“If I were in charge of education in Pakistan…”: Exploring youth views on education and political violence in Karachi

• In Event: Youth views, aspirations, and the role of education in promoting conflict or peace

Abstract

Unequal access to education is often cited as a factor that contributes to underlying conditions for conflict. Yet the mechanisms that underpin this relationship are under-specified. To what degree are youth aware of these inequalities and how much importance to they give them? This paper seeks to understand what youth want from education in Pakistan, how they think education is linked to violence, and how they see violence in Karachi affecting their society. I present preliminary data from a qualitative study of youth aspirations and education in Karachi, Pakistan. From March 2014 to January 2015, I and a team of research assistants collected in-depth qualitative interviews from 40 in-school and 40 out-of-school youth to learn more about their hopes, aspirations, education and views of conflict or peace in Karachi and in Pakistan writ-large. Each subsample was further divided into half boys and half girls, and further subdivided into three socio-economic strata (upper-, middle-, and low-income), and several ethnicities. Across a remarkably diverse group of ethnicities and socioeconomic strata, youth in Karachi hold strikingly similar views on the challenges facing the Pakistan education system and what should be done about it. They cite inequality, particularly unequal access to education, as the source of many social ills. I argue that this awareness of inequity and the importance youth attribute to it contribute to underlying conditions for conflict in Karachi, and in Pakistan more broadly.

Author

• Dana Burde, New York University