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PAKISTAN is getting ready for the election process.
Assemblies will be formed and hopefully complete their
tenure. New policies will be planned and many reforms will
be introduced. However, it is good to keep the major
concerns of the nation in view before planning policies.
Although, everyone is familiar with concerns of education in
Pakistan and the previous governments had been taking
initiatives to improve the condition of education in the
country, it is always good to revisit and restate the issues
so that no one forgets them. The following are some concerns
of education in Pakistan.
In spite of the educational reforms and interventions that
the government introduced, Pakistan has had a very slow pace
of progress in education when compared with the developing
countries which received independence more or less in the
same years. The objective of universalisation of primary
education is still to be achieved and the whole education
system lacks in both counts of quantity and quality.
Education in Pakistan is a topic which is discussed many
times but hardly ever is something done for it practically.
The Government of Pakistan relies heavily on external funds
and keeps very little from its own GDP for education.
Throughout the history, allocation of the budget for
education in Pakistan has remained far below four per cent,
which is the minimum requirement identified by funding
agencies and human development reports.
The educational sector is poorly funded. It therefore has
many problems. One of these is the unavailability of
resources, that is, physical resources, financial resources
and human resources. I myself visited more than 30 schools
in four districts of Sindh, namely, Hyderabad, Thatta,
Kairpur and Sukkur and have found government schools in
these districts in a poor condition.
During my visit to Thatta, I found that one of the schools
in Bathero was functioning in a tent. Similarly, a school in
Sakkro was running in a hutch-like structure made with hay.
When I enquired about this, the head teacher told me that
the school had only one room therefore the local community
had constructed the tent to teach the students in separate
classes. The same teacher told me that there were almost
1,000 single-room schools in the district with a multi-grade
classroom scenario.
The other three districts (Hyderabad, Khairpur and Sukkur)
also have single-room schools but the situation is
comparatively better in Hyderabad and Sukkur. The condition
of schools in other provinces is also not so encouraging.
Apart from physical facilities, there are many schools
throughout the fewer provinces which are under-staffed.
There are two major reasons for this. The first is the less
number of appointed teachers by the government and the
second is political influence of the elected or selected
members. Many schools in the district of Thatta were seen
under-staffed and therefore various NGOs had hired
volunteers and local people on no pay or a low pay to help
the teachers teach the students.
However, there was evidence of political influence too. For
example, one of the schools in a remote area of Khairpur was
under-staffed and hence each teacher was taking care of two
classes simultaneously. The situation was inversed in
another school from the same district but situated in a city
area. In this school, there were two teachers in each of the
classrooms. When I inquired about this from the head
teacher, I found that teachers, particularly female ones,
did not want to go to the remote areas, therefore, they
built up pressure on the government officials and got
themselves appointed in schools located in the city area.
Another evidence of political pressure was found in another
district of Thatta. There was a school functioning under a
tree with only a few student benches, a teacher’s table, a
teacher’s chair and a blackboard hanging from a tree. When I
inquired about this from the teacher, I found that the
school had a building with two rooms and small courtyard but
it was occupied by a government official.
Another problem in relation to funding is lack of teacher
motivation. Many teachers, particularly in the remote areas
of different provinces, work as servants in the landlords’
houses or fields to meet their family needs. This is because
the salary scales of teachers are very low. According to the
government, the salaries of the teachers, particularly
primary teachers, are even lower than domestic servants.
The human capital hypothesis suggests that investment in
education is conceptually identical to an investment in
physical capital. Therefore, the Federal Government of
Pakistan should never let the budget of education go below
four per cent. In fact it should gradually increase year by
year. To reduce political pressure on the schooling system,
there should be a sound monitoring and evaluation system.
Apart from the unavailability or lack of physical, human and
financial resources, teachers are poorly prepared for
teaching. They use traditional methods of teaching and often
award corporal punishments. They rely heavily on tests to
assess students’ performances and do not use ongoing
assessment techniques such as observation, oral questions,
project work and so on. Therefore they are unable to change
their classrooms into thinking classrooms. It is also seen
that most of the college and university lecturers and
professors are not trained in pedagogical skills. I believe,
all teachers, whether they are teaching in schools, colleges
or universities, require pedagogical training. Therefore,
there should be a sufficient amount of funding available to
educate school teachers and college and university lecturers
and professors. Funding agencies and generous people should
also be encouraged to pool funds for introducing in-service
programmes in schools, colleges and universities.
Another major problem attached with the issue of education
is that students as well as parents do not believe that
acquiring education is an end in itself. In terms of human
development objectives, education is an end in itself, not
just a means to an end. However, most of the people are
unaware of the enduring benefits of education. Therefore,
community awareness programmes should be introduced by
involving media, street theatre groups, puppeteers and so on
to create awareness, particularly among the people of the
remote areas of the country. These groups should highlight
the positive impact of education on the local economy
(education helps in increasing daily wages of educated
labourers and in increasing agricultural growth), family
health, family planning and so on.
As indicated earlier, one of the main focuses of almost all
the policies was universalisation of primary education. This
focus was the right focus. Investment in primary education
has emerged as a powerful engine for accelerating economic
growth. Different countries, particularly South Asian
countries, have used primary education to increase their
economic growth. In contrast with higher education, primary
education can be provided even to the masses by using
minimum resources. However, there is empirical evidence that
those who acquire only primary education, revert back to
illiteracy after a passage of time. Therefore our focus
should be universalisation of elementary education (classes
I to VIII) in the future rather than just primary education.
Those who will successfully complete an elementary education
will not only increase the literacy rate of the country but
also ensure sustainable education.
In addition to elementary education, we also need leaders
and policy makers. Therefore, with elementary education, the
government should also concentrate on tertiary education.
The 21st century is the century of knowledge. Knowledge is
required to utilise a country’s natural resources
effectively. Those countries which have knowledgeable people
will be able to use their resources well but those which
have none or less knowledgeable people will be left behind.
We therefore cannot neglect higher education.
A problem attached to the current higher education is that
the length of our university study is almost two years less
than that of the international courses. On the other hand,
some unauthorised institutes (colleges or universities) are
educating students whose degrees are not accepted nationally
and internationally. Therefore, the government should
strictly follow the assessment and implementation policies
of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to align our higher
studies with international standards. However, there are
some institutions here, which are affiliated with foreign
universities and are extremely good in terms of the teaching
and learning environment. Their degrees need to be
recognised.
To conclude I would say, there are many points to be
highlighted but whatever is mentioned here is enough as a
starter. Let us hope for a bright future. |
