EDITORIAL: Under the eighth UN Millennium Development goals, among other targets, Pakistan was committed to providing universal primary education to all by 2015. Nearly a decade later, it has little to show for the effort, with the lowest literacy rate in South Asia after Afghanistan. As many as 26.2 million children are out of school, while the officially claimed literacy figure is 62 percent.
Included in this statistic are individuals who can only sign their names, but are unable to read or write. The federal government now is said to be all set to declare a four-year education emergency at a conference to be chaired by Shehbaz Sharif and attended by chief ministers, country heads of development partners, international educationists, and others.
Education, it goes without saying, is the building block of social progress and economic development. In this era of knowledge-based systems, it is the key with which can be unlocked human mind’s potential, opening ever new horizons to advancements in various fields of national endeavour. Sadly, education sector in this country has fallen by the wayside. Successive governments have assigned it low priority, with just 1.7 percent of the GDP allocation to education.
The result is that a large number of public sector schools, especially in small towns and rural areas, lack basic facilities such as toilets, drinking water, electricity to run fans necessary during summer months, and boundary walls, all of which serve as a disincentive for even enrolled pupils to attend classes.
Many primary schools have only two teachers for all classes, making it impossible for them to give attention to each student, leading to poor learning outcomes. If that is not bad enough, there is the phenomenon of ‘ghost’ schools that exist only on paper, and also ghost teachers who regularly draw salaries without setting foot in any school.
Inaccessibility to proper primary schools not only deprives young people of basic education but also prevents them from pursuing higher studies to build on their abilities for leading a productive life and make contributions to economic growth.
Shehbaz Sharif has a fascination with splashy projects. In his previous stint as the chief minister of Punjab, he had established Daanish schools offering free and quality education to children from underprivileged backgrounds from class 6th to intermediate level. Although a good initiative, it was too limited in scope.
Hopefully, this time the proposed education emergency would be more inclusive, ensuring that no child is left out. What is needed is not only enhanced access for young people, but also teachers who are better equipped with modern teaching techniques.
Equally importantly, the curriculums should be designed in a way that encourages critical thinking right from the start. It is good to note that in the present initiative the government has decided to involve its development partners as well as education specialists from other countries. That should help put the public sector schooling on the right track.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024