Digitising reforms

The Sindh government has recently launched an offline mobile application in schools to track student attendance and monitor educational performance throughout institutes. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah says that this will serve as a diagnostic tool that highlights gaps in the education system. While it is true that student absenteeism is a central problem in many schools, and that schools lag behind the universal standard for quality education - is it not also true that the time to diagnose these problems has long gone? That we are intimately and acutely aware of the problems in our current education system, and thus need to start focusing on reforms?

The current projections for this application are that it will help record attendances, highlight reasons for absenteeism, gauge problems related to teachers' performances, assess student learning outcomes and in general help identify broader problems in 600 schools across 12 districts. On paper, the proposal is an ideal identification model. But the problems - as they will inevitably surface - lie in human nature. Students will find ways to skirt the system, bureaucracy will soon take over and top management will protect themselves from negative appraisals.

Two glaring flaws in this application make space for these problems to grow. First, technology can never be held accountable for subjective data. As long as an authority figure is not in charge of monitoring behaviour and activity, it becomes impossible to verify intent or context. Second, in order to retain students and teachers, it is necessary to create a learning environment that values their input and values education as an important pillar of personal and social growth. When participants feel heard, respected and genuinely engaged, their motivation and commitment naturally increase. A system that merely relies on surveillance or data-driven assessment, without fostering trust and collaboration, risks alienating the very people it aims to support.