Pakistan’s Private Schools; exploitation of labor, class imbalance and the delusion of meritocracy.

Private educational in(dustries)stitutes are built upon the sole purpose of generating profit. This guileful agenda of generating capital under the veil of “quality education”, “meritocracy", "high caliber teachers”, “extracurricular enterprises" and other corresponding myths is what drives a common parent and pupil to be part of this dogmatized culture. We're all part of this carefully engineered structure where the common man, the student and his parents' in this case, are kept oblivious of the objective behind the portrayal of this false glamour and academic fulfillment. The common teacher in this institution is the subject, the labor force, who's labor is equally being exploited by all means. These colleges and schools have done their part in maintaining capitalism, reproducing and legitimizing class imbalance, and playing their role in exploiting the labor of the proletariat. It is only through a Foucauldian, Althusserian lens that I say this, we are alienated, under a prejudiced, elitist force that governs us as the outcome of our heedlessness.

Inequity, in present-day Pakistan, has become inevitable in terms of educational opportunity, a result of the rapid growth of private schools and colleges. The education system is now nothing more than an extension of the old school globalist elite prejudice. This system, Marx and Engels say can be disempowered but only when a reaction from the working class is induced. I don't tend to follow Maoist, revisionist tactics in this scenario, I think Althusser has contributed greatly to this from his "ideological state apparatus" in which he rightly includes education. He says that all institutions "drilled the values of capitalism into pupils, perpetuating the economic system." The schools "inject" ideas through ISA, indoctrinate the pupils and their parents rightly to exploit them, to make them easier to control. To "discipline" them as Foucault would rightly say.

The delusion of meritocracy is something I have a first hand experience of. We throughout our lives are motivated to stay steadfast, in pursuit of this captivating light at the end of the tunnel, the "goal". And apparently school, and particularly a private elite school is the best pathway to achieve the goal. To be fulfilled. We gaslight ourselves when we say we all have an equal chance to succeed and that our grades depend on our effort and ability. Thus if we fail, we believe it is our own fault. We are bound to think this way because of the gradual brainwashing during this entire "journey to glory". This is why Marx was right, this is the element of control, Our failure.  If children grow up believing they have had a fair chance like the upper class then they are less likely to rebel. this showcasing of a so called "scholarship" and "merit" makes us bound to admit and even acknowledge and appreciate how "benefitting" the system is to the lower working classes. Sugar-coated ideologies and a very effective persuasive apparatus is being used to instruct the ingenuous public.