EDUCATION-PAKISTAN: Reforms in Consultation with Communities

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Muddassir Rizvi

ISLAMABAD, Jan 27 2000 (IPS) - The military-led government seems to be taking the challenge of universalising education in Pakistan by 2010 very seriously, and has promised quality education with the support of non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Education Minister for Punjab province Shaheen Sardar Ali, who represented the country at the recent ‘Education for All’ meeting of Asian nations, in Bangkok, said education reforms will be speeded up to meet targets.

“Our target is to ensure quality education through an effective public sector schooling system. Moreover, we would like to involve NGOs in education initiatives especially at the community level,” he said.

A spokesman of the Education Ministry said the government has adopted the ‘Education Policy’ announced in 1998 by the deposed Nawaz Sharif government.

“We feel that the targets envisaged in the Education Policy announced in 1998 are realistic and achievable, though we believe that certain reforms are needed in the education sector to meet the policy objectives,” the spokesman said.

Pakistan has made very slow progress on its ‘Education for All’ commitment made 10 years ago at the Thai city of Jomtien. The Bangkok conference was called by UNESCO to review progress made by countries.

Literacy rates here are among the lowest in South Asia. “In primary education, low participation i.e. 77 percent (male 93 percent and female 61 percent) and high dropouts (45 percent) are two major obstacles in achieving the goals/targets of EFA,” according to a report Pakistan presented at the Bangkok meet.

The latest Pakistan Economic Survey, an annual balance sheet of the government’s performance, said the literacy rate has increased from 26 percent (35 percent male and 16 percent female) in 1981 to 45 percent (56.5 percent male and 32.6 percent females) in 1998.

“One of our major objectives is to minimise disparities in rural and urban schools and between males and females,” said Federal Education Minister Zubaida Jalal while talking to journalists in Islamabad this week.

An estimated 18 million children were out of school in spite of “policies and resolutions” of governments in the last 50 years, the Islamabad-based Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) in its annual report for 1999.

A number of NGOs are working closely with the government to increase the primary education cover. The National Education Foundation, which was formed in 1997, is one of the success stories of public-private partnership.

“The organisation is running 203 community schools in far- flung areas and has enrolled more than 12,000 boys and girls over the last two years,” said Dr Afzal Haq, managing director.

“We are planning to open 200 more schools at the cost of 157 million rupees (roughly 3 million dollars), one third of which would be raised by the communities,” he added.

The military government which has been joined by prominent NGO activists — Jalal, the Education Minister has done pioneering work in education among women in feudal Balochistan province — has launched consultative processes to speed up reforms in sectors like education, environment and development.

A 13-member Advisory Board to the Education Ministry has been finalised. This board has representatives from Pakistan’s four provinces, ‘Azad’ or free Kashmir (a part of the disputed state with Pakistan) and the Northern Areas, which are ruled directly by Islamabad.

The Board “will work on improvements in four areas — strengthening of public schools, review of curriculum, teachers training and scholarships,” a joint secretary at the Ministry of Education told Inter Press Service.

Simultaneously the government is also improving people’s access to education by opening as many as 45,000 new primary and 20,000 mosque schools by 2003. “The idea is to make access to education easy at all levels,” according to a spokesperson.

Where is the money coming from? Pakistan has never matched its commitments with financial resources, spending less than 2 percent of the GNP or 8 percent of the national budget on education. UNESCO says countries like Pakistan need to spend 20 percent of their budget on education if they want to meet goals.

“Although allocations/spending for primary education have substantially increased from 2.01 percent to 2.34 percent during

1992-98, they are not commensurate with the needs, especially of universalisation of primary education, universal retention and universal achievement,” the government’s ‘Education for All: the Year 2000 Assessment-Pakistan Status Report’ stated.

The Status Report has blamed political instability in the country for the less than desired progress made.

Eminent scholar Khawaja Masud has said he approves of government plans to increase community participation — district- and village-level education committees would be set up to check mismanagment.