SINCE independence attempts have been made to relate the education system to the needs and inspirations of the country. An education conference was held in 1947 as per directives of the Founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

He provided the basic guidelines for the future development of education by emphasising, inter alia, that the education system should suit the genius of our people, consonant with our history, culture and instil the highest sense of honour, integrity, responsibility, and selfless service to the nation. It should also provide scientific and technical knowledge to build up our economic life.

The existing education delivery system is not meeting the needs and aspirations of society as such particularly; it is a challenge to the provinces and districts for the 21st century.

Moreover, prior to devolution, the policy and planning have been undertaken by the central and provincial governments without taking into account the ground realities and without the participation of community.

The government of Pakistan recognised that education is the basic right of every citizen; therefore, access to education for every citizen is crucial for economic development and for poverty alleviation.

The overall estimated literacy rate was 50.5 per cent, for male 63 per cent and for female 38 per cent during 2001-2002.

The urban literacy rate was 70 per cent and the rural literacy rate is 30 per cent during the same period. The main objectives of the devolution plan is to empower the community at the grassroots level in planning, management, resource mobilisation and utilisation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the education system to improve the service delivery at that level.

The main inherent issues of the education system are teachers' absenteeism, high dropout rates, particularly at primary level, high repetition rates, low completion rates, inequalities by gender, location and social groups, low literacy rate and unsatisfactory performance of schools. These issues have been addressed under DOP through empowerment of local communities.

The present government has initiated political and administrative devolution under its reforms agenda under the Local Government Plan 2000. The Local Government Ordinance was promulgated on Aug 14, 2001.

Under devolution, political power, decision-making authority and administrative responsibilities have been moved as closer as possible to the village, union council, tehsil and district levels, with only the major policymaking, coordination and special service functions being retained with the central and provincial governments.

It is believed that highly centralised system of education is greatly hampering the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery service at the grassroots level. Successive governments addressed this problem in their policies and plans since 1947.

The major issues and challenges of the education system include low literacy rate, high dropout rate, widespread teacher absenteeism, weak management and supervision structure, shortage of trained and qualified teachers, specially female, lack of teachers' dedication, motivation and interest in their profession and lack of physical facilities.

Moreover, the curriculum is mostly outdated, irrelevant and does not fulfil the requirements of the present day. Policies should be made in such a way that will help us to set better standards of education at all levels.

ALIZEB MAGHIANA
Lahore