Increasing the education budget
18th Amendment delegates education to province, but PM can be reminded he is stakeholder in providing education to all
It comes as a relief that Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf recently announced for the education budget to be increased with the government to lend full financial support to increase Pakistan’s literacy rate. Currently, millions of our youth roam the streets, sit at home or perform labour duties when they should be in school. While the announcement is a highly welcome step towards assuaging the education woes of our country, hands shall not be clapped until what has been spoken or written on paper is delivered as promised.
Currently, those at the forefront of improving basic education in the country are private organisations. These groups are on the ground assessing firsthand what measures to implement and how to go about doing this. The government advocates need to follow this procedure now that a budget increase has been announced, in order to see how that money can be used tactfully — for example, by providing course books to classrooms which can be returned at the end of the school year or fined for if lost, controlling classroom temperatures so that students can focus and assigning school buses to pick and drop students if they are not in safe walking distance or have their own means of transportation. Rules need to be implemented such as requiring students to attend school and disciplining teachers for absenteeism but also providing them with adequate incentives.
Pakistan has 5.1 million children out of school with three million of those being girls. Thus far, the prime minister has only urged stakeholders to collaborate on improving Pakistan’s literacy rate and has not provided the funding to do so. Though he mentioned that the Eighteenth Amendment delegates this task to provincial governments, perhaps, he can be reminded that he is also a stakeholder in providing education for all. In fact, every citizen of the country is a stakeholder, for everyone will one day in the future be provided service at the hands of our youth. How we train the youth and what tools we equip the youth with for the future is what we will have to work with eventually — and this will affect most, if not all, citizens.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2012.
Currently, those at the forefront of improving basic education in the country are private organisations. These groups are on the ground assessing firsthand what measures to implement and how to go about doing this. The government advocates need to follow this procedure now that a budget increase has been announced, in order to see how that money can be used tactfully — for example, by providing course books to classrooms which can be returned at the end of the school year or fined for if lost, controlling classroom temperatures so that students can focus and assigning school buses to pick and drop students if they are not in safe walking distance or have their own means of transportation. Rules need to be implemented such as requiring students to attend school and disciplining teachers for absenteeism but also providing them with adequate incentives.
Pakistan has 5.1 million children out of school with three million of those being girls. Thus far, the prime minister has only urged stakeholders to collaborate on improving Pakistan’s literacy rate and has not provided the funding to do so. Though he mentioned that the Eighteenth Amendment delegates this task to provincial governments, perhaps, he can be reminded that he is also a stakeholder in providing education for all. In fact, every citizen of the country is a stakeholder, for everyone will one day in the future be provided service at the hands of our youth. How we train the youth and what tools we equip the youth with for the future is what we will have to work with eventually — and this will affect most, if not all, citizens.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2012.