Daily Times

Now that election season is upon us, the streets of Pakistan are ringing with the sounds of political parties’ campaigns and their promises to the people. It thus becomes important to assess whether parties have delivered on the manifestos they presented to the masses in 2013. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) emphasis on education, in particular, makes for interesting reading and shows that the PTI has indeed fulfilled its pledge to significantly improve education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

Over the 5 years of the PTI’s time in power, the education budget has witnessed an outstanding increase of 114%. From Rs 63 billion in 2012-13, the budget has jumped to Rs 136 billion for the present fiscal year.

Contrary to popular belief, the provincial government has in fact spent this money fruitfully. The government in Peshawar has spent nearly Rs 30 billion on providing basic facilities to schools all over the province. This is a significant step because Pakistan’s schools have historically been plagued by dilapidated infrastructure.

As a result of the provincial government’s emphasis on basic services, 24000 out of the 27000 schools in the province now have complete services.

Through the KP Better Schools Program, moreover, the provincial government has also built 73,000 missing facilities in schools. This figure stands in sharp juxtaposition with the 10,000 facilities the previous government installed in its tenure from 2008-13.

These missing facilities constitute essential aspects such as classrooms, boundary walls and electricity connections.

The KP government’s efforts towards reforming education have also resulted in a 20% increase in primary school enrolment, and a 21% increase in middle school enrolment.

Teachers’ attendance also witnessed a remarkable increase of 86%, mainly due to more effective monitoring measures. This includes charging fines for absence from duty, but is also a product of better recruitment on merit and through well designed training regimes.

Since 2013, in fact, 40,000 teachers have been recruited in the province. The PTI also incorporated a ‘teaching excellence award’ that serves as a positive incentive to improve the standard of teaching.

The provincial government has also aimed to rectify the gender imbalance that plagues our education system, by opening the first ever cadet college for girls in Mardan.

Through the efforts of the government and its emphasis on education, nearly 34,000 students have transferred from KP’s private education sector to public schools. This is another remarkable achievement considering the rapidly rising costs of private schools all over the country.

It is a testament to the PTI’s efforts towards education that, according to the organization Alif Ailaan’s data, 9 out of the top 10, and 13 out of the top 20 districts in terms of school infrastructure were in KP. District Haripur, in fact, tops the list of districts in terms of overall education quality in Pakistan.