EDITORIAL

Education Policy 2009

The Education Policy announced recently envisages a big leap in the allocation of public expenditure on education from the current level of 2% of the GDP to 7% over the next five years. Many well meaning critics, commentators, political pundits, donor agencies etc also believe that the problem of education deficiencies in Pakistan can be attributed to lake of funding. However, memories are short and we have forgotten that a multi-donor, multi-million dollar project, the social action program in the 1990s was a failure. It failed to enhance enrollment rate or achieve any other goal, infact, it left the government with a higher debt.

We should avoid making the same mistake again and putting the economy in further jeopardy.

The national commission for government reforms had undertaken a two-year study, field tours and direct interviews with concerned stake holders and came up with some practical recommendations for improving the quality of governance in the education sector. Precisely they are as under:

1.   Delineating responsibility for the provision of education among the three tires of government. The government should deal with curriculum and higher education financing, standards and regulations. The provincial governments should look after collegiate and technical education, while the district governments should take charge of primary, elementary and secondary education.

2.   Ensure uniformity in the standards of public, private and non-profit schools for which a district education board should be established in each district. The board must consist of eminent people.

3.   Like Sindh and NWFP governments there should be separation between managing and teaching cadres in other provinces.

4.   Teachers’ cadres should be de-linked with national pay scales.

5.   All teachers should appointed from among the candidates domiciled in a district through a test conducted by Public Service Commission.

6.   The school management committees or parent teacher associations should be empowered to effectively check the internal management of school including the classroom environment.

7.   The District Education Board should be allocated funds annually for carrying out the approved infrastructure projects and maintenance and training of teachers in all schools.

8.   Children from low income families should be given the option of going to private schools provided these schools meet prescribed eligibility criteria.

9.   Decentralized and empowered education network can function efficiently only if it is monitored continuously.

10.  All talented students from low income family and backward districts who secure admission to private schools, colleges and universities should be awarded scholarships for pursuing their studies.

The present government who has laboriously introduced education policy for the year 2009 should look into the avenues sited above and leave behind an ideal tradition which would aimed at introducing quality education in the country.