Vital statistics

It is not every day that an eight-inches-by-eight-inches 134-page book chock-full of graphical data comes through the front gate, and even more rare for it to be found to be a riveting read that had me deep in Digital Punjab for hours. Subtitled ‘Enhancing Public Services Through Technology 2012-2017’ it is published by the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) of which I had never heard and is warmly commended to those of you with an interest in just what it is that Pakistan generally and Punjab in particular, is getting more right than wrong.

In an age when vast amounts of data are presented and consumed online, it is a pleasure to have in the hand a solid well-produced book, printed on quality paper that has that ineffable smell that goes with all new books the first time one opens them. This is not a book review more a comment on how we consume and understand information about the world around us and how little we are aware of what is simplistically called ‘the big picture’ — even those of us that like to think we are fairly clued up to what is going on around us.

It was a bit like having a pocket version of what had been going on in Punjab for the last five years. Everything from tracking vaccinators in section one to entrepreneurship on page 117 there was a wealth of information, virtually all of it new to me and if it was new to me then it was going to be new to many others as well. It was clearly the work of a diligent and dedicated team, had considerable support at an elevated level and was widely unread by tens of thousands.

Presumably it is distributed to policymakers and movers and shakers but it is published in English (albeit of singular clarity and composition) which is going to limit its readership and seems to have had relatively little publicity. In part this may be because it is a real book, designed to be read and considered by a real person with an attention span greater than that of a Cocker Spaniel on a heavy dose of amphetamines. Outside the professional world this is a tome that would be of interest even to the averagely acute casual reader with an interest in what is happening to and within their province and country. And it is in large part good news, yet another example of clear and unequivocal evidence that some things really are being done right — or at least better than they were, busted stuff getting fixed — and yet another example of the headline that never was.

Perhaps the other reason little is being heard of this intriguing publication is that it is completely apolitical, and released at a time when the politicos are casting around for fodder to feed their electoral ambitions. Contact with one of those that worked on the book reveals that the Punjab Information Technology Board is indeed free of political strings. Bravo ladies and gentlemen — now keep it that way.

Aha, I hear you say, that is all very well but data can be fudged and is it not true that there are lies, damned lies and statistics? It is indeed, but I have a tool of independent verification in terms of an extended family heavily employed in government schools from teacher to administrator to principal and all spread across south Punjab — so I asked them.

Hmmm…yes Mr Chris there really has been an improvement in teacher attendance, likewise students showing up. Yes, we do record the data on tablets and yes we do send it to the PITB. Yes, we do gather the data on student learning outcomes and carry out on the spot testing using a tablet-based system that is fast and accurate, and no we have no difficulty working with the PITB people who seem to come to work in the morning with their collective heads attached the right way up.

Wherever I went and whoever I asked I was able to stack up the story told in ‘Digital Punjab’, which suggests it is a fair bet that it is telling verifiable truths. You could have knocked me down with a feather. Tootle-pip!

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2018.

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