Ultimately, the result of this intervention is going to create ripples across generations
This is in response to Zahir Shah’s article titled “Analysing the performance of education in K-P” published on June 24th. There have been a series of erroneous claims in the article.
Claiming that 1.8 million children are out of school in K-P, the piece suggests neglect by the government. The fact, however, remains that previous estimates were actually 2.5 million out of school children in K-P (Alif Ailaan) which have now been brought down to 1.6 million children. This is according to the latest Out of School Children (OOSC) survey by the education department and this is no small feat.
The piece then moves to make a tiring analysis on Net Enrollment Ratio and Gross Enrollment Rates, which are usually carved out of population projections. It states that at the primary level government institutions have plummeted by one percentage point from 49 to 48 per cent and 63 to 62 per cent, respectively. Current data on OOSC, however, shows that 84 per cent children of age five to nine are enrolled in schools while at secondary level it is 76 per cent. This paints a different picture from the one defined in the piece.
Finally, the claim that 38 per cent of schools in K-P suffer from teacher shortages is plain wrong. Far from it, Independent Monitoring Unit data for May 2017 shows that there are only 196 schools with teachers’ shortage at the secondary level, while at primary level this shortage has dropped from 14,000 schools to only 4,800 schools. This government has recruited more than 40,000 teachers in the past three years. The scale of recruitment is unprecedented and the process is even more quality focused.
The reforms agenda is both vast and surgical, it spans across almost every aspect of the education department—from missing facilities to textbooks, and from assessments to the School Quality Management Initiative. Ultimately, the result of this intervention is going to create ripples across generations.
Elementary and Secondary Education Department
K-P
Published in The Express Tribune, July 1st, 2017.
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