LAHORE, Aug 1: Punjab School Education Department Secretary Aslam Kamboh has said that an amendment in the Constitution cannot ensure optimum education.

Referring to the legislation for Right to Education (RTE) in pursuance of the Article 25-A in the 18th Amendment, Mr Kamboh said, “Only making a law for compulsory education will do nothing.”

He, however, added that the specifically constituted commission would be holding its maiden meeting on Thursday (today) to prepare the RTE Bill for consequent legislation.

The education secretary said there was no need to establish any new school in Punjab because there were 60,000 public and 48,000 private schools. “These schools are enough to meet the national requirement,” he added.

The secretary also announced that an authority for the development of curriculum, following legislation in Punjab Assembly, would be established within a week’s time.

The school education department secretary was speaking at a dialogue between the Young Champions and Parliamentarians on “Education issues especially importance of girls education” at a local hotel on Wednesday.

Interestingly, the PPP and PML-N parliamentarians Tariq Hotiana and Rana Afzal Khan endorsed the schools education secretary and said the RTE issue could be resolved through awareness and not by legislation. They said the legislation only expressed government’s direction that what needed to be done but 100 per cent results could never be achieved. They referred the law regarding ban on smoking at public places and added, “Look, how it was being flouted.” They stressed the need for awareness than legislation.

Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf Punjab Secretary-General Dr Yasmin Rashid said all provincial governments, including Punjab, must legislate to ensure right to free and compulsory education for children aged between 5-16 years. “Only those countries progress that ensure compulsory education for their children. Free and compulsory education to the whole lot of children can help develop a strong middle class and eventually a fast-pace developing country.”

The school education department secretary said Pakistan was collecting nine per cent of the tax revenue and was being asked through constitutional provision to give free and compulsory education to 5-16 years of age children. On the other hand, Mr Kamboh said, India was collecting 17 per cent tax revenue (almost double than Pakistan) and was supposed to give free and compulsory education falling in 6-14 years age bracket.

Mr Kamboh stressed that now private sector needed to come up with renewed enthusiasm to take on the challenge of imparting education.

Answering questions, Mr Kamboh said the government was not shirking its responsibility of offering education to the children of Punjab. During the last 61 years, he said, the country’s population had increased six times. Still, he said, there was no need to establish any new school. He also claimed that the government had hired a number of quality teachers and the public schools would boast teacher-student ratio at 1-29 after Eidul Fitr. “The school education department has attracted best teachers in its service and now even elite schools including Beaconhouse, City School and Lahore Grammar School are facing problems in hiring quality teachers in respective areas in the province,” he added.

At present, he said, 43 per cent (eight million) children were attending private sector schools, while 11 million children were attending public sector schools.

Though Mr Kamboh parried a question about the number of out-of-school children in Punjab, Unicef Punjab Education Specialist Tariq Saeed said there were 3.2 million out-of-school children in the province.

Giving a disclaimer on behalf of Unicef, Mr Saeed said the office of the Director Public Instruction (SE and EE), Punjab, had reported that 2.8 million out-of-school children had been brought in schools.

Responding to a Girl Guide’s question that why bureaucrats and politicians don’t send their children to public sector schools, Deputy Secretary (school education) Qaiser Rasheed said the public sector schools lacked training of children. “For this simple reason, I send my children to private schools,” he added.

MPA Tariq Hotiana agreed that the public schools’ quality of education was too low. MPA Rana Afzal Khan said the education department needed to focus on imparting quality education in public schools.