EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF PAKISTAN

Education and Development of Pakistan: A Study of Current Situation of

Education and Literacy in Pakistan

Ali Afzal Golra

Zain Awan

Abdullah Akram

Quaid-e-Azam University

This paper aimed to look at past educational developments in Pakistan

through case study and its analysis with the present world. It primarily
addressed the causes of illiteracy in Pakistan, and overcame the flaws of
earlier works. Pakistani government claims that they have accomplished
significantly in the educational development. Pakistani law requests
government to provide free basic education system to every citizen of
Pakistan. However, the enrollment rate has remained below 60%.
Similarly, literacy rate has also remained below 60%. Therefore, the
government and other stakeholders in education sector could not perform
well enough to provide the impressive results so far.

Keywords: education, literacy, Pakistan, development

Introduction

The key to success for any nation lies in their concem and development of
education sector. As the education is promoted in the nation, this reduces
the illiteracy rate that ultimately reduces the unemployment, which is one
of the biggest curses on any nation (Ahmad, Arshad, & Ahmad, 1991). The
education sector in Pakistan is overlooked by the government ministry of
education and the provincial government, whereas the development of
curriculum and financing is done with the assistance of federal
government. In the past few decades, Pakistan's education has been
developing continuously, which eventually helps the development of the
entire nation.

Pakistan is a country of approximately 180.1 million people (United

Nations Development Programme [UNDP], 2011) and is bordered by India
on the east, the Arabian Sea on the south, Iran on the southwest,
Afghanistan on the west and north, and China on the northeast. Pakistan
has one of the world's most rapidly growing populations and is the sixth
most populous country in the world. The constitution of Pakistan requires
the state to provide free primary and secondary education. Article 25-A of
Constitution of Pakistan obligates the state to provide free and compulsory
quality education to children of the age of 5 to 16 years old.

The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of
the age of 5 to 16 years old in such a manner as may be determined by
law. (Malik, 2011)

EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF PAKISTAN

Article 37-B of Constitution of Pakistan forces the state to remove illiteracy

from country and provide free compulsory education.

The state shall remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory
secondary education within minimum possible period. (Malik, 2011)

The real situation of education in Pakistan is very different in context to

the laws in Constitution of Pakistan. The education system in Pakistan is
generally divided into five levels: primary (Grades 1 through 5), middle
(Grades 6 through 8), high (Grades 9 and 10, leading to the secondary
school certificate [SSC]), intermediate (Grades 11 and 12, leading to a
higher secondary (school) certificate [HSC]), and university programs
(leading to undergraduate and graduate degrees). The government
launched a nationwide initiative in National Education Policy (NEP) 1998-
2010, with the aim of eradicating illiteracy and providing a basic
education to all children. A new NEP 2009 has been launched one year
before finishing the last NEP. Through various educational reforms, by
2015, the ministry of education expects to attain 100% enrollment levels
among children of primary school age and a literacy rate of 86% among
people aged over 10.

In Pakistan, most of the nationally representative household surveys do

not contain information on variables, such as completed years of
schooling, age of starting school, literacy and numeracy skills, quality of
schooling, and technical training. Due to the unavailability of data, one
can neither compute the potential experience, nor observe the effect of
primary education on literacy rate. Therefore, the available literature in
Pakistan is lacking for estimating the real difference among male and
female, rural and urban, and rich and poor.

A number of foreign and local agencies (including the UNDP) carried out
several studies to assist the government of Pakistan in improving the
performance of primary education system to remove illiteracy. However,
so far, not much has been achieved to show any significant improvement
in the number of primary schools and quality of primary education offered
by these institutions. Keeping in view, the findings of so far available
studies on the subject of illiteracy and educational development, this
paper attempted to survey all those indicators with which Pakistan
satisfactorily delivered all that was required to achieve primary education
for all (PEFA) and literate nation.

This paper will look into the case study of educational developments in
Pakistan in the past and its analysis with the present world. This study
primarily initiated to address the causes of the illiteracy in Pakistan with a
view to overcome the weaknesses of the findings of previous works done
in this field. It was considered essential to analyze and propose suitable
measures, which are effective enough to bring necessary change to
improve the performance of educational system, so that PEFA in Pakistan
would be realized in the shortest possible time and illiteracy would be
removed as it is stated in Constitution and Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).

Design of the Paper

This study was designed to make a comprehensive survey of the causes of

failure of Pakistan in achieving 100% literacy rate and its association with
the primary school education. In this context, the national education
policy documents issued by the government of Pakistan were taken as the
base reports, and the results of various studies and evaluation reports
carried out by the local and foreign agencies were examined to suggest a
more effective solution for illiteracy and improving the performance of
public sector primary education system.

EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF PAKISTAN

To make the study more effective in providing viable solutions to the

problem, the split between higher education and basic education was also
made in crucial part of the study. This is an approach, which seems to
have the major cause of neglecting the public primary education system,
and it has not been debated seriously so far.

Existing Problems and Approaches

By the day of independence from British colonial rule on August 14, 1947,
85% of the Pakistan population was illiterate, and the condition of women
and backward areas was even worse. One of the first steps towards
education development in Pakistan was the National Education
Conference in 1947. In 1951, a conference for educational development
was held to adopt six-year plan for the period 1951-1957. Then, First Five
Year Plan (1955-1960), Second Five Year Plan (1960-1965), Third Five Year
Plan (1965-1970), 1973 Constitution of Pakistan, Social Action Program
(1993-1996), and NEP (1998-2010) were launched. In every development
plan, the government of Pakistan made commitments to increase literacy
and ensure compulsory education at the grass root level, but so far, not all
those commitments ever materialized. The major causes of neglect and
poor performance of primary education programs were as follows.

Inappropriate Importance

Every year, government provides large sums to finance scholarship

programs and grants to higher learning institutions, while the running of
primary education is left to the local districts, provinces, and federal
government authorities. Due to scarcity of funds, public sector primary
schools are far less than the requirement and become non-functioning,
and there is a wide spread corruption in the administration of public sector
schools.

Higher education has received greater attention, while primary education

has been left unattended. There is Higher Education Commission (HEC) to
plan and execute policies to enlarge preferably foreign qualified Ph.D. in
Pakistan, whereas for education at grass root level, no serious effort has
been made to execute policies to ensure quality primary education.

Due to lack of management and competence to run public primary school

network, the quality of education and course curricula is poor. Students'
dropout rate is very high (in the range of 30 % -45% ). The non-availability
of adequate number of teachers and their unsatisfactory qualification and
training made it difficult for primary school to qualify students to get
admission in good secondary schools or jobs.

Poor Monitoring

There is a serious contradiction between the policies declared on paper by

the government and the actual steps taken to achieve the objectives of
the commitments made in those policies. In the education policy of the
government, the importance of giving full attention to compulsory primary
education to all at no charge is strongly emphasized and targets of
achieving literacy and 100% enrollment of students at primary school
level are prescribed, but no appreciable results are achieved. Whereas, all
the attention is devoted to speed up higher education and all those
programs are highly subsidized. The higher education program is largely
for the rich and those who can afford, while the primary education
program is largely for the welfare of the common person. This is a case of
misallocation of resources and the poor man is the victim.

Cause and Effect of Poverty

Poverty certainly affects children and their ability to gain knowledge.
Children in a poor family are at a

EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF PAKISTAN

disadvantage position, because of their home environment and unfriendly

attitude of the family towards education. Their body resistance to various
diseases is much lower than that of the children of rich families. This is
why these children from poor families are much more likely to suffer from
illnesses, such as fatigue, headaches, flu, and cold. These diseases often
restrict a child's ability to concentrate.

Expensive Private Institutions

The private sector enrollment at primary schools is estimated to be close

to 40% of the total enrollment under primary schools. Due to shortage of
public sector primary schools, and because many existing public sector
primary schools are non-functional, on account of shortage of primary
school teachers and/or lack of funds to pay for running the school
expenses, some parents are forced to send their children to private
schools. Private primary schools are expensive but offer better knowledge
to children. With the technical cooperation of the private sector, the
government has introduced public-private partnership programs, but due
to piecemeal attempt, not much has been achieved so far.

Uncoordinated External Help

Looking at the state of affairs in Pakistan, a large number of donors are

funding primary school education through non-governmental
organizations (NGOs). Most donor agencies operate in isolation. Therefore,
their efforts in improving the course curricula and quality of education at
primary school level have not contributed much in helping the children of
the poor families a better life.

Facts and Present Conditions

Education provides the bedrock for reducing poverty and enhancing social
development. An educational system of poor quality may be one of the
most important reasons why poor countries do not grow (Memon, 2007).
Pakistan needs to educate its masses up to a level where they can
understand their own responsibilities, as well as that of the governing
bodies. They must be able to earn their own living and contribute to
promoting the welfare of the society. This is most urgent and must be
accomplished without further delay, and calls for a sincere and dedicated
effort to implement a carefully designed course curricula of compulsory
education for all.
All education policies of Pakistan since 1947s laid exclusive emphasis on
achieving high literacy and compulsory primary education for all. The NEP
2009 prescription included the following:

1. Education for all (EFA) goals and millennium development goals relating
to education enrollment at the primary level will be enhaced to 100% by
2015;

2. The literacy rate will be enhanced to 86% by 2015;

3. The allocation for education would be 7% of the national gross domestic

product (GDP) by 2015;

4. A bachelor degree in education shall be the minimum requirement for

teaching at the elementary level. A Master degree with a Bachelor of
Education (B.Ed.) for the secondary and higher secondary shall be
ensured by 2018;

5. A common curricular framework in general as well as professional

education shall be applied to educational institutions in both the public
and private sector. Governments shall take steps to bring the public and
private sectors in harmony through common standards, quality, and
regulatory regimes.

The actual performance to achieve the desired goals so far, reiterated in

the NEP of Pakistan 2009, reveals the following performances.
EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF PAKISTAN

In 2011-2012, national statistics show that preschool and primary

education spent the highest share (39%) in education expenditure,
followed by secondary (34%) and tertiary (21%) sectors. On average, at
the national level, 95% of education expenditures comprise current
expenses, such as teachers' salaries. However, only 5% comprises
development expenditures, which is not sufficient to raise quality of
education (see Table 3). Teachers Qualification

Under the existing system, a primary school teacher in Pakistan requires

only 10 years of schooling plus an 11-month teacher-training certificate to
be employed in a public sector school. There are less than 300 teachers
education/training institutions in Pakistan, out of which nearly 80% of
these institutions are owned and run by the government. In addition, a
large number of donors have made arrangement to train the teachers
through NGOs. However, in spite of all these efforts, the quality of
teachers employed in the public sector schools is very low.

All this seems to result in high levels of grade repetition and the increase
in dropout rates from schools (about 50%). The success to achieve targets
as given in NEP 2009 cannot be made, even in the years to come. Public
and Private Schools

Private schools have grown very fast in past two decades, which share
about 40% of all institutions in Pakistan. At primary level, 34% children (of
the age of 5-9 years old) of total net enrollment are enrolled in private
schools, among whom 34% are boys and 33% are girls. Private sector
enrollment is increasing because of overall better quality of education, as
compared to public sector. Public schools are lacking far behind the quality
of education, and it is one of the reasons of low survival rate in primary
school. Despite of better quality, private education is expensive and it is
beyond the reach of many people because of unavailability of resources.
The old expired curriculum has also decreased the quality of education, as
there is shortage of teachers, and poorly equipped laboratories are the
result of less concentration shown by the government by lesser resources
allocation.

Most of the public schools are currently dysfunctional and of very poor
quality across the country. It is underfunded and mismanaged, and has
poor standards, have neither proper monitoring and evaluation systems,
nor proper human resource systems. The teachers working the system
have low morale, provision of infrastructure is patchy and on average
poor, provision of software (books, furniture, and so on) is also poor, and
there is a general lack of direction and motivation in the education
departments at all levels. It is no wonder that any comparison with the
private schools shows that private schools are better, and that, given the
choice and resources, people choose to send their children to private
schools.

Holes in Education

Education plays a pivotal role in the growth and progress of countries in

an increasingly competitive, interconnected, and globalizing world, where
the creation of skills and human capital is key component of any
development strategy. It helps to improve living standards and enhance
the quality of life, and can provide essential opportunities for all. While
education's contribution in the growth and development prospects of a
country has been widely recognized and increasingly crucial, education, in
itself, is recognized as a fundamental basic right for citizens in many
countries.

No mechanism exists to monitor the allocation in NPER goals at the

provincial level, and the importance of these goals commitment is not well
understood, particularly in the smaller provinces. The recent budgets

EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF PAKISTAN

indicate allocation in terms of amount, but not in terms of proportion to

GDP. Mechanism of monitoring and capacity building of the goals is the
most important task for the country. The government needs to show far
more commitment towards achieving the education indicators of NEP
2009 than has been demonstrated in the past. At present, the budgetary
allocations are not sufficient to successfully implement these projects and
accomplish the goals of achieving the universal primary education by
2015. In spite of commitment shown by the government, the budget for
education remains at less than 2% of GDP, out of which the major amount
is spent on administrative issues, like salaries and other requirements,
leaving only minimal amount for the new initiatives. There seems to have
no suitable mechanism of gathering information at the federal level of the
programs and large scale successful interventions are going on in the
provinces. Provinces are independent in running their own projects and
programs and don not need to work with the federal government.
Therefore, monitoring and evaluation of these programs at the federal
level is difficult, making the analysis of such interventions more
complicated for researchers and policy makers.

Following the 18th amendment in the Constitution, which does away with
the concurrent list, it is likely that resources and power will be further
devolved to the provinces. The national finance commission award should
also allow some of the smaller and less developed provinces to have
greater funds for development. Clearly, at this stage of planning, far
greater emphasis will have to be given to how provinces deal with these
new powers and how implementation takes place. For this reason,
coordination and sharing between provinces also needs to be
strengthened in all social sector delivery programs.

One of the causes for children not attending school is lack of quality in
education, particularly at the primary level and lack of competent
teaching staff. In many places, parental attitudes towards girls are very
conservative, as they set lower priority for female education and hence
sending them to schools is not appreciated. Moreover, girls schooling
requires extra effort to be made and schools need to be located closer to
their residences compared to schools for boys. The cost of education is
also very high in Pakistan and increases as inflation increases. Due to poor
delivery by government schools, the private schools has emerged as an
important partner in education, but cost of private schooling has been
increasing and is greater than that of government schools, making it
impossible for even lower middle class families to utilize this options for
their children.

Conclusions

According to the data available, the net enrollment at primary level has
remained below 60% until 2011-2012, although it has improved
marginally over time. The target of achieving literacy by 2015 required an
increase of almost 40% in the next four years (2011 to 2015, as data is
only available until year 2011) compared to the 22% achieved in the last
10 years. The performance of the provinces in achieving the NPER target
is not surprisingly, in line with their ranking in terms of resource and
endowment and population size. The completion/survival rate seems to
have declined rapidly in the recent years. This implies that about half
students enrolled in primary school do not complete their education. The
interim target for 2010 was set to 80%, but could not be achieved. The
reasons for high dropout rate lies within both the education system and
the economic conditions of the households of the students. Intensive
research is needed to bring out the factors that account for such high
dropout rates, and measures should be taken to increase the
attractiveness of schools and reduce the need for households to keep their
children at home or at work. Furthermore, surveys on the extent and
quality of private school education need to be carried out. There is a need
to offer incentives to girls and disadvantaged groups, like income
incentive, provision of books, uniforms and mid-day meals, etc.. There is a
need to invest in proper infrastructure and strengthen teacher's training.
Other obstacles identified by various studies include the non-availability of
teachers, non-availability of schools, especially for girls in the vicinity,
insecurity (to and from schools, as well as within schools), lack of female
teachers in rural areas, lack of gender-sensitive and clean learning
environment, lack of secondary level education in the communities, and
early marriages.

Private education is surely here to stay, and it should be allowed to

flourish and expand. However, private education should not be seen as a
solution for the education sector problems that Pakistan is facing now.
Moreover, the fact that private education is better than the current public
sector education should not be taken as a reason for abandoning public
sector. Rather, it should be seen as a challenge for the public sector.
Federal and provincial, both governments have to get the public sector in
order. If we are to address the problems of the education system in
Pakistan, there seems to be a need of advocacy for creating a movement
to demand quality from the public sector education system.

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