Does a Bachelor’s degree mean education in politics?

Any contestants for general elections in Pakistan are now required to hold at least a Bachelor’s degree. The intention behind this requirement is to have only educated parliamentarians, who will perform better than the ones who do not hold such a qualification. The question is whether the requirement of this academic credential will promote better governance and whether it is even relevant in an electoral context.

In a democratic environment, the electorate is free to elect a candidate of their choice.

The relationship between a representative and the electorate is not dependant on any university degree; rather it is a function of the voters’ confidence in a particular individual to best represent their interests. A government cannot presuppose that a candidate will perform better as a representative simply because he holds a Bachelor’s degree. Whether a candidate’s academic qualifications equip him better to represent his constituency, only his constituents can determine, not a government.

By mandating this requirement, the government has distorted the right of the voters to determine the criteria by which they will elect their representatives. With that, the objective of the elections to produce an assembly that performs the function of representing the voters has been compromised. A quasi-representative assembly that lacks popular credentials will remain in conflict with non-elected popular leaders and widen the chasm between public opinion and government officials.

It is debatable whether the Bachelor’s degree holding candidates who get elected will meet the expectations that are being raised of them for falling in the educated category. Just having been schooled to acquire an academic credential does not mean one is educated enough to perform a task that has nothing (at times even something) to do with ones schooling. Education can be acquired through experience and not necessarily only through formal schooling. A popular leader with no degree but a lifetime in politics could be better educated to represent his constituents than a Bachelor’s in Art History. Clearly, education cannot be measured by a Bachelor’s degree in the context of an electoral contest for the purpose of achieving representation and good governance.

In a country where neither past governments nor the present one has fulfilled the responsibility of providing the masses with access to schools and universities, the Bachelor’s degree requirement is a mismatch with the realities of grassroots politics in Pakistan. No government can arbitrarily declare its citizens to hold a minimum academic standard unless it has first made literacy commonplace. An election that disqualifies 98% of the country’s citizens from contesting will never meet with full legitimacy and always be a source of controversy.

Pakistan requires an elected assembly that derives its credentials from representing the people, and does not bank on any academic criteria for its legitimacy. The Bachelor’s degree requirement ignores the fact that experience can endow education in politics and deprives those with lesser academic qualifications but better political credentials from representing their constituents. Those elected after having passed through the filter of an arbitrary academic qualification are unlikely to ever represent the masses that they have left filtered behind.