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Pakistan: Reforming the Education Sector

Asia Report N°847 Oct 2004
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Pakistan's deteriorating education system has radicalised many young people while failing to equip them with the skills necessary for a modern economy. The public, government-run schools, which educate the vast majority of children poorly rather than the madrasas (religious seminaries) or the elite private schools are where significant reforms and an increase in resources are most needed to reverse the influence of jihadi groups, reduce risks of internal conflict and diminish the widening fissures in Pakistani society. Both the government and donors urgently need to need give this greater priority.

Recent attempts at reform have made little headway, and spending as a share of national output has fallen in the past five years. Pakistan is now one of just twelve countries that spend less than 2 per cent of GDP on education. Moreover, an inflexible curriculum and political interference have created schools that have barely lifted very low literacy rates.

In January 2002, President Pervez Musharraf's government presented its Education Sector Reform (ESR) plan, aimed at modernising the education system. A major objective was to develop a more secular system in order to offset mounting international scrutiny and pressure to curb religious extremism in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks. But Pakistani governments, particularly those controlled by the military, have a long history of failing to follow through on announced reforms.

The state is falling significantly short of its constitutional obligation to provide universal primary education. And while the demand for education remains high, poorer families will only send their children to a school system that is relevant to their everyday lives and economic necessities. The failure of the public school system to deliver such education is contributing to the madrasa boom as it is to school dropout rates, child labour, delinquency and crime.

In the absence of state support, powerful Islamist groups are undermining the reform initiatives of civil society to create a sustainable, equitable and modernised public education system that educates girls as well as boys. Despite its stated commitments, the Musharraf government appears unwilling to confront a religious lobby that is determined to prevent public education from adopting a more secular outlook. Public school students are confined to an outdated syllabus and are unable to compete in an increasingly competitive job market against the products of elite private schools that teach in English, follow a different curriculum and have a fee structure that is unaffordable to most families.

Political appointments in the education sector, a major source of state employment, further damage public education. Many educators, once ensconced as full time civil servants, rise through the system despite having little if any interest and experience in teaching. The widespread phenomenon of non-functional, even non-existent "ghost" schools and teachers that exist only on paper but eat into a limited budget is an indication of the level of corruption in this sector. Provincial education departments have insufficient resources and personnel to monitor effectively and clamp down on rampant bribery and manipulation at the local level. Reforms such as the Devolution of Power Plan have done little to decentralise authority over the public education sector. Instead, it has created greater confusion and overlap of roles, so that district education officials are unable to perform even the nominal functions delegated to them.

The centre still determines the public school system's educational content, requiring instructors and students alike to operate under rigid direction. As a result, the syllabus cannot be adapted to combine national academic guidelines with a reflection of the different needs of Pakistan's diverse ethnic, social and economic groups. Worse, the state distorts the educational content of the public school curriculum, encouraging intolerance along regional, ethnic and sectarian lines, to advance its own domestic and external agendas.

The public school system's deteriorating infrastructure, falling educational standards and distorted educational content impact mostly, if not entirely, on Pakistan's poor, thus widening linguistic, social and economic divisions between the privileged and underprivileged and increasing ethnic and religious alienation that has led to violent protests. Far from curtailing extremism, the public school system risks provoking an upsurge of violence if its problems are not quickly and comprehensively addressed.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To the Government of Pakistan:

1. Demonstrate a commitment to improving the public school system by:

a) raising public expenditure on education to at least 4 per cent of GDP, as recommended by UNESCO, with particular emphasis on upgrading public school infrastructure, including water, electricity and other facilities, buildings and boundary walls; and

b) raising public expenditure on social sector development to make public schools more accessible to teachers and students, especially in rural areas and urban slums.

2. Take immediate political, police and legal action against extremist organisations and others seeking to prevent or disrupt development, social mobilisation and education reform initiatives, especially related to girls and women.

3. Suspend any initiatives to coordinate the madrasa curriculum with the public school curriculum until the Curriculum Wing completes a comprehensive review and reform of the national syllabus, and ensure that the Curriculum Wing:

a) identifies and deletes historical inaccuracies and any material encouraging religious hatred or sectarian or ethnic bias in the national curriculum; and

b) limits Islamic references to courses linked to the study of Islam, so as to respect the religious rights of non-Muslim students.

4. Decentralise decisions on educational content, and allow material not currently addressed in the national curriculum by:

a) abolishing the National Syllabus and Provincial Textbook Boards that have monopolies over textbook production;

b) requiring each provincial education ministry to advertise competitive contracts and call for draft submissions for public school textbooks, pursuant to general guidelines from the Curriculum Wing;

c) forming committees in each province, comprised of provincial education ministers, secretaries and established academics, to review submissions based on the recommended guidelines, and to award contracts to three selected private producers; and

d) empowering all public schools to choose between the three textbooks selected for their province.

5. Improve the monitoring capacity of provincial education departments by:

a) increasing education department staff at the provincial level;

b) providing adequate transport for provincial education staff required to monitor and report on remote districts; and

c) linking funding to education performance indicators, including enrolment rates, pass rates, and student and teacher attendance levels.

6. Take steps to devolve authority over education to the district level by:

a) directing public schools to establish Boards of Governors, elected by parents and teachers and with representation from directly elected district government officials, teachers, parents, and the community; and

b) giving these Boards greater power to hire and fire public school teachers and administrators on performance standards and to recommend infrastructure development projects.

7. Hire public school teachers and administrators on short-term, institution-specific contracts that are renewable based on performance, to be reviewed annually by the Board of Governors, rather than as tenured civil servants.

8. Facilitate and encourage formation of active parent-teacher associations (PTAs) by providing technical and financial support for their activities, conducting public meetings highlighting the importance of parent involvement in education, and scheduling regular PTA meetings and activities both within schools and between PTAs of multiple district schools.

9. Give school heads flexibility to run their schools, including to adjust schedules to accommodate working children and to encourage teachers both to use educational material that supplements the curriculum and to organise field trips that better acquaint students with the social dynamics and everyday necessities of their districts.

10. Facilitate access to public schools by:

a) ensuring that any new public schools, especially girls schools, are established close to communities, especially in less developed rural areas; and

b) providing transport to students and teachers commuting from remote areas of the district.

11. Ensure there are enough middle schools to accommodate outgoing primary school students.

12. Follow through on the language policy announced in December 2003 that makes English compulsory from Class 1 by providing all schools with adequate English-language teaching materials and English-trained teachers.

To Donors:

13. Condition aid on the Pakistan government on meeting benchmarks for increased expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP, and monitor the use of government funds in the education sector.

14. Urge the government to redress factual inaccuracies and intolerant views in the national curriculum.

15. Conclude Memorandums of Understanding with the government that no teacher trained under specific donor-funded programs will be transferred for at least three years.

16. Provide low-priced, quality English texts and technical and financial support to local producers of such texts and other materials that give public school students broader exposure to the language.

17. Form flexible partnerships with locally funded organisations that employ effective, tested models, such as The Citizens' Foundations.

Islamabad/Brussels, 7 October 2004