Monira Najmi Jahan || The announcement of building a “Knowledge Corridor” with Pakistan may appear impressive at first glance. However, beneath the surface lies a potentially self-destructive trap. Pakistan ranks at the very bottom of the Global Gender Gap Index, one in every three children there is deprived of education, and the country has slashed its own education budget by one-third. Yet on May 11 in Dhaka, Education Minister A.N.M. Ehsanul Haque Milon inaugurated the second phase of this initiative, describing it as a “new horizon” of cooperation between the two countries and announcing 500 fully funded “Allama Iqbal Scholarships.” However, he deliberately avoided one fundamental question: what exactly will Bangladeshi students learn in a country that performs worse than Bangladesh on almost every educational and social indicator—something they cannot already learn at home or in other developed and secure countries that maintain excellent relations with Bangladesh?

Let us first look at Pakistani universities. According to the 2026 QS World University Rankings, no Pakistani institution is among the world’s top 350 universities. Quaid-i-Azam University ranks 354th, while NUST stands at 371st. This clearly demonstrates that whatever this corridor may offer, world-class education is not one of them.

The picture at the school level is equally alarming. According to Pakistan’s latest 2024–25 PSLM survey conducted by the Bureau of Statistics, the country’s adult literacy rate is only 63 percent—the lowest in South Asia—whereas Bangladesh’s literacy rate stands at 79 percent. In Balochistan, less than half the population can read or write. UNICEF reports that 25.1 million children between the ages of 5 and 16 are out of school in Pakistan, the second-highest number in the world. Save the Children places the figure at 26 million, meaning one out of every three school-age children is deprived of education. According to World Bank data, half the students who enroll in first grade drop out by grade five, and 70 percent leave school before reaching grade ten. Only one out of every three students completes secondary education on time.

The reasons behind this are not difficult to understand. Pakistan currently spends only 0.8 percent of its GDP on education, down from 2 percent in 2018, whereas UNESCO recommends spending between 4 and 6 percent. Between July 2024 and March 2025, public education spending fell by 29 percent. Ironically, while Pakistan has reduced its own education budget by nearly one-third, it is simultaneously launching this “Knowledge Corridor.” If a country lacks commitment to improving its own education system, how can it meaningfully contribute to improving another country’s educational standards? Have our policymakers even considered this basic question?

In the 2025 Global Gender Gap Report, Pakistan ranked last among 148 countries. Even Sudan, Chad, and Iran ranked higher. Bangladesh, on the other hand, secured the 24th position, making it the top performer in South Asia. Female literacy in Pakistan is only 54 percent, compared to 73 percent for men. By 2025, the number of women in the federal cabinet had fallen to zero.

If a Bangladeshi female student applies through this corridor, parents should seriously consider what may await her on Pakistani campuses. In 2023, Pakistan recorded 7,010 rape cases. In May 2026, Senator Sherry Rehman revealed that the conviction rate for crimes against women was only 5 percent. According to the helpline operated by the Dukhtar Foundation, an organization working on women’s empowerment and protection, 82 percent of complaints come from female students accusing teachers or academic staff. In October 2024, student protests erupted in Lahore and Rawalpindi following allegations that a student at Punjab College for Women had been raped. According to Al Jazeera, police responded by firing tear gas at protesters, and educational institutions were temporarily shut down. In 2019, the vice-chancellor of the University of Balochistan resigned after allegations were proven that female students had been secretly filmed and blackmailed. These incidents point to a severe lack of accountability and campus safety. If they cannot ensure the safety of their own female students, how will they protect ours?

On the issue of security, Pakistan ranks as the world’s second-most terrorism-affected country in the 2025 Global Terrorism Index, behind only Burkina Faso. Terrorist attacks rose from 517 in 2023 to 1,099 in 2024, while fatalities increased by 45 percent. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been identified as the world’s fastest-growing terrorist group. Ninety-six percent of fatalities occur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The list of 20 partner universities under this corridor has not yet been published, but if any institutions are located in those provinces, they would require special risk assessments—something entirely absent from the agreement.

Religiously, Pakistan is also categorized as a “country of particular concern.” The misuse of blasphemy laws and violence against religious minorities remain widespread. Under this Knowledge Corridor, Bangladeshi Hindu, Christian, or Buddhist students could face significant risks, as could those who do not subscribe to conservative interpretations of Islam.

In the 2025 Global Hunger Index, Pakistan ranked 106th out of 123 countries and was categorized among nations suffering from “serious” hunger. Eighty-two percent of the population reportedly cannot afford nutritious food. If a country cannot adequately feed its own citizens, why is it so eager to improve another nation’s education system instead of addressing its own crises?

Finally comes the part of history the honorable minister chose to ignore. In 1971, the Pakistani military killed 3 million Bengalis and violated 200,000 women during the Bangladesh Liberation War. Even after 55 years, Pakistan has offered no formal apology, continues teaching distorted history in its textbooks, and has provided no reparations. When the education minister speaks of similarities in “religion, culture, and food habits,” he completely sidesteps the most defining shared experience between the two nations—the Liberation War.

The world is not lacking opportunities for higher education abroad. There are fully funded scholarships such as Fulbright (USA), Commonwealth (UK), Erasmus Mundus (Europe), MEXT (Japan), KGSP (South Korea), and ICCR (India). These countries are far ahead of Pakistan in terms of safety, educational quality, and future career opportunities. Instead of preparing students for these scholarships, why is there such enthusiasm for sending them to a country that lags behind Bangladesh on nearly every indicator?

At the end of the day, the purpose of education is not merely to earn a degree, but to secure a safe and prosperous future. When the world offers countless opportunities for higher education, how rational is it to push our talented students toward such an uncertain destination, where both safety and quality remain deeply questionable? A country that is cutting its own education budget while ranking near the bottom in women’s safety and stability should not be viewed as an educational opportunity. Rather than turning our students into pawns in a geopolitical chess game, we should hand them the keys to corridors that genuinely lead toward an enlightened and dignified future.