Education law falling short of promise

By Manzoor Chandio
Published in UPI-Next Feb. 24, 2014 at 8:56 PM

Despite enactment of a law to guarantee free and compulsory schooling for Sindh's children, the state of education in Pakistan's second most populous province lags behind even militancy-plagued tribal areas in the country's northwest.
The Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act was adopted last March in light of Pakistan's constitutional guarantee that the state is to provide free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of 5 and 16.
The only provision of the new legislation that has been implemented is the distribution of free textbooks. Shakeel Memon, a spokesman for the Sindh Education Ministry, told UPI Next  5 million students across the province from the first through 10th grades have received free textbooks. Education in Sindh, however, continues to lag.
A 2012 survey in Sindh found 32 percent of the province's children age 6 to 16 were out of school, a higher rate than in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas where 25 percent of the children were out of school, even though the tribal areas are rife with militancy and Pakistan military operations.
The report said Sindh students' performance was worse than that of FATA students in native language performance, English and arithmetic. For example, 42 percent of FATA children performed well in arithmetic, while in Sindh only 27 percent of children performed well.
According to the most recent Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey conducted by Pakistan's Bureau of Statistics, in 2011 in Sindh's rural areas, 58 percent of boys were enrolled in school, while only 25 percent of girls had ever attended.
Mohammed Zaman village, with 25 houses, is in Sindh's Qambar-Shahdadkot district. In the 1970s, all the village's children, boys and girls, went to school. Today, none does.
"The teacher posted at the school is irregular and seldom attends the school," villager Mushtaq Ahmed told UPI Next.
"All the boys are being sent to another school, which is some 2 kilometers [1.2 miles] away from the village. The villagers are reluctant to send their girls to the school because they consider that it could be unsafe for them," Ahmed said.
Dur Mohammed Buriro, an education campaigner from the district, told UPI Next there is a long history of neglect of education in Sindh.
Starting in the 1980s, the regime of Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan’s president at the time, was focused on bolstering the teaching of Islam and set up the Sindh Islamic Mission. At the same time, the regime ignored the needs of public schools, leading to scores of them shutting down.
"With no government attention paid to school monitoring, schools began to shut down and no new schools were opened in response to [the] increasing population," Buriro said.
A 2010 World Bank presentation said there was a high level of gender and rural-urban disparity and that 5,500 schools had been closed. More than half of the children in Thatha district, a coastal district in southern Sindh, are out of school; for those who do go, the dropout rate is almost 62 percent, the 2012 survey found.
Pakistan spends 2 percent of its gross domestic product on education and ranks 146th of 187 countries on the U.N. Development Program's Education Attainment Index. The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child, a U.N.-accredited Pakistani organization, projects the number of children who are out of school will increase to 5.4 million by 2015.
Asghar Soomro, an education activist in rural Dadu district, told UPI Next there is a disconnect between legislative intent and government follow-through.
 "We've very beautiful laws on the paper. The problem is the lack of implementation, Soomro said.
"The main problems ailing the education system in rural areas could be the poor quality of teachers, unavailability of female teachers, financial mismanagement and irrelevant education.”
Sindh's education minister, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, said while thousands of schools remain shuttered in Sindh, the number has been exaggerated.
"Around 3,000 schools, not 5,500 schools, are closed in Sindh. If we count three teachers for each closed school, there could be 9,000 teachers getting salaries without attending the schools," he told UPI Next. He also noted a lack of resources.
"We've 27,957 schools without power. There could be one solution that we arrange solar energy for them. But we don't have resources. About 24,000 schools are without playgrounds and 20,000 are without water," he said.
Buriro said literacy will not improve unless there are local schools and those schools will not survive without the help of local communities.
"The first priority for the government should be raising … enrollment in schools. [If there are] no students in schools, then who will get the free and compulsory education?" he told UPI Next. 

Capitalising on improved education

By Manzoor Chandio
Published in Dawn on June 2, 2013

Sri Lanka’s literacy rate is 98 per cent, just one point behind that of Japan’s. But Sri Lanka is not as developed and prosperous as Japan because its school-based education does not provide for skills training and practical work.
Due to this it has failed to capitalise on its nearly universal education ratio while Japan is the third largest economy and the most prosperous and developed country in the world. A student who gets 15 years of education in Japan is more productive than one in a developing country.
Pakistan stresses achieving universal primary education literacy by 2015 under the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) set by the United Nations but that also seems to be impossible because of the government’s apathy towards the education sector. According to the State of Pakistan’s Children report of 2011, 25 million children in the country are still out of schools and the total literacy ratio is about 57pc (69.3pc male and 45pc female).
Mr Asghar Soomro of Social Policy and Development Centre says, “To get better results there should be a provision of quality education combined with skills training for all children. Schools and teachers at present lack the capacity to improve student learning. The goal should be to enhance teacher training and improve educational institutions. It will result in the empowerment of people and economic growth.”
Unesco calls for changing the traditional way of imparting education and linking it with social justice values like basic human needs, inter-generational equity, human rights and democracy.
“All persons and communities should be empowered to exercise responsibility for their own lives and for life on Earth. Thus, they must have full access to education, political enfranchisement and sustaining livelihoods; and they should be able to participate effectively in the decisions that most affects them,” says the world body.
The plan is to explore ways of providing a favourable environment to all children and the education they get should help them earn incomes and make contributions towards the betterment of their families, society and the country.
“With improved educational institutions, the society at large will witness a social cohesion, the first step towards achieving an economically-productive population,” says Mr Soomro.
Unesco’s Early Childhood Care and Education programmes could be a comprehensive guide for member countries. Children need special care about their “health, nutrition, security and learning from birth to eight years of age but poverty denies 25pc children these facilities and their parents are compelled to send them to work.
Pakistan, under the MDGs, pledges to enroll 100 per cent children by 2015. The main problem is to get children enrolled into schools. There are different figures. The government claims it enrolled 40pc children till 2012, “But ground realities such as child labour, militancy, number of children in juvenile prisons show a lack of qualitative education,” says Mr Abdullah Langah, provincial manager of the Child Rights and Civil Society Strengthening Programme of the Society for the Protection of the Rights of Child.
Reading and writing alone is not enough. Education combined with skills training is critical to reducing poverty and inequality because it improves incomes and increases economic growth. More than that education promotes gender equity, empowers women, reduces child mortality, improves maternal health and combats threatening diseases.
Unesco believes, “Each additional year of schooling raises the average annual gross domestic product growth by 0.37pc.”
Mr Langah says the main cause of this country’s underdevelopment is a lack of sufficiently effective education system. “Merely achieving 100pc education literacy is not the big thing but providing substantive education is necessary to achieve the goal of development,” he says.
Pakistan’s education system is marred by multi-pronged complications with abject poverty as the main reason for its failure. There is a need for supporting the children’s parents living in poverty. Parents should be made aware of the benefits of education by their children. “This means the government will have to look into the reasons why children are involved in laborious jobs at an age when they should be at school,” says Mr Langah.
There could be various action plans by Unesco and the Unicef to improve children’s welfare and health but what’s gaining importance across the world is about linking education to values like interdependence and biodiversity.
“People are a part of the natural systems. They depend utterly on them. Thus, natural systems should be respected at all times. This means to approach nature with humility, care and compassion; to be frugal and efficient in resource use; to be guided by the best available knowledge, both traditional and scientific; and to help shape and support public policies that promote sustainability,” says Unesco.
Often there is talk about the lack of budget and corruption in allocated funds. But much more can be done without funds. There are certain steps which require zero budget like setting up of debating, literary and art societies in schools.
The government only attaches importance to education but no country can make progress without a knowledge stream. Education is the knowledge of putting one’s potential to maximum use.
Schools, especially those in the public sector, stress pedagogic principles while ignoring the didactic approach for the optimum use of the prodigy students’ potential.
The capacity enhancing of teachers needs a lot of budget but setting up of debating clubs and science societies requires no budget.
Encouraging the young generation towards co curricular and sport activities will keep them away from all types of evils. Promoting such activities will provide a healthy atmosphere while maintaining a clean society. Such activities will help reduce crime and maintain children’s focus on learning. Developing a system of education combined with values and training could address the needs of the country.
In any case, the education model of developed nations like that of Japan is not recommended because of a lack of sustainability. The USA, China and Japan, the world’s largest economies, respectively, have achieved industrial growth but at the cost of ailing the entire world. Their prosperity has proved hazardous for other nations. Therefore, the underlying need is for linking education with a sustainable future.

The writer is a member of staff.

Who’ll enforce the education law?

By Manzoor Chandio
Published in Dawn on March 3, 2013

We’re adept at making laws, but there is no mechanism for their implementation. Therefore the Sindh Provincial Bill (Article 25-A) Right to Free and Compulsory Education is another addition to a plethora of laws that have remained unimplemented in Pakistan.
Many questions are being raised about the implementation of the new education law. There are several reasons for this. The laws adopted in the past have remained inoperative, giving no results. Education in Sindh has gone from bad to worse since the promulgation of the Sindh Compulsory Primary Education Ordinance of 2001. So what difference will the new legislation make?
There is no denying the fact that free and compulsory education should be a privilege for all children irrespective of their class and gender.
Though an education advisory council, comprising nine educationists, has been proposed to implement the act, past experiences show all such panels have proved indifferent.
There would have been much improvement even if the 2001 ordinance, which now stands repealed, had been implemented in letter and spirit. The same is the case with employment of children’s acts of 1991 and 2001 and the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act of 1992. Today there are millions of children out of school and doing labourious jobs. Occasionally, children and their parents are found working as bonded labour. Many more children are working in insecure environments and subjected to torture.
Before Sindh, the National Assembly had passed a free and compulsory law for the Islamabad capital territory. Under the federal law, parents who would refuse to send their children to school would be penalised. The punishment may include a Rs25,000 fine and three-month imprisonment. Those guilty of making children do labourious work would be fined Rs50,000. Additionally, they would undergo six months’ imprisonment.
Education for children across the country is a basic human right. But access to free and compulsory education in rural areas is still a long way to go, especially for girl students.
The government has made laws for Sindh and the federal capital, but enforcing these laws is the need of the hour. In India, a bill for free and compulsory education was passed for the entire country in 2009.
The National and Sindh assemblies passed the bills unanimously to ensure free and compulsory education to all children of ages five to 16 years. In Sindh, private schools would be bound to reserve 10 per cent admissions for disadvantaged and terrorism-affected children. The criterion of disadvantaged children is those children whose  parents earn less than Rs8,000. There are fines for the private school owners if they violate the law and charge fees from the disadvantaged children. Such owners may be fined between Rs50,000 to Rs100,000 for violating the law. They could face imprisonment ranging from one to three months. There are even fines for parents who would refuse education for their children.
The fact is that most of the parents now have realised the benefits of education and allow their daughters to get education along with the boys in the classrooms. Being taught by male teachers is also not an issue anymore. But there are still some families out there which are not comfortable with that idea.
The main constraint for girls’ education is that schools are not in close proximity to their homes. The parents of girls often stop their education at class five because the girls are not allowed to travel to other towns or cities due to security reasons. Despite the fact people in rural areas have realised the importance and benefits of education for girls. Still education is a privilege that is reserved for boys. Most of the village girls get primary or deeni (religious) education.
The boys can manage to travel in buses to go to places several kilometres away but it is unsafe for girls to travel in local buses for further education. Schools within reach of each child are necessary to increase the literacy rate. Empowering women is the focus of many feminist groups and most of them agree that education can pave the way for their emancipation.
“The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to 16 years in such a manner as may be determined by law,” says the Constitution of Pakistan.
Under the bill, provision of free and compulsory education to all children of age five to 16 years is the state’s responsibility.
Now there is a need for a proper mechanism for the implementation of this law and the availability of schools that are within the reach of each child. There must be separate officials responsible for enforcing this free and compulsory education law. If the government can’t provide schools in all areas, then it must provide transport to take the children to nearby schools. There must be officials who regularly visit the schools and check the attendance of teachers and students as well. There can also be consultation with the community and parents about teachers’ postings. Though some laws offer incentives like scholarships there could be provision of giving cash and one-time meals to children, like in India, in order to increase classroom enrolment. More than that there is a need to make  such laws workable and result-oriented.

The writer is a member of staff.

manzoor.chandio@dawn.com

Education Needing a new approach

By Manzoor Chandio
Written on Sept 17, 2006
WHETHER or not the Sindh government will be able to quell the teachers’ protest with regard to the ban on teachers’ unions remains to be seen but one can certainly foresee that the future of education in this country is rather bleak.
It is egregious that teachers have taken to the streets to protest against the government’s arbitrary decision of banning associations.
The question is, does the ban really serve as a driving force for recovery of the province’s dismal education system?
The government’s premise that education in the province has deteriorated because of unions seems ad nauseam.
A closer look at the situation provides insight that banning teachers’ association is a problem far too complex for the government.
It has failed to overhaul structural flaws in the education system itself.
Teachers’ associations are accusing the authorities of the closure of about 7,000 primary, lower-secondary and secondary schools in Sindh.
These schools are being used as autaks (guest houses) and warehouses of feudal lords in the area.
About 3,000 schools in the province are without buildings and more than 15,000 schools are without power, water, furniture and better learning materials in classrooms.
The province faces a shortage of 10,000 primary and secondary teachers while 2,000 posts of lecturers are lying vacant. We must not forget that children from the disadvantaged segments of society study in government-run schools.
It would have been better if the government had taken efforts to reopen closed schools and adopted measures aimed at improving teachers’ salaries and skills.
The best way for the Sindh government to deal with the situation would have been addressing the interests of teachers instead of brining them at loggerheads.
Against this background, it is now obvious that the government-teacher antipathy has created a problem rather than providing solutions to the underlying issues that afflict the education system in Sindh.
The teachers have now become more politicised and government’s failure to depoliticise them seems esoteric at best.
The unions have started showing their mettle and the protest movement is rapidly gaining momentum, thus paralysing already fragile education system.When they gathered outside the chief minister’s house to as a sign of their protest, the government used force against them, baton-charging and tear-gassing them, and this was condemned by people from all walks of life.
There should have been a ban on strikes and not on associations, since other professional organisations like doctors’ medical associations and lawyers’ bar councils are functioning in the province.
The ban has deprived the academic community of their right to collectively bargain. They remain steadfast in their determination to continue protesting till the government rescinds the ban and the Removal from Service (Special Powers) Ordinance.
Undoubtedly, the unions have not achieved anything significant and for that reason, Sindh finds itself in a most awkward predicament.
The province lags far behind in education as compared to other provinces of the country — Punjab churns out most of the civil and military bureaucrats.It is regrettable that in a province where the government-run education system has already gone haywire and is teetering on the verge of collapse, teachers-government relations have reached a standoff with academicians threatening to go on an indefinite strike.
The impasse has triggered the debate whether or not banning associations was the only way to reform education.
The Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA) appealed to the Sindh High Court, challenging the ban. The case is now sub-judice. The SPLA said that the Removal from Service (Special Powers) Ordinance was promulgated in violation of the Constitution and basic human rights. Political parties and human rights organisations have termed the ban illegal.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) calls for an end to all restrictions on unions, including those of students.
The perpetuation of teachers’ protest contributes to the stifling environment and is causing increased frustration among students. The government continues punitive action against office-bearers of unions and several of them have been sent on forced leave accusing them of indulging in subversive activities.
A major fear now is that parents will lose their faith in educating their children. Already there are millions of children out of schools due to abject poverty. Many parents do not send their children to schools as they are helping them to make ends meet.
Education for the downtrodden needs a major impetus for tackling poverty and for narrowing social and economic gaps. The protesting teachers belong to government-run schools and colleges and the action has affected almost the all academic activities in the province.
This has virtually paralysed the education system in interior Sindh where there are few private schools and colleges.
Parents in urban areas have choices and will somehow manage to admit their children to private schools.
The government has never offered incentives to the private sector to open new schools in rural areas and the latter has no interest in the poverty-stricken rural Sindh. The ban serves no real purpose other than causing anarchy in the Sindh’s education system where the government has taken some stopgap measures in the name of implementing reform programmes.
Few realise that teachers alone can not be held responsible for the deterioration of education in Sindh. Bureaucrats are the real culprits behind pushing the province back to the Dark Ages.
Nationalists say education in Sindh is being destroyed through a conspiracy of sorts. They quote the policy of well-educated Germans who closed down all education institutes beyond class four during their rule in former Soviet Union —according to recent declassified papers, Hitler wanted Russians to be illiterate to perpetuate German rule over them.
Nationalists say there are certain forces who want rural population of Sindh to be “rustic” so that people from urban areas could prolong their rule over Sindh. It is a well-known fact that the bureaucracy in this country has no desire or inclination to solve problems.If the government has trained teachers and systematised what it calls “reforms” under an expert-led initiative, it might have got better results.
The ban will not only discourage teachers from producing results but will also cause the education system of Sindh to collapse.If the government genuinely wanted to reform education, then there should be reforms with no sacred cows. Changes should be made in the mechanisms that have proved obsolete and are not serving the purpose.
In this regard, a Japanese saying comes to mind: “The only way to repair a shaky building is to tear it down and build a new one from scratch.”
There is no other way today for the government to invite teachers for a dialogue. The question the government is now faced with is this: can it afford teachers’ protest when it already faces many other impending political problems?
Pushing teachers against the wall will only make things worse and that will make it difficult to come out of the education anarchy.

manzoorchandio@hotmail.com