Dropout rate linked to school toilet shortage: Oxfam

NGO reports major fissures in the state of public education in southern Punjab.

ISLAMABAD: Thirteen per cent of girls government schools in Multan don’t have toilets, which could be one of the major reasons why so many students drop out. This was the assessment, among others, of an Oxfam GB study on education in southern Punjab.

The NGO examined the education budgets of Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Jhang and Rajanpur. It concluded that the dismal state of public education in five districts was the result of under-spending, inappropriate allocations and the government’s inability to spend money with the needs of girls and boys in mind.

Missing facilities

Oxfam noted that there were far too many missing facilities in schools, especially those for girls. In Multan, for instance, 20 per cent of primary schools for girls do not have drinking water. Although it may be assumed that many students join private schools after dropping out, this still highlights the inability of public schools to retain their students.

Insufficient allocation of development budget

One of the reasons why the schools don’t have the proper facilities could be that the government was simply not properly allocating its money on development. In fact, the development budget is much smaller than the current budget, which is relevant to the quality and access to education. In Multan, for example, since 2007 only between two to six per cent of the total budget was set aside for development.

Reduction in development budget

To make matters worse, the government has been spending less and less on development - an even more worrisome trend. There have been instances in which the development budget in a given year was considerably lower than the development expenditure of the previous year. In Muzaffargarh, for example, the money set aside for 2009-10 was 24 per cent less than the money used for development in 2008-09.

Underutilisation of development budget

This problem is compounded by the fact that whatever has been allocated for development is often not fully used. In Multan, only 67 per cent of the money for development was used and 33 per cent went to waste in 2008-09. To top it off, the money that was spent accounted for only two per cent of the total used education budget for the district that year.

Lack of gender-responsive budgeting

Another important finding was that the government was not allocating enough money for gender-specific needs. In Jhang, for 2009-10, schools for girls and boys were allocated three per cent of the total development budget each. The remaining 94 per cent of the budget was allocated without gender specification, thus making it difficult to analyse and track the budget along gender lines.

Low female enrolment

Female literacy and enrollment rates are very low in the target districts. Data shows the student-teacher ratio in girls schools was better than in boys schools, but this was only due to the low enrollment rate of girls. Furthermore, the enrollment rate of students from the primary level onwards is on a continuous decline. In Multan, 74 per cent of the girls and 65 per cent of the boys studying at the primary level do not make it to the next level.

Teacher-student ratio

The number of schools for boys and girls and the number of male and female teachers in the target districts is usually not commensurate with how many students they have.

For girls, the teacher-student and school-student ratio is not favourable, especially at the high school level. Thirty-three per cent of students are girls while only 26 per cent of total teachers are women.

Besides this, the findings also point to glaring knowledge, skill and capacity gaps at all tiers of government. The key interviews conducted at the federal, provincial and district levels corroborate this observation by highlighting the capacity and information gaps of the officials.

Most of the educational managers seem to lack a proper understanding of concepts such as need-based and gender-specific budgets, and are also found lacking in skills related to budget making and using the money. There is also a serious lack of coordination between district officials and donors on the one hand, and among the donors themselves on the other. Frequent postings and transfers of district education managers are cited as the most likely reason for this lack of coordination.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2011.