A Case on Education Sector Initiatives in Pakistan by Sumble Butt

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)