Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf completed its five years and 100 days in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. If we speak of education reforms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the past five years of PTI government will be counted as the most successful with a significant focus on education reforms and merit-based inductions of nearly 40,000 teachers. The then minister education Atif Khan never conducted surprise visits to schools but rather continued focusing on reforms and policy-making through the education secretariat. PTI used education reforms in KP as one example of their good governance but after elections, education became the least important agenda. Four education secretaries have been changed during the past 5 months. Instead of a minister, affairs of the education department are handed over to an advisor who conducts surprise visits to schools or listens to public complaints. The department in the past five years increased education budget and used to track its performance on weekly basis. Budget tracking and departmental performance has not been tracked in the first 100 days which speaks itself of the seriousness of the current administration.

The Education Department has set goals such as the plantation of 6.5 million trees in Schools while more than 20 percent schools are lacking basic missing facilities such as toilets, furniture, electricity, boundary walls. The department changed its logo and directed nearly 26,000 government schools to repaint the logo on schools’ buildings. Millions of rupees will be spent on this effort along with millions that will be spent on the painting of the old logo before the elections.

PTI used education reforms in KP as one example of their good governance but after elections, education became the least important agenda. Four education secretaries have been changed during the past 5 months

In KP, more than 2.6 million children are out of school. The Government publicized a number of 1.8 million out of school children in its census which did not cover more than 30 percent of KP. This number has now increased due to the merger of FATA in KP. This number will likely increase unless the government takes an extraordinary step towards enrolment campaigns and increasing enrolment budget. Currently Rs. 300 is allocated for enrolment, per school. This amount is usually spent on refreshments.

Out of School Children, which were under 10, five years ago, will now enter their teenage years, which makes them susceptible to being used by militant organizations or due to the lack of employment opportunities they opt other turn to crime. These numbers are alarming given the security and socio-economic challenges, therefore enrolment of OOSC gets significant importance. Unfortunately, neither provincial nor the federal governments have any roadmap or milestones to eliminate this number.

Besides the poor enrolment campaigns, dropout rates are alarming in public schools because of the lack of basic facilities such as toilets, boundary walls, and electricity. Parents don’t take risk of sending children especially girls to a school which is functioning under a tree or in a building with no doors or electricity. The progress on the construction of missing facilities has hit a record low as 76 percent of facilities were constructed by March 2017, whereas only 2 percent facilities have been improved in the last 8 months. Funds transferred to districts are not being utilized by the schools due to ill planning and wrong estimates or bureaucratic hurdles.

The government successfully conducted the assessments of the 5th grade in the past 2 years but due to lack of attention this year, especially in the first 100 days, the decision regarding assessment or board exams has not been made whereas vast areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa fall under the winter zone where schools have already been closed for winter vacations. The government will either discontinue this significantly important reform due to delay in the decision or will have to manage poor performance of government schools due to the lack of preparation of students. Private schools boycotted assessments in the past two years, however, still the government has not initiated a process to ensure their participation in these assessments/exams.

There are hundreds of schools with one teacher. These teachers are performing polio duties whereas the education departments did not make alternate arrangements for such schools for several weeks. While education has remained one of the top agendas of PTI Government, a serious effort is required from the government to ensure free and compulsory education to every child. By 2023, PTI will have governed KP for 10 continuous years. Education will no longer be a selling point without addressing the issue of the enrolment of Out of School Children.

The writer is a media and communications professional. He can be contacted at zia051@gmail.com or Twitter: zia051

Published in Daily Times, December 25^th 2018.