A Case on Education Sector Initiatives
in Pakistan
By
Sumble N Butt
Decades ago a man started
his journey from a small town of India, Ludhiana where he set up a spinning
loom of cotton yarn. In 1947 he migrated to Pakistan with his 4 sons & 1
daughter and settled in Lahore with the dream to educate his own children and
those in his neighborhood and take forward the family business. Soon he
recognized the gulf that existed in the provision of education opportunities
between the privileged and under privileged.
Today his eldest daughter
runs a charity school for the lower secondary classes at her residence in the vacant
rooms of her house. The total number of children in her school is 150 with a
higher percentage of female enrollment. She says, “though in a small way but I
am contributing to my father’s dream”.
As of 2013 the total
population of Lahore city is close to (11.4 million) while the public sector
expenditure on Education is Pakistan is as low as 2.1% of GDP in comparison to
3.3% of India and 5.2% of Iran which paints a gloomy picture as Pakistan’s
public spending on education remains amongst the lowest in these rankings.
According
to (PSLM) Survey 2008-09, currently, the overall literacy rate (age 10 years
and beyond) is 57% (69% in case of males and 45% for female). The data shows
that literacy remains higher in urban areas (74%) than in rural areas (48%),
and is more prevalent for men (69%) as compared to women (45%).
This
lag in spending on education sector can somewhat be dealt with the contributions
made by the Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs). NGOs can play a very vital
role in providing outreach to the marginalized segments of society. They can
compliment the efforts of the Government and can monitor the projects while the
government implements the same or vice versa.
Unfortunately,
there has been a trust deficit between government and NGOs both working in
watertight compartments. The efforts are made in isolation rather than
coordinated and orchestrated endeavors to deal with the menace of illiteracy.
Even in the countries like Bangladesh, NGOs are playing leading role and making
a major contribution in eradication of illiteracy. In view of the magnitude of
the challenge in terms of number of illiterates in Punjab (a large province),
which is always on the rise due to high population growth, it is high time that
all the stakeholders including NGOs join hands and make all out and
orchestrated efforts to root out illiteracy from the province. There are many
NGOs working both at provincial level as well as the District levels.
The
need of the hour is that a transparent mechanism to engage the credible NGOs
must be developed along with a system of their training and capacity building
so that they may become valuable asset for the country and spearhead the drive
to combat the plague of illiteracy.
CARE is one NGO that
makes advantage of public-private partnerships and minimizes duplicate spending
on building huge infrastructure. It acquires public buildings, which are
refurbished and the facilities are brought up to CARE standards. Care Foundation
currently teaches 160,000 students in 227 schools nationwide.
The
Citizen’s Foundation
also contributes to the education of underprivileged in Pakistan. As of 2013, TCF has established 910 purpose-built school units
nationwide with an enrollment of 126,000 students. TCF encourages female
enrollment and strives to maintain a 50% female ratio in most of its campuses.
Door of Awareness is another NGO
which provides for educating the under privileged students of age 5 to 12 in
provision of lower secondary education. The cost of sponsoring an entire school
is $700, which includes the salary of 2 primary school teachers, provides for
stationery and book of 80 students in two classes. Other key NGOs working in
the education sector include; PACADE, SUDHAAR etc.
While
all these NGOs are doing a great job in educating the underprivileged, there is
no standardization of syllabi which all of them use. This could lead to
differences in caliber and exposure of students graduating from these schools.
While recognizing the efforts made by some
of these NGOs is commendable I still hold that some of them waste a lot of
funds raised through charities and donors on erecting huge infrastructure and
great looking buildings which does little good for the under privileged and
gives unnecessary stretch to these foundations.
The goal should be to form a model that
provides maximum benefit to beneficiaries and makes use of public–private
partnerships.
These non-government organizations have its
reach to donors within the country as well as abroad and seek volunteers and
philanthropists to contribute in small and big ways by sponsoring per child to
per class and per school expenses. At an Annual school awards function
organized by Door of Awareness in Alhamra Arts Council, it was a delight to see
the children of lower income strata’s of the society perform in different
parodies and dramatic performances.
While
several noteworthy government officials and renowned businessmen and
philanthropists contribute largely to these NGOs, schools and foundations the
menace of illiteracy is ever growing in the country. The reasons for this are
first of all the increasing population of the country, which is expected to
reach 380 million by year 2030 and secondly and more importantly the country’s
religious beliefs, which are still confused when it comes to birth control and
desire for male child over female. Every year thousand of families migrate from
small towns to bigger cities in order to find living and find employment in the informal
sectors of the society as domestic help and employ their young children to odd
jobs.
In
response to a question during discussion with lady Parveen (a domestic help) in Lahore she says,
“I do not really care if my seven grand children get educated or not. At home
they are at least able to do little chores and earn for their families. While
at school half of their day is wasted and no income comes home”.
This
is how grave the state of illiteracy is in the country. It truly is an
intricately woven web of issues each of, which have to be addressed
simultaneously to battle the illiteracy.
Preliminary
Resource list.
1. Economic Survey
2. PSLM household surveys
3. Domestic Help (Naseem family of 8)
4. Door of Awareness’s Principal (Ms. Ruba Ali)
5. Care Foundation, CARE
6. The Citizen Foundation, TCF (www.tcf.org.pk)
7. Actors/ Observers
8. Articles from Dawn (www.dawn.com)
