Heard of any more education policies lately?

Raising school enrollment lies at the forefront of Pakistan’s battle to improve education. But education has never been a national priority. Over half of the country’s children (over 25 million), aged between five and 16, lack access to basic education and these figures exist despite the launch of many federal government programmes to alter the situation.

It is not clear, yet, how the latest plan of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government to enroll six million children between the ages of five and nine will work in such circumstances. The National Plan of Action 2013-2016, worth Rs188.7 billion, has been announced without any prior ground assessment of the schools.

Currently, Pakistan is spending less than two per cent of its GDP on education. This is the lowest figure in South Asia. As per his promise, if premier Sharif doubles the education budget, we will still be ranked the lowest. Pakistan’s federal education budget for 2012-2013 is Rs504 billion. It represents only eight per cent of the entire budget.

The Supreme Court did the desired work on this — purely governance related — issue. The army of ministers and bureaucrats should follow the recommendations made by the apex Court: accreditation boards should be established in all provinces and in Islamabad, to improve the deplorable conditions and also to ensure immediate elimination of ghost schools. The Court called for action against those responsible for mismanagement and it was suggested that the provincial governments must enhance budgetary allocations for education and provide a mechanism to ensure the presence of students at the primary, middle and high schools level. The provincial governments must start taking steps to vacate schools from illegal occupation.

There is a serious lack of commitment on part of policymakers in Pakistan, who launch projects and plan everything half-heartedly. Since 1947, Pakistan has seen seven national education policies, eight five-year-plans and about half a dozen other education schemes. Yet, the results have been dismal. The numbers stand as proof: we are good at setting ambitious targets but we are inept at following through, in order to achieve the desired results.

Government after government has abandoned policies of previous administrations and adopted new and ever loftier targets, wreaking havoc on the education system and squandering millions. As a result, Pakistan looks unlikely to achieve the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal of primary education for all children by 2015.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2013.