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Hoping for new policies in education
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Jan, 2008: 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.
By Martin Thomas
The writer is a lecturer at the Notre Dame
Institute of Education, Karachi (Dawn)
Your Comments
"AOA its really a need of every child to grow well.its a good effort of u."
Name: hina basharatalich
City, Country: lahore, Pakistan
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