Introduction
It is mandated in the Constitution of Pakistan to provide free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of 5-16 years and enhance adult literacy. With the 18th constitutional amendment the concurrent list which comprised 47 subjects was abolished and these subjects, including education, were transferred to federating units as a move towards provincial autonomy.
The year 2015 is important in the context that it marks the deadline for the participants of Dakar declaration (Education For All [EFA] commitment) including Pakistan. Education-related statistics coupled with Pakistan’s progress regarding education targets set in Vision 2030 and Pakistan’s lagging in achieving EFA targets and its Millennium Development Goals(MDS) for education call for an analysis of the education system of Pakistan and to look into the issues and problems it is facing so that workable solutions could be recommended.
What is Education System?
The system of education includes all institutions that are involved in delivering formal education (public and private, for-profit and nonprofit, onsite or virtual instruction) and their faculties, students, physical infrastructure, resources, and rules. In a broader definition, the system also includes the institutions that are directly involved in financing, managing, operating, or regulating such institutions (like government ministries and regulatory bodies, central testing organizations, textbook boards, and accreditation boards). The rules and regulations that guide the individual and institutional interactions within the setup are also part of the education system.
Education system of Pakistan:
The education system of Pakistan comprises 260,903 institutions and is facilitating 41,018,384 students with the help of 1,535,461 teachers. The system includes 180,846 public institutions and 80,057 private institutions. Hence, 31% of educational institutes are run by the private sector while 69% are public institutes.
Analysis of education system in Pakistan
Pakistan has expressed its commitment to promote education and literacy in the country by education policies at the domestic level and getting involved in international commitments on education. In this regard, national education policies are the visions that suggest strategies to increase literacy rate, capacity building, and enhance facilities in the schools and educational institutes. MDGs and EFA programs are global commitments of Pakistan for the promotion of literacy.
A review of the education system of Pakistan suggests that there has been little change in Pakistan’s schools since 2010 when the 18th Amendment enshrined education as a fundamental human right in the constitution. Problems of access, quality, infrastructure, and inequality of opportunity, remain endemic.
Issues
A) MDS and Pakistan
Due to the problems in the education system of Pakistan, the country is lagging in achieving its MDS of education. The MDS have laid down two goals for the education sector:
Goal 2: Goal 2 of MDGs is to achieve Universal Primary Education (UPE) and by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. By the year 2014, the enrollment statistics show an increase in the enrolment of students of the age of 3-16 years, while the dropout rate decreased. But the need for increasing enrollment of students remains high to achieve MDGs target. Punjab is leading province-wise in the net primary enrollment rate with 62% enrollment. The enrollment rate in Sindh province is 52%, in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KPK) 54% and the primary enrolment rate in Balochistan is 45%.
Goal 3: Goal 3 of MDS is Promoting Gender Equality and Women Empowerment. It is aimed at eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005 and in all levels of education not later than 2015. There is a stark disparity between male and female literacy rates. The national literacy rate of males was 71% while that of females was 48% in 2012-13. Provinces reported the same gender disparity. Punjab's literacy rate in males was 71% and for females, it was 54%. In Sindh literacy rate in males was 72% and females 47%, in KPK males 70% and females 35%, while in Balochistan males 62% and females 23%.
B) Education for All (EFA) Commitment
The EFA goals focus on early childhood care and education including pre-schooling, universal primary education and secondary education to youth, adult literacy with gender parity, and quality of education as crosscutting thematic and program priorities.
EFA Review Report October 2014 outlines that despite repeated policy commitments, primary education in Pakistan is lagging in achieving its target of universal primary education. Currently, the primary gross enrolment rate stands at 85.9% while Pakistan requires increasing it up to 100% by 2015-16 to fulfill EFA goals. Of the estimated total primary school-going 21.4 million children of ages 5-9 years, 68.5% are enrolled in schools, of which 8.2 million or 56% are boys and 6.5 million or 44% are girls. Economic Survey of Pakistan confirms that during the year 2013-14 literacy remained much higher in urban areas than in rural areas and higher among males.
C) Vision 2030
Vision 2030 of the Planning Commission of Pakistan looks for an academic environment that promotes the thinking mind. The goal under Vision 2030 is one curriculum and one national examination system under state responsibility. The strategies charted out to achieve the goal included:
(i) Increasing public expenditure on education and skills generation from 2.7% of GDP to 5% by 2010 and 7% by 2015.
(ii) Re-introduce the technical and vocational stream in the last two years of secondary schools.
(iii) Gradually increase vocational and technical education numbers to 25-30% of all secondary enrolment by 2015 and 50 percent by 2030.
(iv) Enhance the scale and quality of education in general and the scale and quality of scientific/technical education in Pakistan in particular.
Problems: The issues lead to the comprehension of the problems which are faced in the development of the education system and promotion of literacy. The study outlines seven major problems such as:
1) Lack of Proper Planning: Pakistan is a signatory to MDGs and EFA goals. However, it seems that it will not be able to achieve these international commitments because of financial management issues and constraints to achieve the MDGs and EFA goals.
2) Social constraints: It is important to realize that the problems which hinder the provision of education are not just due to issues of management by the government but some of them are deeply rooted in the social and cultural orientation of the people. Overcoming the latter is difficult and would require a change in the attitude of the people, until then universal primary education is difficult to achieve.
3) Gender gap: Major factors that hinder enrolment rates of girls include poverty, cultural constraints, illiteracy of parents, and parental concerns about the safety and mobility of their daughters. Society’s emphasis on girls’ modesty, protection, and early marriages may limit the family’s willingness to send them to school. Enrolment of rural girls is 45% lower than that of urban girls; while for boys the difference is 10% only, showing that the gender gap is an important factor.
4) Cost of education: The economic cost is higher in private schools, but these are located in richer settlements only. The paradox is that private schools are better but not everywhere and government schools ensure equitable access but do not provide quality education.
5) War on Terror: Pakistan’s engagement in the war against terrorism also affected the promotion of literacy campaigns. The militants targeted schools and students; several educational institutions were blown up, teachers and students were killed in Balochistan, KPK, and FATA. This may have to contribute not as much as other factors, but this remains an important factor.
6) Funds for Education: Pakistan spends 2.4% GDP on education. At the national level, 89% of education expenditure comprises current expenses such as teachers’ salaries, while only 11% comprises of development expenditure which is not sufficient to raise the quality of education.
7) Technical Education: Sufficient attention has not been paid to technical and vocational education in Pakistan. The number of technical and vocational training institutes is not sufficient and many are deprived of infrastructure, teachers, and tools for training. The population of a state is one of the main elements of its national power. It can become an asset once it is skilled. An unskilled population means more jobless people in the country, which affects national development negatively. Therefore, technical education needs priority handling by the government.
Poverty, law and order situation, natural disasters, budgetary constraints, lack of access, poor quality, equity, and governance have also contributed to fewer enrolments.
An analysis of the issues and problems suggest that:
The official data shows the allocation of funds for educational projects but no mechanism ensures the proper expenditure of those funds on education.
- The existing infrastructure is not being properly utilized in several parts of the country.
- Various challenges include expertise, institutional and capacity issues, forging national cohesion, uniform standards for textbook development, and quality assurance.
- The faculty hiring process is historically known to be politicized. It is because of this that the quality of teaching suffers and even more so when low investments are made in teachers’ training. As a result, teachers are not regular and their time at school is not as productive as it would be with a well-trained teacher.
- Inside schools, there are challenges which include shortage of teachers, teacher absenteeism, missing basic facilities, and lack of friendly environment.
- Out-of-school challenges include shortage of schools, distance – especially for females, insecurity, poverty, cultural norms, parents are reluctant or parents lack awareness.
Solutions
There is a need for the implementation of national education policy and vision 2030 education goals. An analysis of education policy suggests that at the policy level there are several admirable ideas, but practically there are some shortcomings also.
It may not be possible for the government at the moment to implement a uniform education system in the country, but a uniform curriculum can be introduced in educational institutes of the country. This will provide equal opportunity to the students of rural areas to compete with students of urban areas in the job market.
Since the majority of the Pakistani population resides in rural areas and access to education is a major problem for them, it seems feasible that a balanced approach for formal and informal education be adopted. The government, as well as the non-government sector, should work together to promote education in rural areas.
The government should take measures to get school buildings vacated which are occupied by feudal lords of Sindh, Balochistan, and Punjab. Efforts should be made to ensure that proper education is provided in those schools.
The federal government is paying attention to vocational and technical training, but it is important to make the already existing vocational and technical training centers more efficient so that skilled youth could be produced.
Since education is a provincial subject, the provincial education secretariats need to be strengthened. Special policy planning units should be established in provinces’ education departments for the implementation of educational policies and formulation of new policies whenever needed. The provincial education departments need to work out the financial resources required for realizing the compliance of Article 25-A.
The Federal Government should play a supportive role vis-à-vis the provinces for the early compliance of the constitutional obligation laid down in Article 25-A. Special grants can be provided to the provinces where the literacy rate is low.
Pakistan is not the only country that is facing challenges regarding the promotion of literacy and meeting EFA and MDS commitments. Education remains a subject which is paid the least attention in the whole South Asian region. UNDP report 2014 suggests that there has been an improvement in other elements of human development such as life expectancy, per capita income, and Human Development Index value (in past 3 years); but there has been no progress in the number of schooling years. The expected average for years of schooling in 2010 was 10.6 years, but the actual average of schooling remained 4.7 for all South Asian countries. In the year 2013, the expected average number of years increased to 11.2 but the actual average of years of schooling of South Asian countries remained 4.7. Regional cooperation mechanisms can also be developed to promote literacy in the South Asian region. Sharing success stories, making country-specific modifications and their implementation can generate positive results.
Recommendations
- Technical education should be made a part of secondary education. Classes for carpentry, electrical, and other technical education must be included in the curriculum.
- Providing economic incentives to the students may encourage the parents to send their children to school and may help in reducing the dropout ratio.
- The local government system helps promote education and literacy in the country. In the local government system, the funds for education would be spent on a need basis by the locality.
- Corruption in education departments is one of the factors for the poor literacy in the country. An effective monitoring system is needed in education departments.
- For any system to work, relevant structures must be developed. Legislation and structure should be framed to plan for the promotion of education in the country. After the 18th amendment, education has become a provincial subject, therefore, the provinces should form legislation and design educational policies which ensure quality education.
- The unemployment of educated men and women is a major concern for Pakistan. There should be career counseling of the pupils in schools so that they have an understanding of the job market, and they can develop their skills accordingly.
- Counseling of parents is required so that they can choose a career for their child which is market-friendly.
- There are two approaches to acquiring education: the First, which is being followed by many in Pakistan, is to get an education to earn bread and butter. The second approach is to get an education for the sake of personal development and learning. This approach is followed by affluent and economically stable people who send their children to private schools and abroad for education. The problem arises when non-affluent families send their children to private schools, and universities. This aspiration for sending children for higher education is wrong because the country does not need managers and officers only. There are several other jobs where people are needed. Hence, the mindset of sending one’s children to university only for becoming officers and managers needs to be changed.
Conclusion:
The reforms required in the education system of Pakistan cannot be done by the government alone, public-private participation and a mix of formal as well as non-formal education can pull out the majority of the country’s population from illiteracy. Similarly, to make the youth of the country an asset, attention should also be paid to vocational and technical training.
References: Human Development Report 2014 “Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience,” United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (New York: UNDP, 2014).
Mehnaz Aziz et al. “Education System Reform in Pakistan: Why, When, and How?” IRA Policy Paper No. 76, January 2014 (Institute for the Study of Labor, 2014), P 4.
Annual Report: Pakistan Education Statistics 2011-12, National Education Management Information System Academy of Educational Planning and Management, Ministry of Education, Trainings & Standards in Higher Education, Government of Pakistan, (Islamabad, AE PAM, 2013).
Economic Survey of Pakistan 2014, Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan
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