Access to free and compulsory education is an internationally acknowledged right. It has been recognized in a number of international conventions, covenants and declarations. In the Constitution of Pakistan (1973), it is acknowledged in Part-II, Chapter 2, on Principles of Policy.
"The State shall remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory secondary education within minimum possible period." Article 37 (b), Part II, Chapter 2, Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973.
The right however remained non-justiciable ever since. In April 2010, Parliament passed Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, 2010. The amendment made the Right to Education justiciable, by insertion of Article 25-A, which obligates the state to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 5 to 16 years in such a manner as may be determined by law.
"The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 5 to 16 years in such a manner as may be determined by law." Article 25 A, Part-II, Chapter 1, Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973.
After the 18th Constitutional Amendment, education was devolved to the provincial mandate and it became the responsibility of the Parliament and provincial assemblies to legislate for the provision of compulsory education in their respective jurisdictions. At the federal level, Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act was enacted on December 24, 2012 for the Islamabad Capital Territory. Similarly, in Sindh, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act was enacted on February 13, 2013.
The local parliamentarians used to bestow gifts of public schools and health facilities to the local landlords and political agents subject to winning shields. Schools in few cases have been granted to the landlords without any assessment or demand instead these schools should have been handed over to the Education and Literacy Department of Sindh government with a view to providing good quality education facilities to the masses. Subsequently, such schools are being used for warehouses, Otaqs, cattle houses and servant quarters.
Quality of schooling, especially in the public sector is indeed pathetic. Low quality of learning outcomes, summative and formative tests, pedagogy and code of conduct are enough proofs in this regard. It should be a focus of attention for the education sector reforms. But we should be very clear about what this implies and what it does not.
The problem of poor quality of education is not restricted to the government schools only, most of the private schools, leaving aside the small percentage, are also imparting poor quality of education. The academic assessment does show, on average.
First, the results of public sector schools are quite bad. So both academic systems are failing our children, though the public sector is doing it by a larger margin. Second, most of this data is about the primary years of schooling. There is evidence of much movement from private to public schools as children get to Grade-8 or 9 and the debate on quality differentials thus becomes a lot more confused at higher levels. Third, the differences in outcomes are smaller if effects of other factors like household income, social status and geographical, etc., are controlled.
We need to improve the quality of education for both public and private schools. Since we do not have a regulatory mechanism that allows us any effective control over private schools, we might have to impact them indirectly through changes in government schools.
Furthermore, local communities do not have ownership to the public schools and remain passive in education activities. The local Education Administration does not discuss points with local communities like low enrolments, academic calendar, school administration and quality education at large.
This is tripartite venture that reveals to fix responsibilities to each of them and dole out role individually. The local communities don't support to send their Children to the public schools and may not follow the rule of business to the functional school, on the contrary, local parents get engaged their children in the domestic and economic activities that caused the high rate of ignorance and out of school children. The girls are prohibited to go to schools because it is cultural and religious interpretation to keep girls at home and teach them religious education, inter alia.
Interestingly, teachers are not even recruited on merit and posted on political basis by law or by default, in Sindh. Though the Sindh government recruits teachers through local district authority and may be posted at their desired locations. As a result, the local children registered in the public schools suffer a lot and subsequently, learning outcomes are under achieved. Herein the large cost of government spent on unproductive academic results in toto. But should this be seen as 'efficiency'?
On the other hand, private sector pays teachers even less than unskilled workers? People join a profession on the basis of expected returns. If a teacher in private sector is paid Rs 6,000 per month or so, how is he/she expected to live and raise a family. Who will join the teaching profession under such conditions? And if only those join the profession who cannot enter any other profession, how will we be able to raise the quality of education?
The narrative gaining popularity in some circles is that due to the higher efficiency of the private schools, the state should either aim for similar 'efficiency' in their schools or consider handing over public schools. If gaining efficiency means improving quality, cutting out wastage and eliminating corruption from the system, this is understandable and should be done.
There are about 45,447 public schools and 11,521 private schools in Sindh, we still have too few schools compared to the number we need to educate every child for 10 years. Even if we allow middle/high schools to be larger than primary schools, can all children who come to the 45447 schools be accommodated in these smaller number of schools while allowing for increased home-school distances as numbers go down? Clearly, an efficiency drive will only take us that far: we will still need major injections of additional money in the public sector to educate all.
Government and private, both the sectors should be working hard to improve the standard of education in Sindh. To raise awareness on role of State, an advocacy campaign must be kick started around Article 25-A at mass level. It would engage communities in the process of social accountability.
Furthermore, two districts in Sindh, ie, Jacobabad and Kashmore due to neighborhood with Balochistan and tribal societal system mostly are engaged in tribal conflicts. This culture in these districts mostly deprive women and children from their right to education, as they are the ones mostly affected by the feuds. In addition, the elected district and provincial governments have not paid due attention to education in these districts, as a result many schools in these districts are closed. It resulted in a high number of out of school children in these districts, ie, Jacobabad 46.1% and Kandhkot 54.9%.
In this regard, Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN) in collaboration with Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO) initiated community activism for improved access to quality education and local accountability project in these two low performing districts of Sindh.
SRSO through its three-tier social mobilization approach has mobilized communities in the remotest villages, especially the ones where schools are closed and have started raising awareness through door-to-door visits. For this purpose, activists are identified from the local communities and trained on Article 25-A, Right to Information Act and importance of education. Furthermore, data collection from the households to take stock of the out of schoolchildren and missing facilities from the government schools in the catchment area has been started. It would help drafting Charter of Demand (CoD) in these districts to engage grass-tops.
A pilot in this regard was done last year and the results were superb. It is the finding from there that community voices supported by media brings results.
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