ESTIMATES of out-of-school children go up to 25 million in Pakistan. Through the inclusion of Article 25 (a) in the Constitution three years ago, the state acknowledged that five- to 16-year-olds have a right to free and compulsory education.

The call from all quarters about the need for quality education for our children has been significant. But little has actually been achieved on the implementation of Article 25 (a) so far. Even the laws necessary to ensure the implementation of the article have either not been made or not made effective by all of the provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory.

More than 35pc of currently enrolled children attend private schools in the country. The percentage increases substantially in urban areas, and for the largest cities it seems the majority of children now attend private schools. Yet, there is no vision across the political spectrum of the role of private education in Pakistan in general particularly with regard to the implementation of 25 (a).

All political parties acknowledge that the responsibility of providing an education to every child rests with the state. But in the same breath all of them also say they want to encourage the private sector to ‘do its part’. Clearly the question of whether the private sector has a role in the provision of education was decided, by design or default, long ago.

Today when 35pc or so enrolled children go to private schools and the growth of private education is faster than that of public education, going back to this question seems pointless, irrespective of ideological positions. But key issues still remain: what is the envisaged balance between private and public education? And more importantly, what do we make of the ‘promise’ of the state for ‘free’ and ‘compulsory’ education?

Generally speaking, we seem to have a strange attitude towards education provided by the private sector. Most of the people who can afford to send their children to private schools also complain that provision by the private sector is only for profit especially in the case of the elite private school sector, the charges are too high, there is no regulation of the curricula and so on.

There is unease when it comes to accepting the role of private-sector education but at the same time, given the generally poor quality of state education there is a demand for education by the private sector.

More or less the same attitude exists within political parties and the bureaucracy. Political parties, by and large, take the position that they do not want to ‘discourage’ the private sector while acknowledging that the primary responsibility for provision lies with the state.

The usual way of squaring this position is through the acknowledgement that though the state is responsible for education, it is not necessary for the state to actually provide the education through state institutions as well. The state could pay for the private sector to manage schools etc. Or, more often, there is acknowledgement that despite granting the basic right to education the state just does not have the resources to expand the public education system to ensure quality education for all and so needs the private sector to step in and share the burden.

But the problem starts after that. None of the political parties, or the government for that matter, has a vision of how the two sectors are going to evolve and develop to ensure quality education for all children. There is no enunciation beyond the general statements about a role for both. The private sector serves areas where there is effective demand ie where parents can pay. Even for the low-fee private sector, since its services have to be paid for through tuition fees, the latter have to be high enough to cover the cost of provision. The quality can vary, and it does, but clearly the private sector cannot be free.

Given the current poverty levels in the country, and the likely growth trajectory for the next few years, education for a substantial proportion of children must be subsidised. This is a fact.

The question is how is this subsidy to be provided. Are we going to do it through ‘free’ public schools or with the state subsidising the enrolment in private schools (vouchers, fee waivers etc)? Is society going to pay for it through taxes (through the state route) or are we going to harness private philanthropy and bypass the state?

Given that the number of children we are talking about is in the millions, we will probably need to employ all these tactics. But all this needs to be thought through and a proper vision has to be in place. To make better policy we need to have consensus across society, across provincial governments and across party lines. For the moment there is little awareness and/or acknowledgement of the issue even within the government or parties.

The private sector is usually defensive about giving the state any role in overseeing its activity. And rightly so. Given the corruption and incompetence levels within state institutions, the private sector fears interference. The state sector, by and large, thinks that the private sector is too ‘greedy’ and profit-driven.

Yet there is a realisation that both sectors need to work together if we are going to keep the promise of education for all children as envisioned in our Constitution. But this requires a lot of work especially on the part of the state and the mainstream political parties. At the moment, there is nothing beyond slogans. If we are serious about implementing Article 25 (a), the work needs to be done straight away.

The writer is senior adviser, Pakistan, at Open Society Foundations, associate professor of economics, LUMS, and a visiting fellow at IDEAS, Lahore.