Experts brainstorm ways to fix the education system

Participants focus on the impact of the 18th constitutional amendment on the education system.

KARACHI: What are the best barometers to judge the standard of education in the country? Better facilities? The number of PhDs produced by the country? And what should be the role of provincial governments in the field of education? Nearly 120 academics, government officials and professional experts pondered over the issue during a seminar organised by the Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) in collaboration with the Aga Khan University-Institute for Education Development (AKU-IED) at a local hotel on Tuesday.

The participants also focused on the educational system in the country after the passage of the 18th constitutional amendment, which devolved the sector to the provinces.

“The education sector in Sindh is a complete disaster. Only half of 49,000 schools [in the province] are functioning,” lamented Kaiser Bengali, national coordinator for the Benazir Income Support Programme and part of Karachi University’s Applied Economic Research Centre.

Bengali added that there was a need for a stringent criteria when it came to approving new schools, and lamented that one-room facilities were currently designated as proper schools.

“We need to create schools that have proper facilities and where children can be provided a rich learning environment,” said Bengali.

Institute of Business Administration’s dean and director Dr Ishrat Hussain opined that while educational institutions with modern facilities existed in the country, students and teachers do not attend them. He added that district governments should be made responsible for education till the high school level, and that services of retired professionals should also be utilised.

Javed Hasan Ali, a former establishment division secretary, remarked that the curriculum taught at schools in the country had been used for “ideological indoctrination.” While talking about the 18th amendment, Ali said that it served a great opportunity for the country. “We need to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate [the system] at the local level.”

AKU-IED director Dr Mohammad Memon, concurred with Ali’s views, as the passage of the 18th amendment had left a vacuum at the federal level, providing an opportunity to provinces to step in. He added that provinces needed to streamline their educational systems in order to make them more effective.

Ehsan Rabbani, the chief executive officer of the i-Care Foundation, stressed that girls should be provided an equal opportunity to attend schools, and cited findings of the United Nations to support the point.

Higher Education Commission chairman Dr Javed Leghari focused on the need for investing in teachers in the country and added curriculums at the university level were reviewed every three to four years.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2012.