Is launching Daanish schools a good idea?

The focus should be on providing to existing public schools instead of going for an unjust distribution of resources.


Syed Mohammad Ali February 11, 2011

The Punjab government’s idea of establishing Daanish schools for gifted, unprivileged children has stirred up another debate amongst educationists in the country. Proponents consider that the Daanish schools will provide an opportunity to fulfil the dreams of deserving students in backward areas to access modern educational facilities. Critics, on the other hand, dismiss the Daanish schools initiative to be a flashy ‘white elephant’, which will waste precious resources that could be spent much more wisely. The Punjab government is working to set up six Daanish Schools across Punjab. Two Daanish schools in Rahimyar Khan and Bhawalpur have been made functional, while the third is scheduled to be formally launched in Bahawalnagar.

Each Daanish School campus is estimated to cost around Rs1 billion and needs an estimated Rs21 million annual operating expenditure. Such a generous budget allocation would allow these schools to provide separate academic campuses and hostels for boys and girls, with all sorts of facilities including computer labs, transport, libraries, playgrounds and well-furnished classrooms. All members of the teaching faculty are supposed to have a master’s degree. Students will also be selected through a rigorous process of field verification concerning need, in addition to merit-based written tests and interviews. To be eligible for enrolment, a student’s family must have a monthly income below Rs6,000 to ensure that only those in dire financial need are able to avail this opportunity. In total, the provincial government will be spending nearly Rs15,000 a month, per child, to be able to ensure this standard of education, which will aim to benefit a mere few hundred students per annum, which is the basic bone of contention.

It is being argued that building state-of-the-art ‘poor man’s Aitchisons’ ignores stark realities regarding the literacy rate, learning outcomes and out-of-school children. Projects like Daanish schools cannot make any significant impact on the overall dismal education and literacy indicators of our country. Pakistan is just ahead of Afghanistan among all South Asian countries in terms of overall educational outcomes. Learning levels of most students in public schools are much below standards. Like the other provinces, the Punjab government is also failing to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) concerning education. The Punjab Literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education Department’s five-year strategic plan for 2010-2015 says that 3.8 million children, including two million girls, from the 5-9 age group, were out-of-school in 2009. The number of out-of-school children from amongst the 5-14 age group is even worse, being around 6.5 million. Many educationists are rightly pointing out that the provincial government could have used these funds to strengthen some good schools in all tehsils and create a positive ripple in the broader education sector, which is facing a severe dearth of resources. In fact, the Punjab school education department is merging schools and has brought down the tally of 63,000 schools to 61,000. The Punjab government wants to bring down this tally to 40,000 schools so that schools may be provided with all facilities and run effectively.

Given this situation, it seems reasonable for the government to focus on providing facilities to millions of children studying in existing public schools instead of going for an unjust distribution of available resources and spending billions of rupees on exorbitantly expensive schools, which can cater to no more than a miniscule proportion of the school-going population.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 12th, 2011.

COMMENTS (13)

ba ha | 12 years ago | Reply It is a good idea as long as it is for the "truly Gifted" and "Truly Poor". But who among us will cast the first judgement
Maria | 13 years ago | Reply I think that the Daanish schools will be centres of excellence that will allow poor people's children to compete with those from more affluent areas. This is a good thing and should be applauded. Yes we need to improve the overall school network in Pakistan but the idea of excellent schools for lower segments of society who would never have access to such facilties will definitely show its worth with the first graduates.
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