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Still on the wrong foot
Despite the high aims and hopes, the actions taken for the improvement of the education in Pakistan, have not really been reflective of the ambitions
By Tahir Ali
It is said that PakistanÃs first five-year plan was borrowed by Korea. Taking advantage of it, Korea has reached to enormous heights. Since 1991, the enrolment rate is 100 percent for primary school there, 95% for middle school, 88% for high and 38.1% for higher education. The figures may have improved further as the data available with the writer is a bit old. Education is compulsory from 6 to 14 and between these ages there is practically 100 percent attendance at school there.
Pakistan, on the other hand, has been through many educational policies and five year plans which served as conceptual frameworks and plans of action for the development of education in the country. In 1947, the First Educational Conference was held in Karachi. In 1959, the Commission on National Education put forward its recommendations for the advancement of education in the country. They were followed by Educational Policies of 1970, 1970, 1972-80, 1979, 1992, 1998-2010, 2002 and in a couple of months, the present PPP-PML(N)-ANP-JUI-coalition government is going to present its educational policy.
During the period, nine five year plans were also prepared and put into practice which, inter alia, touched the system of education in the country at length. The first five-year plan was meant for the period from1955-60, the second for 1960-65, third for 1965-70, fourth 1970-75, fifth 1978-83, sixth 1983-88 and the 7th , 8th and 9th five-year plans were for 1988-93, 1993-98 and 1998-2003 respectively.
These various policies and plans prioritised their targets as per the needs of the people and/or the likes and dislikes of the incumbents at the time, one giving priority to general education while the other to technical and vocational education; one emphasizing Universalization of Primary Education (UPE), the other the secondary and the next the higher tier of education. But they all targeted an increasing literacy rate for the country, as their ultimate combined objective.
Despite the high aims and hopes, the actions taken for the improvement of the education in Pakistan, have not really been reflective of the ambitions. According to the PakistanÃs National Education Census, 2005, 23% urban and 21% rural areas have no educational facilities. The official literacy rate is around 45%, which is considered to be an exaggerated account.
Pakistan ranks among the bottom five countries of the world, as far as the public expenditure on education, as a percentage of total public spending is concerned. Despite the governmentÃs claims that education is its top priority, public spending on it during 2002-03 to 1.8% of the GDP from 2.6% in 1990. Pakistan is now on just 12 countries that spend less than 2% of GDP on education (ICG, 2004).
Following are the figures of the national actual expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP (Rs in million):
Various factors are considered to be involved in the failure to achieve or get close to targets. Following a detailed overview of the educational provisions in all of the 5-years plans and educational policies put forward since 1947- 2007, the following deficiencies and shortcomings are apparently responsible for their failures:
1. Lack of proper planning and coordination, training of the personnel, and commitment on the part of the executers is to be blamed. The government never honestly tried to achieve the educational targets set on paper nor establish an effective system of accountability. The funds allocated for the tasks are therefore usually spent on perks, allowances and other non-productive activities.
2. Experimentation was the norm during the implementation of all the plans and policies. No consistent approaches and strategies were adopted to realise the objectives.
3. Meagre fund allocation for the educational sector in the annual budget is also one of the reasons. Qualitative improvement and quantitative expansion in the education sector warranted more investment- up to 4% of the GDP if not a greater portion of it.
4. Poor provision for the education of females causes the literacy rate to remain low. There are no girlsà schools in 40 union councils countrywide. The Educational Management Information SystemÃs informed estimate is that more than half of the girls, while almost 30% of all children in the country remain out of school.
5. The targets envisaged by the five year plans were mainly unrealistic, highly speculative and impractical. The ever increasing level of population was never accounted for in the allocation of budget or planning of the education policies. Hence the realisation of these goals was always a remote possibility.
6. Nearly all of them were characterised by a lack of proper and vigorous supervisory structures. No or weak system of administration, supervision and evaluation couldnÃt entail the much needed results after the diagnostic, formative and/or summative evaluation so that modifications and remedies could have been worked out.
7. Another salient feature of the plans and policies was that the overall participation of the community, media, civil society and private sector was not ensured which is vital for the success of any such program.
8. The governments tended to take more interests in immediate and short-term plans than the longer 5-year plans. Popularity was sought and preferred at the expense of larger national interests.
9. Political instability in the country was also one of the reasons for the failures of the plans and policies. Thanks to the ever-occurring phenomenon of military take-overs and their validation under the law of necessity by the judiciary here, no government ever completed its full tenure, save the previous one which was dragged for personal designs by President Musharraf.
10. Foreign assistance was either not available or was restricted to funding and not involved in execution and supervision of plans at grass root levels. Another relative feature was that most of the foreign aid was not utilised for bringing about a positive and practical change in the educational system of the country and was wasted on the TA/DA of the project personnel, printing of unnecessary booklets and reports and expensive accommodation.
SUMMARY OF THE POINTS:
- Lack of planning, training, commitment, accountability and mishandling of funds.
- Experimentation and no constant approaches and strategies.
- Meagre fund allocation for education in the budget.
- Poor provision for female education.
- Unrealistic and highly speculative targets.
- Lack of proper vigorous supervisory structures.
- No participation of the community, media, civil society and private sector
- More interest in immediate and short-term plans.
- Political instability and ever-occurring phenomenon of military take-overs.
- Foreign aid was not utilised for bringing about a positive and practical change.
ACTUAL
EXPENDITURE 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02
49083 49407 54002 57053 66022
% OF GDP 1.83 1.68 1.71 1.66 1.80
Source: Ministry of Education
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