Federal government has launched a five-year project with the cost of Rs 319.4 million, including Rs 273 million as external financial assistance, for making national assessment a permanent feature of the education system.
Under this project for "Establishment of National Education Assessment System (NEAS)", the government's Education Policy (1998-2010) and the Education Sector Reforms (ESR) Action Plan 2002-2006 recognise the fact that quality of education is an important contributory factor in national development.
The monitoring of learning achievements of students is, therefore, one of the key components to assess and to improve the quality of education. National Education Assessment System (NEAS) is one of the key programmes under the Education Policy. The programme aims to develop national capacity for monitoring the learning achievements of elementary-level students in order to improve the quality of services (curriculum, textual material, teachers' delivery, policy formulation, etc) in the education sector.
The basic objective of NEAS is to establish and develop national capacity for conducting assessments periodically to monitor students' achievement.
WEAK RECORD: Commenting over the education and gender equality programme, official sources mentioned that the Pakistan's overall record in promoting and delivering gender equality is weak. There are, however, areas in which significant progress has been made and indicators point to a steady though slow improvement; the ratio of girls to boys at all levels of education has improved; the ratio of literate females to males has risen; the share of women in urban employment (as a proxy indictor for share of women in wage employment in non-agricultural sector) has improved marginally; and the role of women in national decision-making has improved significantly.
Gender concerns are not fully mainstreamed in the overall educational planning and management. The situation of urban women is better than their rural counterparts where parents are unable to afford the cost of education and access to schools is limited. Public expenditures tend to benefit boys rather than girls. The lack of access to education is compounded by dogmatic attitudes and socio-economic factors that inhibit girl education. The provincial governments are making substantial financial provisions on account of free textbooks and scholarships for girl students at the elementary level. This may lead to increase in enrolment and retention.
STIPENDS: Furthermore, the Punjab government in January 2004 under its Education Sector Reform Programme (PESRP) launched a stipend programme for the girl students of classes VI, VII and VIII in 15 low literacy districts in the province. The initiative aimed at improving enrolment and retention rate and reducing gender discrepancy in the provision of education.
The programme monitoring and implementation unit, after completion of two quarterly stipend cycles, initiated a third-party validation for stipend disbursement process in October 2004.
The validation proved that the school headmistresses are aware of the eligibility criteria, followed the guidelines and the stipend assessment has been transparent. The eligible girl students fully met attendance criteria and actually received stipends. The delivery mechanism through post office as a whole was found to be effective and efficient. Overall 91.3 percent of the current stipend students confirmed receipt of the stipend for the second cycle. The stipend programme as a whole has achieved its objectives. However, there is a need to review the steps involved, redesign the roles, streamline the management structure and to decentralise the activities involved in such a way that stipend cycle from assessment to disbursement does not cross over the next quarter. The co-ordination between the EDO and the post office and monitoring of disbursement process needs to be strengthened.
The stipend disbursement process should also include a periodic review mechanism at the level of EDO and district postal officials.
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