’.
Broken foundations of education
EducationNationalVOLUME 20 ISSUE # 15 The state of education in Pakistan is marked by significant disparities, with many schools lacking basic facilities such as toilets, clean drinking water, and boundary walls. A report released by the Pakistan Institute of Education provides a comprehensive overview of the current situation, revealing troubling gaps in infrastructure and resources across different regions of the country.
Why mother tongue matters in education
It was an unexpected response from the school administrator when Naveed Asghar and his wife visited the area school for the admission of their son. They were living in a Melbourne (Australia) locality at that time. When the couple was discussing the admission process in Punjabi, their mother tongue, the school administrator asked them if their four-year-old child was fluent in speaking his mother tongue.
The struggle for education: Why parents choose madrasas over government schools
Madrasas have long been an integral part of Pakistan’s education system, providing religious instruction to millions of students. Over the past two decades, their enrollment has steadily increased, particularly in Balochistan. Despite concerns about their role in society, research suggests that the vast majority of madrasas focus solely on religious education and have no links to extremism. Economic hardship remains the primary reason parents opt for madrasa education over government schools.
Pakistan's out-of-school children - Weekly Cutting Edge
As Pakistan faces a significant challenge in enrolling millions of out-of-school children, a recent study by the Pakistan Alliance for Maths and Science reveals that over 25% of these children are concentrated in just 45 tehsils across the country. With 25.3 million children aged 5 to 16 currently not attending school, the report highlights the alarming statistics that 79% of these children have never set foot in a classroom.
The first manifesto for science & peace synchronicity, at last
The correlation between science and peace has often been observed as inversely proportional, particularly in the context of technological advancements that have been repurposed for destructive purposes. Since the United Nations declared November 9–15 as the International Week of Science and Peace (S&P) in 1986, scientists, researchers, and policymakers have largely failed to collaborate effectively in harnessing science as a tool for promoting peace and advancing human well-being.
Young sibling duo goes all out to raise awareness for Gaza children
On International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, observed every year on November 29, two Pakistani children dedicated their recently bestowed awards to the children of Gaza, who are victims of unprecedented violence in world history.
Uneven progress in education
In response to the education emergency declared by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in May, the Planning Commission released the District Education Performance Index (DEPIx), a comprehensive evaluation of Pakistan’s education system. The report provides critical insights into the challenges and disparities in education performance across 134 districts, emphasizing the need for targeted reforms to address systemic inequities.
A grim outlook: Disparities in Pakistan's education sector
The state of education in Pakistan is marked by significant disparities, with many schools lacking basic facilities such as toilets, clean drinking water, and boundary walls. A report released by the Pakistan Institute of Education provides a comprehensive overview of the current situation, revealing troubling gaps in infrastructure and resources across different regions of the country.
Poverty and literacy share a significant correlation
Provinces or regions in a country with a high literacy rate usually have a high GDP per capita, statistics show. And the assertion stands true for vice versa. Political-economists believe literacy helps individuals better utilise the resources in an efficient way. It results in an increase in production, ultimately leading to more employment opportunities and prosperity in a better literate region.
Poverty and literacy are intricately connected
Provinces or regions in a country with a high literacy rate usually have a high GDP per capita, statistics show. And the assertion stands true for vice versa. Political-economists believe literacy helps individuals better utilise the resources in an efficient way. It results in an increase in production, ultimately leading to more employment opportunities and prosperity in a better literate region. A study, conducted by the Pak Alliance for Maths and Science (PAMS), is a testimony to the statements.
Challenges of subpar education quality
In the quest to address the pressing challenges of subpar education quality in South Asia, a World Bank report provides insightful recommendations aimed at fostering a transformative change. Highlighting the pivotal role of the private sector, the report underscores the urgency for governments to encourage greater private-sector participation and outlines a multifaceted strategy encompassing health, teacher quality, financial incentives, and improved measurement of student progress.
Rising tide of tuition culture
In our country, the concept of education is inseparable from private tuition, asserts Laila Rubab, mother of grade 9 and grade 7 students. Allegations abound that teachers in both private and public sector schools merely go through the motions in classrooms—taking attendance, checking notebooks, and assigning homework written on the blackboard, claims Mrs. Rubab. Students copy down the homework, presenting it to their parents, who then bear the responsibility of ensuring completion.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Rasheed
Contact Rasheed, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack