Three districts of AJK top in education ranking

Although ICT score is 87.85, it is poor in terms of infrastructure and placed at number 8 with a score of 33.44

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan District Education Rankings 2017 has ranked Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimber, three districts of AJK on top, Sheikhapura District of Punjab on 4th whereas Qila Abdullah, Sujawal, and Orakzai Agency  at the bottom.

The report ‘Pakistan @ 70; District Education Rankings’, which is the annual iteration for tracking progress and performance of various regions of Pakistan aims to help understand the state of education in Pakistan and call attention to the evidence of a deep and persistent national crisis. The report launched by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) on Tuesday uses the data of National Education Management Information System, AEPAM, 2015-16 and ASER survey 2015.



The report revealed a striking contrast that AJK has been at the bottom in infrastructure with a total score of 28.4 whereas Punjab has been on top with 92.8. Sindh and Fata show poor learning levels at the primary level with 34.9 and 25.28 learning scores at the primary level.

Although, the score of Islamabad Capital Territory in terms of education is 87.85 it scores poorly in terms of infrastructure and is placed at number 8 with 33.44 score.

Rawalpindi, Sialkot and Islamabad have been ranked top three districts in overall middle school ranking. The Trends in Middle Schools District Education Ranking reflected that Punjab was dominating .the top positions. Whereas Haripur from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Quetta from Balochistan  occupy 9th and 14th position respectively and districts from K-P & Fata were holding the bottom five positions.

Likewise, the trends in middle school have shown that Punjab is dominating again in middle school infrastructure ranking but Nagar, a new district of G-B has been on the top with full score of 100. Balochistan and AJK are again sharing bottom ranks.

As general elections of 2018 are approaching, people should base their voting decisions on priority given to education by political parties, the report recommends.

While speaking on the occasion, Dr, Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Executive Director SDPI, said that the purpose of this evidence based research was to identify the areas that were hampering the quality and access to education as well as the factors that were leading towards the improvement.

He said that we need to explore the factors that behind children leaving the schools, particularly after completing education at middle school level. He said that these efforts were aimed at providing insight and directions to policy makers. Besides, the report and the facts it has presented could benefit our political parties that at present would have been in the process of developing their party manifestos, especially around education policies, he said.



Dr. Suleri added that the two most important indicators that need attention were retention and improvement in gender parity index to meet Vision 2025 and SDGs.

Shafqat Munir, senior Policy Advisor SDPI, informed the audience that the purpose of this research was to present the existing state of infrastructure and access to education for the children across Pakistan. However, the responsibility of improving these indicators lay with the respective governments as the present state of affairs in the education sector was demanding more budgetary allocations in this important sector.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2017.