Educationists hail education policy

Renowned educationists have hailed the long awaited National Education Policy (NEP) 2009, describing it as feasible and far-reaching, which may bring a revolution in illiteracy if implemented in letter and spirit.
Professor Muhammad Ali Durrani and Professor Dr Karamat Ali ,Ex-Vice Chancellors of Bahauddin Zakiriya University, Malik Bashir Ahmed former chairman of BISE Multan, Dr Hameed Raza Siddiqui former Director Education said that the National Education Policy, after many hiccups, had finally been approved by the cabinet and was formally announced by the Federal Education Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani.
They said that the Government was determined to allocate seven per cent of the GDP for education and efforts were afoot to introduce a modern curricula in Madaris. They said that the government should ensure a uniform system of education across the country, otherwise it would lose its credibility and sanctity.
They were optimistic that the New policy would help in meeting the overarching challenges and responses, filling the commitment gap, filling the implementation gap, provide Islamic education, broadening the base and achieving access, raising the quality of education, strengthening skill development and innovation, with higher education, an implementation framework and the state of education in the country.
They said that the foremost priority in the policy had been given to the uniform system of education across the country. "A common curricular framework in general as well as professional education will be applied to educational institutions, in both the public and the private sectors," they said, adding that the government would take steps to bring the public and private sectors in harmony through common standards, quality and regulatory regimes.
They said that the students of Madaris should be brought at par with the students of the formal public secondary schools through the introduction of formal subjects. "We are trying our level best to introduce contemporary subjects in Madaris so that they could also contribute to the progress of the country," they said. They suggested that the Government should take the Wifaq-ul-Madaria Al-Arabia into confidence as early as possible, otherwise it would be a futile exercise.
They said that the Government would have to face some resistance from religious seminaries. However, we are optimistic that they would co-operate with the Government in this regard.
While commenting on the inclusion of the chapter "Islamic Education" in the policy, they said that the objectives of teaching Islamiat should be to ensure that all Muslim children are provided opportunities to learn, understand, and apply the fundamental principles of Islam in their lives with the purpose of reformation and development of society on the principles of Qura'an and Sunnah.
They said that improvements in the quality of Early Childhood Education (ECE) would be based on the concept of the holistic development of the child that provides a stimulating, interactive environment, including play, rather than a focus on regimes that require rote learning and rigid achievement of standards.
"Provision of ECE should be attached to primary schools, which should be provided with an additional budget, teachers and assistants for this purpose," they said, adding that for the ECE teachers, a two-year specialised training in dealing with young children would be a necessary requirement.
Highlighting the chapter regarding secondary and higher secondary education, he said that grades XI and XII would not be part of the college level and would be merged into the school level, forming part of the existing secondary schools and where needed, the provision of the necessary human and physical resources shall be ensured.
"A system for the ranking of primary and secondary educational institutions across the country will be introduced, with rankings based on result outcomes, extracurricular activities and facilities provided to the students, in order to encourage healthy competition between schools," they said.
While pointing to steps regarding the improvement in the quality of education, they said a Bachelors degree, with a BEd, would be the requirement for teaching at the elementary level. "A Masters level for the secondary and higher secondary, with a BEd, would be ensured by 2018," he said, adding that the PTC and CT would be phased out by encouraging the present set of teachers to improve their qualifications, while new hiring would be based on the advanced criteria.
They discussed the salient features of the education policy and said curriculum development and review process, as well as the textbooks review process, would be standardised and institutionalised within the framework of the Federal Supervision of Curricula, Textbooks and Maintenance of Standards of Education Act, 1976."Professional councils like the Pakistan Medical and the Dental Council (PM&DC) and the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) shall be involved in consultations for the relevant curriculum development," they said.
They said that steps would be taken to raise enrolment in the higher education sector from the existing 4.7 per cent to 10 per cent by 2015 and 15 per cent by 2020. "Investment in higher education shall be increased to 20 per cent of the education budget, along with an enhancement of the total education budget to 7 per cent of GDP," they said.
It is worth mentioning here that chapter number four "Islamic Education" had been added a month ago after consultation with the Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat-e-Deeni Madaris and the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which declared Islamic education as the duty of the society and the state.
They say that the ideology of Islam forms the genesis of the State of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its fundamental principles were defined in the Objectives Resolution, 1949, which is part of the Constitution. The NEP has largely been agreed upon by all the federating units and has become a jointly owned national document. After the approval of the policy, each province and area will develop implementation strategies and plans as per its own priorities, including current ongoing activities.
At the federal level, the Ministry of Education will collate the plans of the federating units to develop a national picture of educational progress for reporting to international fora and more importantly, presenting it to the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers' Conference - the highest body to oversee development of education in Pakistan.
The NEP 2009 analyses problems and issues hampering the development of education in Pakistan, and outlines a wide range of reforms and policy actions to be taken and pursued in a co-ordinated federal-inter-provincial process.
The NEP thus outlines what is to be done. The NEP does not deal with who will do what, how will something be done, and when is something done? Past national education policy documents, with some exceptions, largely remained declarations of intent and were not followed up by an effective implementation. Even where implementation did take place, there was no complete process for monitoring and feedback.
To prevent failure of this policy, an implementation framework with a follow-up and feedback mechanism, will be developed. The basic principles agreed in the 13th Meeting of Inter-Provincial Education Ministers (IPEM) held on 9th May, 2008 in Islamabad are below:
The meeting decided and directed that "An Action Plan will be developed by each Province/Area and collated at the Federal level". The purpose of the action plan will be to outline, create an understanding and achieve consensus across the federating units as well as within each province and area, on who will be responsible and who will do what, how will it be done (implementation process, organisational set-up, interaction of working groups and advisory panels), and when something would be done (priorities and time scheduling).