Education policy: Free, universal education ‘needs clearer definition’

Budgeting, teacher training and standard of education discussed.

LAHORE:

“Article 25-A of the constitution provides the right to ‘free and compulsory education’ to every child between the ages of 5 and 16 years, but what exactly does the state mean when it says free education?” asked Ahmad Ali, an Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (ISAPS) research fellow.

He was speaking at a policy dialogue titled ‘Right to education in the post 18th amendment scenario’ organised by the ISAPS here on Thursday.

Ali argued that the term ‘free education’ had been used vaguely. He said it was not clear whether books, uniforms and cost of travel were included.

The seminar discussed both administrative and budgetary ‘implications’ of Article 25-A, which lists education as a right.

Identifying legislation, funds and administrative initiatives as keys to provision of the right to education, Ali stressed the need for “relevant budgetary allocations.”

He referred to a 2011 survey of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, titled Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey, which said that 36 per cent of children at the primary level did not get into school at the right age.

ISAPS Executive Director Dr Salman Humayun said that according to a 2009-2010 survey, as many as five million children between the ages of five and nine, were out of school in the Punjab. Another report prepared in 2011 by the Pakistan Education Task Force painted a similar picture, placing Pakistan second in the global ‘out of school children’ list, he said.

Dr Humayun said that with the population growing at 1.4 per cent, the province will need to provide more than 19 million children over the next 15 years.

He said poor teacher training and substandard education were major factors in the high drop-out rate.

Given the current infrastructure _ 61,000 schools with 350,000 teachers_ Dr Humayun predicted that the province will require 65,500 schools and almost 500,000 teachers by 2024-2025 at current growth rates.

He said innovative ways were needed to raise funds for education and was quick to question the Punjab government’s laptop scheme, which, he said had cost Rs4 billion for 125,000 units.

He raised similar questions about the utility of Daanish Schools which he said cost the Punjab government Rs16,000 per child. Dr Humayun said Daanish schools and the laptop scheme appeared to be in conflict with the goal of universal free schooling considering the government was running low on resources.

Chaudhry Javed Ahmad, chairman of the standing committee on education in the Punjab, said that the Daanish Schools initiative might not be “as beneficial as intended”. However, he said, resources were not entirely wasted in the process.

Ahmad said the government hoped to ensure speedy devolution. He said the government had decided to allocate Rs1.5 billion this year for the reconstruction of schools destroyed in the 2010 floods.

Qaiser Rashid, the schools education deputy secretary, said school councils needed to be active to bring about greater grassroots empowerment in the education sector.

Chairperson of the management committee at the Society for the Advancement of Higher Education pointed to the lack of teacher training. He hoped that in addition to Daanish Schools, the government should focus on creating ‘centres of excellence’ in the province, promised in the Punjab Daanish Schools and Centres of Excellence Authority Act 2010.

Former minister for education Mian Imran Masood said that primary, secondary and higher education needed to be integrated.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2012.