May 24, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 18, 1429

ISLAMABAD, May 23: Speakers at a consultation on draft education policy here on Friday called for a need-based assessment for each province without which education was to remain an exercise in futility.

The National Consultation on Education Policy (NCEP) was organised by the Pakistan Coalition for Education (PCE), a network of diverse civil society organisations and individuals committed to quality education for all.

It was a sequel to consultations on the matter to decentralise education policy-making so that provinces could set their own priorities according to their objective social conditions.

The objective of the consultations is to influence policies and practices through research-based advocacy and recommendations.

After a day-long discussion on all the 10 chapters of the education policy released by the Ministry of Education for recommendations from different stakeholders, the participants recommended to set up a permanent mechanism and time frame for implementation of education policies instead of making new policies whenever a new government took over.

They called for making the education policy an open document available to stakeholders in both Urdu and English languages, discussing it in parliament, allowing provinces to make plans according to local conditions, reviewing teachers training programmes which have remained unchanged for last 15 years.

The participants also criticised increased expenditure on higher education which was many times more than what was being spent on primary and college education. They demanded equitable financing for education at all levels from early to higher education.

They also expressed concern over the existing difference between salaries of teachers teaching at different levels. The teachers of varsities were getting 30 to 35 per cent more than primary school teachers. The gap between the salary scales was unjust and there was a need to address this problem since every level of education was important.

Dr Pervaiz Hoodbhoy, an eminent educationist and peace activist, highlighted the need for setting criteria for the scholars being sent abroad since the test being given was not enough to evaluate students, he said adding new mechanism was needed for selecting students with care so that they could achieve standards that were expected of them.

The provincial and regional representatives including those from Fata identified the problem of their particular areas.

Ali Naqvi, Institutional Adviser, Institute for Development Studies and Practices, said, allocation of budget on the basis of population was grossly insufficient and there was a need for increasing the education budget for Balochistan.

There were only 800 middle schools in the province and 1,200 more were needed for which increasing the budget was essential. The province needed more teachers as 600 primary schools had only one teacher each.

Abrash Pasha, the representative from NWFP raised the issue of security as schools were being targeted; in particular, the girls’ schools because of which the drop out rate had greatly increased. He said girls primary schools must have female teachers to pacify the extremists.

Amna Khan, representative from Punjab wanted enhancing the capacity of executive district officers (EDOs) and stressed the need for transparency of funds.

Ameema Saeed, representative from Sindh highlighted the issue of political interference in education which made it difficult to run the system efficiently. She suggested stopping the interference by politicians and local influentials. She criticised the frequent changes in academic years and also called for mandatory standards for the unscheduled holidays other than weekly-off and national holidays.