Whenever you think about Pakistan and education together your mind refers to unequal education system, lack of standardization in education system, cost of education and lack of technical education etc but recently you can add terrorism in that list too.
Recent attacks on educational institutes of Pakistan has stunned the nation and sparked a debate on the security related issues. Parents are scared to send their children to schools, colleges and universities. Security level of most of the educational institutes is non-existent and even those whose security level is in place is not up to the mark to counter any untoward incident.
Terrorist sees education institutes as soft targets unlike any military or paramilitary target, not only they have managed to attack the institutes but also people and children associated with the institutes as attacking school and college buses has become very common in some certain parts of Pakistan.

It is extremely unfortunate that we have been indulged in such a situation where maintaining security of our educational institute has become our top priority instead of focusing of real issues faced by our educational institute. Serious measures needed to be taken to eradicate this evil from its root so it does not adversely affect our young and flourishing minds. These measures includes but not limited to proper boundary erection of the institute, performing check on security guards, equipping them with latest arms, frequent security drills, proper monitoring of parking areas of institutes. By taking these measures our students and children will have a peace of mind to focus on their education instead of living under the fear of terrorist attack.

(The writer is an M. Phil scholar at Institute of Communication Studies, Punjab University, Lahore and she can be reached at: [email protected])