A few years back, when Imran Khan and PTI’s struggle was in full swing for the federal government, they utilised every avenue to sell education as their top priority.
They called it a “mega project” against the infrastructural projects of the PML-N government. Several media campaigns were run to promote education reforms in KP, and a major chunk of KP budget was spent on television commercials and newspapers. Tall claims were made including migration of 151,000 children from private to government schools; 100 per cent increase in the education budget; recruitment of female teachers in primary schools to replace male teachers; making education free and compulsory for every child of the province; lowering out-of-school children from 2.6 million to zero and making Quranic education (Nazira) compulsory in schools.
Many of these initiatives were supposed to be implemented and continued in the next term of PTI government, which started in July 2018. However, all these initiatives have now become a part of history. Moreover, the PTI leadership, on many occasions, expressed its resolve to end out-of-school children but the numbers were found to have increased instead of decreasing. In the dismal situation of education reforms, the KP government was able to spend only 40 per cent of the education budget (development) by June 2019. The province has demonstrated its weak capacity and lack of seriousness in spending the education budget due to delayed processing of payments by the Finance Department. Meanwhile, 65 per cent of the budget remained unspent due to fraud cases in Elementary & Secondary Education Foundation (ESEF), where MD was fired on corruption charges. Moreover, the department could not spend the budget to hire 55,000 teachers.
2018-19 can be termed as one of the worst years for education reforms
In 2018, PTI took control in the centre, KP and Punjab, and appointed education advisors and ministers. However, its focus shifted from education to economy and Prime Minister Imran Khan’s priorities also changed.
2018-19 can be termed as one of the worst years for education reforms since the department failed to implement a single reform in its first year. For instance, no survey was conducted on the migration of students from private to government schools this year. Neither Nazira teachers were recruited for primary schools nor any missing facilities were provided to the schools where gaps were identified in 2018. The government did not appoint a full-time Education Secretary. No education minister was appointed in the first 10 months. KP Education Advisor (recently promoted to the minister status) Zia Ullah Bangash has been actively visiting schools to meet teachers and principals. However, the outcome of his visits is neither known nor justifiable in the view of key priorities of education reforms.
KP Government has been doing experiments with the annual exams of students. It conducted a number of assessments at Grade Five level. However, the results of assessments and findings were never consulted nor any attention was given to the recommendations.
This year, the department has decided to conduct Grade Eight assessments. However, neither schools nor students are informed about the upcoming assessments, early next year. This would leave students with only four to five months to prepare for assessments when they return to schools in late August or early September, after summer vacations. Like the past assessments, the results of the assessments would be poor because of ill-planning though the government would spend millions on conducting these assessments.
In the past, Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed his resolve to make education accessible and affordable to each child of Pakistan. However, today, Pakistan has nearly 25 million out-of-school children. The current government, like past governments, has remained silent over this major issue. The enrolment campaigns were launched in provinces. However, hardly any effort was made to ensure the enrolment of children engaged in child labour or bonded labour. The education departments did not involve any other department for a consolidated campaign to target every child. Rather, a minor budget of Rs 300/school was allocated, which hardly made any impact on achieving enrolment targets at the school level.
The government needs to make education its high priority. It should have a roadmap for major education reforms, which include making education compulsory, free and accessible to ensure the enrolment of 25 million children, who would define the future of Pakistan, either way.
The writer is a public policy commentator and communications professional