The scheme has not been without its difficulties and hiccups much as might be expected for something so ambitious, but the latest difficulty is something more than a blip and more like a self-inflicted wound. The provincial government has let down 3,000 of the schools by failing to release additional funds that had been pledged to them by way of a reward for increasing enrollment in them. The ‘private’ end of the partnership duly made the investments that enabled an increase in student numbers and having done so asked for their due — only to be rebuffed, leaving them to pick up the tab for the cost of the additional and improved resources.
At bottom this appears to be as much a case of incompetent governance rather than wilful neglect. A failure by the provincial government and the PEF management to harmonise procedures and payments resulting in severe difficulties for the owners of schools that now in some instances face the possibility of closure. The PEF ought to be a flagship scheme, and it has all the elements to produce excellence rather than failure. Instead we read reports of teachers leaving, unpaid rents and ill-will all around to say nothing of the threat to countless thousands of children and their education. This is yet another occasion when defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory. The Punjab government was on to a winner and the PEF was widely acknowledged as such. To see almost 25pc of the PEF schools now in difficulty for having done their best is shameful.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 17th, 2017.
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