ISLAMABAD, May 12: The ministry of finance has claimed that there is 100 per cent trained workforce in the country’s public sector primary and middle schools.
But federal Education Minister Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf and adviser to the Prime Minister Dr Salman Shah, who heads the finance ministry, have refuted the claim.
“We are fooling ourselves. How can matriculates be called trained teachers?” the education minister told participants of the Pakistan Development Forum.
“Don’t trust such reports. They are far from reality”, Dr Shah said in a brief reply when Dawn asked him to comment on the ministry’s findings released a few days ago in a six-monthly progress report on Poverty Reduction Strategy.
The PRSP progress report was released on April 28.
“There are 100 per cent trained teachers in public schools at primary and middle level in Punjab, the NWFP and the Fata, indicating that the quality of education imparted in these areas is completely satisfactory,” said the report released by the PRSP secretariat.
“The gap in the percentage of trained teachers in public schools in remaining areas is small but there is a need to fill the gap to further improve the quality of education in public schools in these areas.”
Interestingly, the ratio of trained teachers is the lowest in Azad Kashmir (87.5 per cent), boasting the highest literacy rate in the country.
The finance ministry reported the presence of 99.4 per cent and 99.6 per cent trained men and women primary teachers, respectively, in Pakistan.
The ministry boasted ratios of 99.2 per cent and 99.3 per cent men and women trained teachers, respectively, in the country’s middle schools.
The ministry also claimed 100 per cent ratio of trained men and women teachers both in primary and middle schools in Punjab, the NWFP and Fana. It noted a ratio of 99.7 and 100 per cent men and women trained teachers in primary and middle schools in Fata and Islamabad, respectively.
The PRSP report said the ratio of trained men teachers in Sindh was 98.7 per cent and 99 per cent in primary and middle schools, respectively, and 98.9 and 97.6 per cent women trained teachers.
The ratio of men and women trained teachers in Balochistan ranged between 95.3 per cent and 99.9 per cent, respectively, in Balochistan while the ratio of trained teachers in the AJK was between 87.5 per cent and 96.6 per cent, respectively.
Mr Javed Ashraf termed the quality of education in Pakistan poor and said Punjab education department had more manpower than the Pakistan Army. Stressing that numbers alone were insufficient to guarantee quality education, he said that decent quality teachers were essential to achieve the goal.
He urged the president to increase funding for education to four per cent of GDP in the next year’s budget to improve the situation.