KARACHI, Feb 18: Expressing dissatisfaction over the current status of literacy in Sindh, speakers at a forum of parliamentarians on Saturday stressed the need for rejuvenating efforts to improve the overall performance of the education sector.

They identified poor state of financial guarantees, lack of organizational structure, ban on appointments of teachers, appointments of incompetents as teachers on political grounds in the past, weak professional bases, absence of any meaningful initiatives and motivation, inadequate policies and their improper implementation.

Lack of monitoring and evaluation, absence of support for establishment and functioning of non-formal or basic education, ineffective mass mobilization and advocacy campaign and lack of political commitment as impediments, which resulted in continued deterioration of the education sector, they added.

The meeting of parliamentarians of the province on literacy was convened by Senator Razina Alam Khan, who is also the chairperson of the Standing Committee on Education, Scientific and Technological Research.

Among others, Sindh Education Secretary Ghulam Ali Pasha, members of Sindh Assembly Faisal Sabzwari, Jam Saifullah Khan Dharejo, Sardar Jam Tamachi, Talib Imam, S. M. Yousuf of Cadet College Larkana, Inayatullah, a former ambassador of Pakistan, Munir Ahmad, Prof Latif Silro of Non-Formal Basic Education Sindh, and representatives of a couple of NGOs also spoke at the meeting.

Opening the forum, Senator Razina Alam said that it was unfortunate that Pakistan was far behind even in the developing world in human capital development. In education we are sixth among the Saarc countries, 9th among E-9, and 135th on the international human development index, despite the fact that we are the 7th largest state in the world in respect of population and as such we need to give a serious look to the causes of poor performance and consequent low achievements, she added.

The senator remarked that Sindh which used to be an outstanding province of Pakistan in terms of education and literacy was now lagging behind and the prevailing situation related to literacy, particularly in the interiors, called for undertaking vigorous and consolidated exercises.

She said that keeping in view the importance of education and literacy, a voluntary group of federal parliamentarians had formed a “Parliamentary Forum on Literacy in Pakistan” under her leadership, now similar organizations had been aimed at provincial levels as well to realize the status of literacy and recommend corrective measures and extend support to various government schemes and projects.

After hearing the observations from participants, she mentioned that as immediate measures she would move the authorities concerned for increase in political commitment, avoiding overlapping of projects, increase in the budget for non-formal basic education sector, removal of ban on recruitment of teachers, establishment of separate non-formal education departments in provincial and district governments and usefulness and effectiveness of different standing committees on education and literacy.

She said that she herself had been visiting the provinces to assess the situation and was highly impressed by works done on the literacy front by the governments of Punjab and the NWFP. She hoped that Sindh would soon be regaining its position as a leader in the educational sector.

She informed that the prime minister had also assured for enhancement in budgetary allocations for education up to 4 per cent of the GDP from the next fiscal year and now it would be the duties of the education departments and wings to ascertain that funds provided by the federal government did not go waste or lapsed at any stage.

The Sindh education secretary said that the recruitment of teachers could not be made possible due to a ban existing for about 10 years. However, the government is encouraging appointment of teachers on ad hoc or contractual basis, which was also in line with the agreement with World Bank, he added.

He said that Sindh was first to introduce compulsory primary education policy and also providing incentives to girls for education, but on the other hand targets set from time to time could not be reached due to gender sensitivity, lack of political will and poor quality of teaching.

Faisal Sabzwari said that efforts should also be focussed on promotion of literacy, in addition to improving the standards of education. We are trying to get an amount equal to five per cent of the educational budget for informal education and literacy.

Jam Tamachi said that teachers had political affiliations and preferred to attend the political forums and serve the political lords instead of reporting to schools and colleges, which was unfortunate and among the reasons of failures. There is no good governance in the educational sector and copy culture was rampant, while women literacy centres were not working, these are the issues which needed to be addressed on priority basis, he added.

Jam Dharejo said that consistency in planning and implementation did not exist and authorities were not allowed to work with all openness, while educational standards in the province deteriorated in a systematic way.

A couple of other participants said buildings of schools lying vacant in the evening can be use as centres for adult-literacy and non-formal education for children.

Arshad Saeed Khan of Unesco Islamabad said that despite commitments internally Pakistan was failing to meet its targets for universal primary education repeatedly. He said that 47 per cent people in Sindh were illiterate; about two third females could not read and write, while female literacy rate was less than 25 per cent in 12 districts.

Prof Latif Silro said that the government did not release the fund meant for non-formal centres and education covering learners of 10 plus age, for 2005-06. Appointment of teachers has not been made by the district governments, while on the other hand some of the EDOs, who had been receiving funds failed to open the adult literacy centres due to the burden of work, he pointed out.