The District Education Performance Index Report released recently (Aug 23) by the Planning Commission has portrayed a sorry state of education affairs and an alarming situation of school education system in Pakistan.
According to the report, none of the 134 districts falls within the very high performance category, which merely features Islamabad. More than half of the districts that fall in the low performance category are in Balochistan (33) and in Sindh (22).
After the passage of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, administrative and financial powers have been devolved to the provinces. Each province has taken steps to improve the existing infrastructure and available facilities for enhancing the standard of education.
As far as education in Sindh province is concerned, the government has enacted a compulsory education law, increased budgetary allocation for school education, recruited thousands of school teachers in different grades, released substantial funds to school management committees, and distributed free textbooks. Despite all this, where does the fault lie?
In Sindh, on ground, the position is that out of 49,103 schools, employing 133,000 teachers, only 36,659 schools are functional. According to recent data, 5,159 schools are shelterless, 26,260 schools have no drinking water facility, 19,469 schools lack washroom facilities, 21,000 schools are without a boundary wall, and 31,000 schools are without electricity.
Likewise, on the administrative side, shortcomings are non-professional supervision, absentee teachers in large number, outdated teaching skills, political interference in the process of transfers and postings, and overall bad governance.
For moving up to the high performance category from the current low performance category, a lot of extra efforts are needed to address all the relevant issues through a multipronged approach.
This comprehensive strategy, once in place, must include plans to improve infrastructure, provide basic facilities, professional training to teachers that keep them updated with the latest teaching methodologies, regular performance evaluation, review of curriculum, efficient management in financial matters, timely supply of textbooks to all schools, especially those located in remote areas of the province, and an effective supervisory role of all officials posted at various tiers.
SHAMS JAFRANI
KARACHI
