KARACHI, March 4: More than 5.5 million children are out of school while among those who are enrolled 45 per cent drop out which underlines the need that the country should follow the suit of Malaysia and increase the funds for education from two per cent of the Gross Domestic Product to almost six per cent.
This was suggested by the Director of Research Gulf University for Sciences and Technology, Kuwiat, Professor (Dr) Anjum Siddiqui in his lecture on Saturday evening at the Applied Economics Research Centre, the University of Karachi. The lecture was one of the first conducted under the Ehsan Rashid Memorial Lectures.
Dr Anjum Siddiqui said the poor quality of education as well as lackadaisical government policies (lack of funds and feeble structure of the government machinery) were some of the factors that added to the misery of the already pathetic education system.
According to the Clause 38d of the Constitution of Pakistan, the state was responsible for the provision of basic necessities of life such as food, clothing, housing and education to its people, whereas according to Article 37b the state vowed to eradicate illiteracy and provide free and compulsory secondary education within minimum possible period. However, he said since the inception of the country, none of the governments could fulfil the constitutional requirement.
He referred to the Millennium Development Goals under which the aim to ensure primary education to children by 2015 was stated, however, he said the circumstances painted an altogether different picture.
Dr Siddiqui said the National Education Policy (1998-2010) chalked out by the government revealed that 5.5 million children of five to nine years age group had no access to primary education.
He mentioned that the drop-out rate of those lucky enough to be enrolled was 45 per cent. The reason he stated for this was teacher absenteeism, untrained teachers, inadequate and poor learning materials and obsolete teaching methods.
He said there were more people serving in armed forces than the number of teachers working in the country. There were almost 2.3 per cent of teachers available per school. He said the education policy made in 1992 stated that the number of teachers per school would be increased from 2.3 to five per cent.
Dr Anjum Siddiqui said though the public-private partnership was not a bad initiative it was not going on the right track. He elaborated that one could not expect from the private sector to establish or adopt government schools in the rural areas of the country and secondly an ordinary man who lives below the poverty line would hardly be able to afford such schools. Even if that policy was taken into consideration only 70 schools had been adopted by the private sector, though the target aimed was that of 610, he remarked.
He stressed the need to improve and rehabilitate the current education system in order to ensure a better future for the country.
At the end of the programme, mementos were given to the distinguished guests by Professor Shahida Wazarat and other senior faculty members.
