June 29, 2008

Unesco has released the sixth edition of its Education For All (EFA) global monitoring report and its findings are very disturbing.

Pakistan is far from achieving the EFA targets and has been placed at the low EFA Development Index (EDI) with a less than 0.80 score. Moreover, Islamabad has the dubious distinction of containing one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children in the world.

The six EFA goals emphasise improving early childhood care and education, access to a completely free and compulsory good quality primary education, provision of appropriate learning and life skills programmes, on the whole 50 per cent improvement in the literacy level, eliminating gender disparities and a general improvement in all aspects of quality education.

The report has assessed the progress made by different nations towards reaching the six EFA goals for 2015. It, however, makes a very distressing reading as Islamabad is facing a serious challenge of prolific illiteracy, low participation and high drop-outs.

The other nine countries at the bottom of this education table with Pakistan are Eritrea, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Benin, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad.

Contrary to what our planners believe and practice, education is one of the elementary factors in development and it has rightly been called “the highest-return investment available in the developing world” as no state can accomplish sustainable economic development without extensive investment in its education system.

Dr Nayyar, a scientist and educational researcher, however, makes clear that literacy has traditionally been low in Pakistan because of the several historical reasons as South Asian Muslims have always given it low importance.

Pakistan has suffered on the literacy front due to many factors. However, the most important one is the dominance of the elite who do not support investment for the masses in this sector. The mullah/military/bureaucracy/feudal nexus has a vested interest in keeping the majority of the populace illiterate and unproductive.

While commenting on the general conditions in the country that inhibit education, Dr Nayyar says: “The oppressive and exploitative feudal system in Pakistan has its own reasons to discourage literacy and education. But most importantly, the worthlessness of formal education in terms of economic and social values has also dissuaded the public from investing in education.”

According to the report, low primary school participation, adult illiteracy, high dropout rate, gender disparities and inequalities in the existing system as well as the poor quality of education are some of the reasons behind the dismal performance. It is an established fact that education enhances the income generating potential and this relationship between equity in education and income is explained in terms of the returns associated with it.

Primary education is supposed to be the basic mainstay of the extended instructive system and if it is flawed or skewed the whole structure would fall out of equilibrium. However, it is a tale of consistent failures in Pakistan. Perhaps our policy makers are not aware of the fact that primary education works as a catalyst to bring changes in knowledge, values, behaviour and lifestyles — crucial for achieving sustainability and stability.

Notwithstanding the tall claims made by the government, the enrollment of children in schools is not increasing at all. Nearly 6.5 million children in the age group of five to nine years are out of the school. The statistics provided by the government could be quite misleading as although officially only 59 per cent children are enrolled in primary schools. The boys on an average spend 3.8 years and the girls 1.3 years in school, instead of the conventional five-year period. This probably explains the phenomenal high drop out rates.

Gender disparity, by and large, has a negative connotation because it leads towards discrimination in every aspect of life. Although there have been some major improvements in this sector in the ’90s, still Islamabad is considered to have the largest gender gap in the literacy ratio.

Arshed H. Bhatti associated with Civil Junction, a social enterprise working for the opening up of a political social environment has rightly pointed out: “Cultural barriers are just one aspect of hurdles in female education.”

Another very important factor plaguing this sector is the low budgetary allocations. According to the World Bank, Islamabad’s expenditure on public sector education is only 2.3 per cent of the GDP which is to a great extent lesser than the South Asian average of 3.6 per cent and the low-income states average of 3.4 per cent.

Elucidating the phenomenon, Dr Abid Suleri, executive director, Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), says: “There is an urgent need to question our national priorities. We are spending billions in the name of national security needs. Pakistan bought three Agosta 90B submarines from France for $1 billion. For this amount (for one year) we could have ensured primary education for all the 17 million children now un-enrolled.”

The other very important factor mentioned in the report is the existing inequalities in the system. Depriving a child from education has serious repercussions for the future of society because it traps the person and his coming generations into the vicious circle of poverty and creates the lethal rich/poor divide in society.

The education system is a true reflection of any society and it is also the most important factor to direct its future and shape. The more a system is ingrained in egalitarian bias the more it will affect the socio-economic structures.

The low quality of education is yet again the major issue. The public sector education system — which caters the educational needs of the majority of the population — is simply obsolete, decadent and out of sync with the times. The private sector — which imparts quality education — is out of the reach of the majority.

It is the system that not only imparts near to the ground quality education but which also kills creativity and curiosity in students. On the other hand, it does not impart to them marketable skills and knowledge to come out of the poverty trap.

High dropout rates is another serious problem faced by the public sector education system which takes place due to a low level of economic development in the last few decades; extensive poverty; the existence of child labour; expensive test books and stationary; poor motivational level in parents to retain their children in schools; a persistent negative attitude towards formal education and a general lack of decent, cheap and high-quality education.

According to Bhatti, the following steps could help in a big way in increasing the country’s literacy rate. Conceptually, the government needs to understand the wider meaning of education; it should not be confused with schooling.

Constitutionally, the government must recognise that education is a provincial subject, and therefore the provinces should own any policy, and they must have full responsibility to implement it.

The parallel streams of education must be merged gradually, and in a phased manner both madressah schooling and the English medium system must be terminated. Public schooling should be comprehensive enough, and the private schools must follow the same curriculum.

The parents’ role should be recognised and measures be suggested to organise the demand side of schooling and education (particularly in early childhood education, not schooling).

All is not yet lost and Islamabad needs to get back to the development highway and take appropriate measures to come at par with the standard set by the international agencies while providing affordable quality education to its citizens.

moniza.inam@dawn.com