Waseela-e-Taleem: Provinces challenge use of old data of BISP beneficiaries
Say educational programme ignores districts where school enrollment is low .
BISP did not undertake any concrete study to determine the number of children out of school from among the families receiving income support as suggested in the findings of the pilot phase. STOCK IMAGE
ISLAMABAD:
Provincial administrations have aired serious concern over what they say a hasty move by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) management to launch Waseela-e-Taleem based on figures from the seven-year-old data of household beneficiaries while ignoring the vulnerable districts, sources say.
The federal government has undertaken the educational programme in an effort to register more children in schools and prevent the youth from leaning towards militant organisations.
Parents will be given an incentive of Rs200 per child per month for sending their children to nearby schools.
However, the BISP has targeted the 32 districts where the number of registered children in schools is already high and ignored the districts like DG Khan, Hangu, Lower Dir, Dadu, Khairpur, Mithi, Mastung and Kech where most of the children are out of schools.
Sources suggest the BISP’s selection will help non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as they have established networks in the proposed districts but find it hard to access the vulnerable areas.
Sindh and Balochistan have already voiced concern over the selection of districts under Waseela-e-Taleem because children’s enrollment in schools there is already high.
The provinces have also challenged the move and direction of the income support programme in the backdrop of 18th Amendment to the Constitution.
Education is a subject that has been devolved to the provinces and their governments are focusing on increasing the number of children in schools with the allocation of significant amounts in the budget.
The monitoring system and school attendance in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is much better than the compliance-monitoring mechanism established in the BISP.
According to sources, the BISP has tried to find a niche by banking on the key slogan “Education of out-of-school children” without considering results of the pilot phase.
The pilot phase was undertaken in five districts – Mirpur, Skardu, Malakand, Karachi South and Naushki.
Its findings clearly showed that the design and contours of the Waseela-e-Taleem programme were full of faults and a survey suggested that the design should be changed as investments of billions of rupees would go down the drain. However, the programme is being pushed ahead without addressing the concerns.
The biggest concern is the data and statistical analysis on which the entire programme is being built. Estimates show there were 3.3 million children in the selected 32 districts who need to be enrolled in schools.
Of these, around 1.1 million children were in Punjab, 1.4 million in Sindh, 700,000 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 100,000 in Balochistan. Provinces, however, refused to accept the statistics.
The governments of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa argued that more than 90% of the children in the targeted areas had already been enrolled in schools. They termed the data “absolutely misleading”.
Sources point out that the BISP did not undertake any concrete study to determine the number of children out of school from among the families receiving income support as suggested in the findings of the pilot phase.
According to reports, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa told the BISP administration that their Management Information System governing education at schools was of high standard and the income support programme could rely on their feedback on school attendance and admissions for out-of-school children.
They also said the Academy of Education and Planning Management is the custodian of all relevant details concerning the number of schools, teachers, students and facilities, which could be obtained from the provincial authorities. There was no need to create a duplicate system of governance and data creation, which would not be reliable and would also create confusion in operations, they added.
However, the BISP has decided to create a parallel system worth millions of dollars. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) is supporting this alternative system for implementation of the Waseela-e-Taleem programme.
Officials ask whether the expenditure of billions of rupees on the purchase of equipment and services of consultants is justifiable when 90% of the children are already in schools in the targeted areas.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 13th, 2015.
Provincial administrations have aired serious concern over what they say a hasty move by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) management to launch Waseela-e-Taleem based on figures from the seven-year-old data of household beneficiaries while ignoring the vulnerable districts, sources say.
The federal government has undertaken the educational programme in an effort to register more children in schools and prevent the youth from leaning towards militant organisations.
Parents will be given an incentive of Rs200 per child per month for sending their children to nearby schools.
However, the BISP has targeted the 32 districts where the number of registered children in schools is already high and ignored the districts like DG Khan, Hangu, Lower Dir, Dadu, Khairpur, Mithi, Mastung and Kech where most of the children are out of schools.
Sources suggest the BISP’s selection will help non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as they have established networks in the proposed districts but find it hard to access the vulnerable areas.
Sindh and Balochistan have already voiced concern over the selection of districts under Waseela-e-Taleem because children’s enrollment in schools there is already high.
The provinces have also challenged the move and direction of the income support programme in the backdrop of 18th Amendment to the Constitution.
Education is a subject that has been devolved to the provinces and their governments are focusing on increasing the number of children in schools with the allocation of significant amounts in the budget.
The monitoring system and school attendance in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is much better than the compliance-monitoring mechanism established in the BISP.
According to sources, the BISP has tried to find a niche by banking on the key slogan “Education of out-of-school children” without considering results of the pilot phase.
The pilot phase was undertaken in five districts – Mirpur, Skardu, Malakand, Karachi South and Naushki.
Its findings clearly showed that the design and contours of the Waseela-e-Taleem programme were full of faults and a survey suggested that the design should be changed as investments of billions of rupees would go down the drain. However, the programme is being pushed ahead without addressing the concerns.
The biggest concern is the data and statistical analysis on which the entire programme is being built. Estimates show there were 3.3 million children in the selected 32 districts who need to be enrolled in schools.
Of these, around 1.1 million children were in Punjab, 1.4 million in Sindh, 700,000 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 100,000 in Balochistan. Provinces, however, refused to accept the statistics.
The governments of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa argued that more than 90% of the children in the targeted areas had already been enrolled in schools. They termed the data “absolutely misleading”.
Sources point out that the BISP did not undertake any concrete study to determine the number of children out of school from among the families receiving income support as suggested in the findings of the pilot phase.
According to reports, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa told the BISP administration that their Management Information System governing education at schools was of high standard and the income support programme could rely on their feedback on school attendance and admissions for out-of-school children.
They also said the Academy of Education and Planning Management is the custodian of all relevant details concerning the number of schools, teachers, students and facilities, which could be obtained from the provincial authorities. There was no need to create a duplicate system of governance and data creation, which would not be reliable and would also create confusion in operations, they added.
However, the BISP has decided to create a parallel system worth millions of dollars. The UK Department for International Development (DFID) is supporting this alternative system for implementation of the Waseela-e-Taleem programme.
Officials ask whether the expenditure of billions of rupees on the purchase of equipment and services of consultants is justifiable when 90% of the children are already in schools in the targeted areas.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 13th, 2015.