To undo appalling standards of education in Balochistan, decentralisation and depoliticisation are only options left.
ISLAMABAD: Resource-rich Balochistan has been suffering from educational backwardness. Although many promises have been made, little has been done to deal with the crisis. Moreover, it is disheartening to know that there are 5,000 schools in the province that don’t have a building and operate in the open air, mostly with a single teacher.
According to the 2013 annual ASER report, in Balochistan, only 34 per cent of government teachers were graduates. Eighty-one per cent children between the ages of three and five years were not enrolled in any early childhood schooling. Seventy-one per cent of the schools had no drinking water, 75 per cent lacked boundary walls and 83 per cent lacked proper toilets.
This is indeed the 21st century and yet, a great number of ghost schools exist in places like Dera Bugti, Zamuran, Kohlu and other rural areas of Balochistan. Under these circumstances, the children and the youth of the nation are deprived of education. Lamentably, Balochistan has less than five public universities while, on the other hand, there are more than 25 universities in Lahore alone. It is owing to this inequality and discrimination that a trust deficit has rooted itself deeply in the minds of the Baloch youth.
Keeping the failure of the government in mind, Balochistan’s Minister for Education, Jam Mohammad Buledi, said, “Not a single PhD or a competent officer is available to review the textbooks or carry out monitoring and evaluation and hence, we are compelled to teach the textbooks of Punjab.”
The other side of the picture can’t be neglected. There are some good institutes working throughout the province. The recently established Turbat University situated in Kech district has been functioning well for the last three years. Besides this, private schools and language academies have largely contributed to the cause of educating the masses. Unfortunate, however, it must be noted that sending children to private institutes seems to be beyond the capacity of poor families. Ironically, in places like Chaghi and Reko Dik, where gold, copper and semi-precious stones are found, people have difficulty in getting a meal twice a day. In such a situation, how will they be able to send their children to expensive private institutions?
Merely quoting depressing statistics regarding education in Balochistan is not the solution. What counts for the welfare and constructive development of the province is the interest that the government vests in the respective field. To undo the appalling standards of education in Balochistan, decentralisation and depoliticisation are the only options left.
Noor Ahmed Jugri Baloch
Published in The Express Tribune, May 7th, 2014.
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