On social media, a wave of videos has recently exposed students using advanced gadgets to cheat in examinations. While the focus has been on policing misconduct, a deeper issue remains unexamined: students are not disengaging from education because of a lack of discipline, but because they increasingly question its value.

For most students in Pakistan, particularly those enrolled in public institutions, education is not pursued for the love of knowledge; it is pursued as a means of survival. They enter universities not to explore ideas or develop intellectual depth, but to break free from the cycle of poverty that defines their circumstances.

Within this reality, classrooms are not spaces of curiosity but arenas of economic urgency. Students study not to understand, but to pass; not to learn, but to qualify. The goal is not enlightenment; it is employment.

Similarly, contrary to popular perception, the poor do not stay out of school because they are ignorant, regressive, or unaware of education’s value. They stay out or drop out because, for them, education often does not make economic........

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