Addressing the question mark: Failing education in Pakistan

Dialogue on the abysmal state of education sector propounds solutions.

ISLAMABAD:

Major reforms in the governance of Pakistan’s education sector and an “all-hands-on-deck” approach are needed to improve the dismal situation of the country’s education sector. These views were expressed by former State Bank of Pakistan governor Dr Ishrat Hussain on Thursday.

Hussain, who is now the dean and director of the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi, was speaking at a policy dialogue on the future of schools and education in Pakistan.



The dialogue was organised at a local hotel by the British Council in collaboration with the Youth Engagement Services (YES) Network and UK Aid. The event was attended by educationists and educators from both the public and private sector.

Hussain said that Pakistan’s education indicators do not look promising. Problems such as teacher absentee-ism and salary raises’ inaccessibility to teachers are abundant in the system.

“Just pumping money into the system will not work,” Hussain said.

He noted that demographic trends in the world suggest that the populace of developed countries in the world are ageing, and are in effect relying on developing countries with a burgeoning youth.

Hussain said that Pakistan can capitalise on this opportunity by providing its young people with skills training, in addition to general education.

However, he suggested five important reforms for the education sector. Hussain’s reforms included an inclusive collaboration of public and private institutions to fix the education problem.



Hussain proposed that district governments should be made the focal point for primary and secondary education. Students from low-income households should be allowed to opt for private schools with financial support from education departments, he said. “Such a move would encourage parents from poor households to send their children to school rather than subjecting them to child labour.”

He also stressed the performance-based promotion of teachers, separate training for management positions in schools and non-homogenization of teachers’ pay-scales.

During panel discussions, speakers suggested that Pakistan’s teaching system needs to be aligned with 21st century best practices, and that government support is required for improving the system for learning and access to education in the country.

City School Chief Executive Officer Dr Farzana Feroz was brutally honest about the role of private educational institutes. Feroz said that private schools can merely supplement the public educational institutions.

“Unfortunately, private schools just take advantage of the deficiencies of the public sector in education,” she said.

British Council Country Director Peter Upton said the headlines emerging from Pakistan are usually pessimistic. But there is a narrative beyond the headlines, Upton added, in which provinces are seeking for an “education revolution”, and in which teachers are heroically working for better access, quality and equity of education.

Sharing best practices from England, Gerard Liston of the UK-based national charity Schools Linking Network (SLN) mentioned an SLN programme called “unlocking talent and potential.” The programme tries to give students a meaningful real-world learning experience by connecting with schools and employers, allowing students to link classroom knowledge with practical application.

Liston said that students around the world, including Pakistan, will soon be competing in a global marketplace where the likelihood of unemployment would be high. He stressed that students need to be prepared for the practical world by giving them employable skills which include problem resolution, communication and group work.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2014.