ISLAMABAD: Political interferences, non-transparent recruitment and bureaucratic failure to keep pace with the emerging challenges have led to the poor quality of education in public schools and the mushroom growth of business-oriented private institutions in the federal capital.

This was stated in a 123-page report, “Islamabad capital territory education sector plan (ESP) 2014-18,” launched by the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) on Monday.

The report said the challenges to the public sector education delivery in Islamabad had grown faster than the capacity of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE).

The report was prepared by CADD in collaboration with the National Basic Education Policy Programme (NBEPP) and the German federal ministry for economic cooperation and development (BMZ).

It highlighted a number of problems and a way forward to improve the education standards in Islamabad. The report said despite a high net enrollment, efforts were still needed to achieve the goal of Universal Primary Education in Islamabad.

Report says non-transparent recruitment and bureaucratic failure to keep pace with emerging challenges also caused poor quality of education in public schools

The report said political challenges were common in the management of the education sector, including recruitment, deployment and promotions.

“It has direct bearing on the quality and management of the education sector. For instance, recruitment of teachers without following the merit results in poor quality of teaching. Similarly, transfers/postings under external influence created problems in Islamabad.” It said the hiring process of teachers was also not fully transparent.

“The situation is not different when it comes to the appointment on management positions. Past recruitments were subject to malpractice and prone to political influences.”

The report also highlighted ad hoc planning and said a systematic planning hardly existed in CADD and the FDE. “Most of the work is performed on a day-to-day basis.”

The report said student-teacher ratio (27/1) was ideal in Islamabad but there was an acute shortage of science teachers. Approximately, 80 per cent of all teachers belonged to the non-science subjects. “Even realising the acute shortage of science teachers, no mechanism has been identified to check such imbalances within the system.”

Talking about the monitoring system, the report said since the establishment of the FDE there had been no proper system for monitoring of educational institutions.

In 2002, area education officers were appointed on grade 19 with the supporting staff and budget. But so far this system has not been able to monitor the educational performance in an effective manner. “No mechanism or tools have been developed for gauging the performance of the institutions. There is also no system for accountability of the AEOs,” The scope of duties of AEOs included work unrelated to monitoring such as their engagement in census, polio campaigns and election duty. “Such an additional task coupled with the insufficient resource allocation limits the ability of the AEOs to conduct meaningful monitoring of schools.”

The FDE needs to review a number of functions to achieve greater efficiency as well as adjustment to new realities of education in Islamabad that have emerged over the last two decades.

It said dull narratives and illustrations in textbooks made them uninteresting for students. The language is often not compatible with the level of students, especially at the primary level.

“The concept is not well explained and often too many of them are crammed into a single book without providing the student a depth of understanding,” it said.

“We have highlighted several key issues which can be addressed without spending money. So there is a need to improve the education system,” said Dr Syed Tajammal Hussain Shah, one of the authors of the report. He said a proper planning and focus was required to improve things.

The ESP focuses on the provision of basic education to children in the age group of five to 16 years in Islamabad and proposes some interventions for the institutionalisation of early childhood education.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for CADD Barrister Usman Ibrahim lauded the German support for developing the ESP. He said the work had just begun and the ESP would lay the platform which was needed to plan and implement things strategically.

Secretary CADD Khalid Hanif stressed the need for imparting quality education to the students.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2015

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