Loss of resources

Important to note that due to various social and cultural factors, K-P has a high girls’ schools dropout rate

Education reforms have been at the centre of the PTI’s party manifesto and the K-P government’s policies. The government has initiated numerous programmes aiming at improving literacy rate, increasing girls’ enrolment ratio and enrolment of students in government schools. Yet recently, in a contradictory move, it ordered closure of approximately 1,000 schools in various districts. The move was made owing to a low student enrolment rate. According to the directives from the government, a school should only be opened in a locality of 1,000 persons so that the minimum enrolment rate of 160 students could be maintained. But this order was ignored as schools were constructed on the directives of the rulers to oblige their voters, a system that is still in practice with the new chief minister.

Though the already enrolled students in these schools were transferred to other schools under the ‘Rationalisation’ policy, it is unfortunate that the K-P government opted for such a drastic measure, especially when the literacy rate in the province has already reported a decline. Compared to the rest of the provinces, K-P’s literacy rate declined in the year 2014-15 despite the annual steady increment in the amount allocated in the annual budget for Primary and Elementary Education. The male literacy rate dropped to 71%, whereas the female literacy rate declined to 35%.

It is also pertinent to note that pertaining to various social and cultural factors, K-P has a high girls’ schools dropout rate. Therefore, the population criterion cannot be the only factor contributing to the low enrolment rate. On the other hand, according to the Pakistan Education Statistics Fact sheet, only 20% of the government schools in the country provide secondary education. In the wake of these issues, a purposeful diversion of already employed resources would have been to utilise the school premises as secondary schools, language, vocational or technical training institutes, while simultaneously active efforts should have been made to decrease the girls’ dropout rate, instead of completely shutting the schools altogether. More importantly, it is significant for the province to follow the set directives and include the education department in making such decisions than ministers who only want to fuel their vote banks.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2017.

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