Senate Standing Committee on Federal Education and Professional Training has recently unanimously passed the Islamabad Capital Territory Student Unions Bill-2023 while paving the way for Student grouping and alliances on various grounds from politics to ethnicity and religion to geographical affiliation of the students as well as the academics.
The student unions have both positive and negative aspects on the educational activities, learning environment, and overall society as well as the national political landscape in the country. The Student Unions offer a platform for students to voice their concerns and opinions, advocating for their rights and interests. It nurtures leadership skills by providing opportunities to organize events, lead initiatives, and manage teams along with fostering a sense of community engagement among students, promoting unity, diversity, and inclusivity among the youth at the educational institutions. Meanwhile, Student unions push for changes in academic policies, campus facilities, and student services based on collective interests of their community.
At the same time, the Students Union often prompts polarization/division leading to conflicts over ideologies, opinions, or leadership at the institutional and national levels. There might be instances where unions prioritize specific agendas, or groups on ethnic, social or political grounds over others, leading to a lack of inclusivity or fairness along with erupting controversy/conflict within or outside a group. Similarly, student unions are mostly linked with external politics, religious or ethnic political entities operating at the national level that largely influence the functioning of student unions, potentially deviating from their primary objectives.
Historically, student unions in Pakistan have a long history of involvement in politics and student leaders have been acting as mouthpieces for warring political parties seriously disturbing the educational process along with polluting the learning environment in Universities and colleges in the country. Later, the government banned student unions in 1984 due to their alleged involvement in violence and political unrest.
However, in 2019, the government lifted the ban, allowing student unions to reform under strict regulations. Although, these unions can represent various political ideologies and play a significant role in advocating for student rights while resulting from participation in broader political activities within educational institutions, but it never happened in the past. Realistically, student groups could not disassociate themselves from national politics, political, ethnic, religious, and sectarian based grouping that spoiled the educational process and poisoned the teaching/ learning environment in schools, colleges and Universities. In fact, the effectiveness of a student union largely depends on its members, leadership, and the balance struck between advocating for student interests and maintaining a conducive academic environment along with the focus on curricular activities that are the core objectives of all social, extra-curricular engagements and volunteerism.
So far, student unions exist in various countries worldwide and play diverse roles depending on the country’s education system and political landscapes. In some countries, student unions have a strong political influence and actively participate in national politics, while in others, they primarily focus on campus-related issues such as academic policies, student welfare, and extracurricular activities. Each country’s student unions reflect the unique socio-political context and educational structure of that nation and owe merits and demerits based on the peculiar socio-political situations in that nation.
As for Pakistan, the idea of a non-party-based local government system failed badly in some provinces because Pakistani political groups and politicians exploit each aspect of national life to their advantage polluting/ polarizing each segment of the society. Pakistan’s educational system is already experiencing acute fragility, mismanagement and depletion, therefore politicians must resist opening a new Pandora box that might fulfil their political agenda but is likely to weaken our academia and educational standards in the longterm.
