April 22, 2007

The chances for development are bleak if there is no universal primary education in Pakistan, writes
Moniza Inam.

“The state shall remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory secondary education within minimum possible period…” [Constitution of Pakistan, article 37 (b) and (c])

Not a day passes without a statement by the government functionaries claiming that Pakistan’s education system is making great advancement and we, as a nation, are close to achieving the literacy target by 2015. However, the Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report 2006, which was released by Unesco recently, has rejected these claims. According to the report, “Pakistan and India are at a serious risk of not achieving the adult literacy target by 2015 because their literacy rates are very low and increasing too slowly.”

This report should serve as an eye opener for all the concerned people in the education ministry. However, when we analyse the factors that have played an important role in crippling the education system, the most vital is the lack of universal primary education in the country. It is the basic mainstay of the extended instructive system and if it is flawed or skewed the whole structure would be out of equilibrium.

The importance of primary education has been recognised by international and national agencies and scholars. Investment in the early education benefits the individual, society and the world at large and it is among the most effective apparatus known to reduce poverty and inequity.

It is beneficial for personal well being and, at the same time, strengthens the nation’s economic health by laying the groundwork for persistent economic growth. It could be rightly called the key to creating, applying and spreading erudition and leads to the development of dynamic and internationally vigorous economies. Primary education is indispensable for the formation of egalitarian societies.

Development experts have proved, by examples and research studies, that basic education is essential for both financial and societal progress. For instance, school completion has long been identified as an imperative determinant of wages, with private and social rates of return greater than other investment opportunities. In underdeveloped states, the social rate of return to education has been estimated to be about seven per cent for primary schooling and 16 per cent for secondary schooling, with private rates of return even higher.

According to a World Bank report, “early education is beneficial to the individual in many ways.” It greatly benefits personal well being and increases production and earnings. It has been proved by researchers that every year of schooling increases individual wages for both genders by 10 per cent globally.

In the under developed countries, the gains are even better. It reduces inequality as education is a great leveller. Primary education plays a catalytic role for the most vulnerable sections including girls, ethnic minorities, orphans, disabled people and rural families. In short, education can be the powerful wave that elevates all boats, it adds.

An educated and skilled workforce is one of the pillars of knowledge-based economy as it contributes to improved productivity which, in theory, would lead to higher income and improved economic performance. Countries with higher primary schooling and a smaller gender gap tend to enjoy greater democracy.

As maintained by Amartya Sen, “basic education can be very important in helping people to get jobs and gainful employment. This economic connection is particularly critical in a rapidly globalising world.”

The story of primary education in Pakistan is a tale of consistent failures. Perhaps our policy makers are not aware of the fact that education is not an end in itself, it works as a catalyst to bring changes in knowledge, values, behaviour and lifestyles that are crucial for achieving sustainability and stability.

Although plans have been made and targets set, the outcome is pathetic to say the least. These heart-breaking figures can put across the point more effectively. Still, 53 million of the world’s illiterates are found in Pakistan. The overall literacy rate stands at 51.6 per cent, 63.7 per cent for males and 39.2 per cent for females. Islamabad ranks second with the highest number of out-of-school children. Ten million children of primary school-going age are not enrolled and more than 50 per cent enrolled in schools drop out before they reach fifth grade.

According to Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Assistant Executive Director, SDPI: “Universal primary education is the basic foundation of any nation. Unfortunately, South Asia is the most illiterate region in the world and is home to half of the illiterate population in the world. In the expanse, more children are out of school than the rest of the world. Within South Asia we are one of the poor performers on the literacy front.” Going by government statistics, one may see an apparent improvement in the literacy rate. However, experts have articulated concerns on achieving mere quantitative targets. Numerical objectives will not mean anything till they are accompanied with quality. In our case, we are lagging behind, both on quantity as well as quality fronts, he adds.

Discussing the correlation between education and fanaticism, Dr A.H. Nayyar, a scientist and educational researcher, says: “It is not easy to establish a causal relationship between universal primary education and religious intolerance.”

The phenomenon of Talibanisation is very complex, brought into being by several factors. One of the factors, as in the case of Afghanistan and Pakistan, is the absence of universal education. It is not certain if this factor can be even regarded as an important or a crucial one. Indeed if education is provided to all citizens, then there will be few people frustrated on account of having grown without having any marketable skills. Hence, they are easily attracted to nihilistic and fascistic ideologies and political action, he adds.

Elaborating further, Dr Nayyar says, “However, on the other hand, if they are educated with a curriculum that teaches them hate, extremism and militancy, as is happening in Pakistan, they will also be easily attracted to fascistic ideology and politics.”

How important the issue of universal education in Pakistan is gauged by a report prepared by the US State Department in 2004 titled “Education reforms in Pakistan”. It mentions that “education is absolutely crucial to Pakistan’s development as a moderate and democratic state” and called upon Islamabad to strengthen and modernise its existing public schooling structure.

The government isn’t entirely oblivious and is making intensive efforts to surmount problems. According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2005-6, “It has taken several policy and programme initiatives to achieve the international goals.” The underlying factors between all these objectives are universal access to primary education by increasing the net enrolment and higher rate of survival till class five, and an increase in the adult literacy rate and to attain gender equality at all levels, it adds.

According to a government spokesman, the “attainment of universal primary education is a persuasive state priority.” There are two main indicators that show the changes in the primary schooling: Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) and Net Enrolment Rate (NER). There has been an increase of 14 percentage points during the last four years in both segments, which clearly shows the hard work and commitment of the present regime, he adds.

Another very important factor that has plagued this sector is the low budgetary allocation. According to the World Bank, Islamabad expenditure on public sector education is only 2.3 per cent of the GDP which is to a great extent lesser than the South Asian average of 3.6 per cent and the low-income states average of 3.4 per cent. Elucidating the phenomenon, Dr Suleri says, “There is an urgent need to question our national priorities. We are spending billions in the name of national security needs. Pakistan bought three Agosta 90B submarines from France for $1 billion. For this amount (for one year) we could have ensured primary education for all 17 million children now un-enrolled.”

The only way to make sure that the country is free from hunger, poverty and diseases would be to ensure universal primary and quality education for all citizens. If that is not going to happen, then we cannot stop internal threats that are weakening the fabric of our society. One should keep in mind that it is not the Agosta 90B, but educated empowered citizens who can defend us from internal threats, he adds.

Another glitch is that primary education is not receiving its due share as a large proportion of the funds are spent on the higher education. Thus, it is creating a major catastrophe by stratifying the general public horizontally and even vertically and, as a result, poverty and ignorance are reinforced, making it nearly impossible for the underprivileged to come out of the vicious cycle of deprivation. Shedding light on the subject, Dr Suleri states, “With very poor quality primary education, we tend to spend millions on higher education. This is just like allocating huge amount of funds for painting a poorly constructed building.” One has nothing against spending on the Higher Education Commission (HEC). However, we should stop to think whether it is meant for children from the upper classes who had the chance to attend high-end private schools. There is a need to balance spending on higher and primary education, he adds.

As Arshed Bhatti associated with Civil Junction, a social enterprise working for the opening up of a political social environment has rightly pointed out: “Primary education can be put on right track by a national policy and provincial planning in which both are informed of the comprehensive knowledge of the complexities involving the needs’ of learners, of society, and the times we live in.” The decentralised implementation then must be backed by firm financial and political commitments. Every thing else will automatically fall in place, he adds.

Analysing the performance of the provincial governments, Prof Dr Muhammad Ali Siddiqui, Dean, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hamdard University, says: “I am not satisfied with the efforts of the provincial governments in achieving their targets.” On top of it, we are witnessing a lack of will on the part of the elected representatives of the people to execute their promises. Even the much acclaimed boast of providing free education up to matriculation is resulting in increased drop-out rate. Pakistan, under the present circumstances, cannot fulfill its commitment to achieve universal literacy up to 2015 under the Dakar Declaration, he adds.

Arshed Bhatti says that the failure of primary education in Pakistan can be attributed to the combined effect of the following factors: (a) It never got the attention of any government since Independence which means an absence of a comprehensive policy and evolution of a planning approach that was not based on the ground realities. (b) The foundation of primary education inputs (curriculum, books, school design, pedagogy, teachers training, and assessments) was not rooted in applied research. Thus, the inputs did not fit with the known needs of the learners (children) or social realities of the learner; and teachers were not imparted skills to ably link the three (inputs, learners’ needs and social reality around). (c) The demand side is not organised: it has never been, and was never encouraged to be. This means no checks and accountability of the services delivered in the name of education. (d) Whatever planning has been done to deliver primary education, it is not elastic and dynamic. (e) Consistently inadequate investments were made which were not in response to the real and credible assessment of per capita (per child) actual costs on delivering primary education.

Only after implementing across-the-board universal primary education will Pakistan be able to establish a more humane and literate society which can fight religious radicalism, societal disparity, poverty, terrorism and sectarianism. On the other hand, it will provide viable skills to the poor and help them become productive members of the society, breaking the shackles of poverty for good.

The writer works for Dawn. Email: moniza.inam@dawn.com

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