This refers to the article ‘Getting children to schools’ (June 24). We all know that you reap what you sow. To improve the country’s educational system, we urgently need to introduce educational reforms.

There should be conditional cash transfers (CCT) to encourage more children to attend school. It is a fact that many countries are experimenting with this strategy successfully.

I served in the education sector in Oman for a decade where academic institutions affiliated with ministries of higher education and manpower offer CCT to families which then send their children to become part of the country’s educated resource for a better future overall.

In Pakistan, we have welfare programmes whose approach is based on CCT. We need to promote them further. So far, such programmes have not yielded the desired results. The reason is clear. The policymakers, who are associated with the academic sector, both private and public, must know that everything happening in the present is a result of the choices made in the past.

Here, the issue is to transfer quality education to children who come to schools to become an effective resource for Pakistan. Therefore, from curriculum development to delivery, and from assessment to results, everything must be done on actions that address conscious choice-making.

To perform different tasks in the whole process needs wise minds that do not make choices unconsciously. Therefore, when we discuss CCT and quality, the decision-makers must know what will be consequences of their choices. If the options are based on conscious and calculated choices, we will have progress and prosperity in our education system.

Munawar Hameed Mangalwala
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2022