A limited agenda for education

By Eqbal Ahmad

THE state of education in Pakistan ranks with the economy as a matter of primary concern to the public. When it became known that the government has deferred a Draft Education Policy and invited comments from experts and educationists, the Ministry of Education was inundated last week by some 700 written comments and proposals. Similarly, in response to my essay in this space last week, an unusual number of people have written or phoned to request more on the subject. This is but an initial attempt to fulfill the readers' command.

In this era of privatization a false notion has spread widely. It is that somehow private schooling can solve the crisis of public education. This cannot be. For thousands of years, in many parts of the world education was imparted privately often by religious communities and organizations. But these private efforts did not yield literate societies or significantly large educated classes. At best they produced an educated elite which provided the small pool of manpower needed for governance and cultural continuity in pre-industrial societies.

By contrast, a literate working population and an ever-expanding class of skilled professionals, educated managers and service providers is an essential requirement of industrial economies. Furthermore, the rather modern notion of growth is linked to the idea of continual advancement of knowledge. For, economic changes and developments in the last two centuries have been largely knowledge-driven. Nowhere in the industrially advancing country could the private sector meet the growing demands for literate, skilled, and educated manpower. Every where, these demands were met when the state organized the educational sector.

Private institutions play, nevertheless, an important role in educational development. As they are relatively free from pressures of politics and bureaucratization, they often set the bench marks of educational concepts, curriculum, and standards of excellence. In the fields of liberal arts and sciences they have historically made significant contributions toward providing the leadership class in politics, industry, and the professions as well as the creative achievers in the arts and sciences. In Pakistan, the nationalization of private institutions such as the Forman Christian, Gordon, Emerson, and Murray colleges contributed greatly though by means solely- to wrecking our system of higher education. So it is important to encourage the establishment of quality educational institutions in the private sector. A distinction ought to be made, nevertheless, between private and commercial institutions of learning. If history is a guide, there is overwhelming evidence to conclude that the educational enterprise and the profit motive do not mix. This is particularly true of higher education where the demands of investment in research facilities, laboratories, library and equipment resources are considerable and constant. Even in pre-industrial times when such demands were low and not-so-costly, not one commercialized institution of learning is known to have grown and distinguished itself. Today, in Pakistan these commercial enterprises abound, claiming affiliations with this and that British or American university, and providing none of the educational facilities and faculties of their alleged affiliates. Yet, middle class parents send their offsprings to what are effectively high cost 'tuition centers' because they cannot afford to educate them abroad, and have few if any alternative at home.

Among middle class parents, private schooling - mostly in commercial outfits - is the norm in urban areas. Their flight from public schools has merely added to the crisis of public education. There has been also a phenomenal increase in the number of private, commercially run schools in urban working class and, increasingly, in rural areas. Most announce themselves, often in Urdu, as "English Medium school", and nearly all charge tuition fees higher than the government schools. In many rural villages, families have cooperated to establish "English medium schools" for their children. Their exact numbers are not known to me; but they run into the thousands constituting a parallel system of primary and, in smaller numbers, secondary education.

In rural and urban working class areas they are not significantly better than the government school. Their existence points to two factors: people's loss of confidence in public schooling, and their desperation to break the boundaries of the social apartheid in Pakistan of which the markers are the English language on one side and non-English on the other.

The loss of credibility from which the government suffers in the matter of education was also apparent at the meetings which I have recently attended in connection with the Draft Education Policy. Most non-official participants did not believe that the government was either serious or equipped to address the problem. Frustration was writ large on the faces of the Federal Minister who attended one such meeting last week. "We have had so many Reports, so many Commissions have come and gone, and nothing was ever done. So why another report?" asked one participant. A day later, some one gave me a copy of the National Education Policy '92 which had been prepared under the direction of Fakhar Imam, then Minister of Education in the government of Mian Nawaz Sharif.

Compared with the current Draft Education Policy, this is a more comprehensive and workable document. "Since nothing much has changed since 1992, why waste time and energy inpreparing yet another document", commented the gentleman who showed it to me. "If you are really serious", said another participant to the Ministers, "take a few necessary steps, give us evidence of political will, gain peoples' confidence." This was good advice I thought. But even short term, transitional measures require some fixing of priorities.

The first step is to identify the factors which make an educational system work. Six factors are known to define the quality of an educational environment as a whole. They are: [i] concepts; [ii] leadership; [iii] examination; [iv] instruction; [v] curriculum; and [vi] structure of governance. In order to improve the educational system of Pakistan, it may have to be re-formulated and restructured in its entirety. That will take much planning, public debate, structural mutations, and therefore, time and political will. But a severe crisis is upon us; there is need to ameliorate it without losing time. By doing so, the government will gain credibility and experience at affecting reform. Under these circumstances, it will do well to develop a three year transitional plan of reform rather than a blue print to 2010. Low cost and quick improvement ought to be its immediate objective.

A re-conceptualization of primary and secondary education may have to be delayed while immediate measure are taken. The following measures strike me as among the low cost reforms which are liable to yield results in a short time: One: establish independent and professional mechanisms in each province to evaluate, identify and appoint educational leaders vice chancellors, deans of faculty, principals, and head masters. There is a well known adage the world over that a school is as good as its headmaster. Much the same is true of principals and vice-chancellors. During a survey of schools in the Northern Areas and in Sargodha district I found this to be surprisingly true of even the rural schools. Whereever there was a dynamic head master who was well trained, committed to the educational process, and has had time to build his staff, children were learning with excitement and motivation, and the attendance was excellent. There were motivated teachers and leaders to be found in many places though most have not had an opportunity to be properly trained or to lead.

Two: reform of the examination system is essential. Examination is the motor that drives the curriculum as well as methods and quality of instruction. Although at the college and university levels the curricula is not at all bad (often, they are plagiarized versions of curricula at western institutions), the examination papers and the myriads of text-books spawned by them lower the standards of instruction and study to abysmal levels. The first step toward improving the examination standards may be to certify a private examination board in each province or nationally to administer high school and college level tests at institutions which wish to subscribe to their services. Competition from the private testing service may also encourage the government boards to improve their performance. The testing quality and integrity of the examination boardsought to be strictly monitored by government agencies staffed by qualified professionals in each field.

Three: Professionally designed entrance tests should be required for admission into all colleges, universities and professional institutions. Many private and some public institutions are already using entrance examinations as a criterion for admission, and benefitting from doing so.

Four: In-class training sessions and refresher courses be introduced on a broader basis than now exists. Well trained teachers are scarce; and the pool from which new ones can be recruited is both small and ill-qualified. It will take time and resources to train teachers especially for high school and college levels. However, at all levels there exists a significant percentage of motivated teachers. A national network is desperately needed to offer these in-class training and refresher courses during long vacations. Similar training courses are essential for head masters on a more augmented and improved basis than now exists.

Five: Phantom schools and teachers ought to be identified, and eliminated. Somewhere between 25-30% of the primaries are believed to be phantom schools and teachers financially supported by the government. They are a monument to patronage and corruption in this country, and a constant reminder to ordinary folks of the government's cavalier attitude toward education.

Six: High school education be extended to 12 years, vocational college to three years, and college education to four years. The British system of ten years high school; two years FA\FSC and two years for BA is outdated and unsuited to our present needs. Furthermore, there are colleges which are producing half educated, unemployable youth. The process should begin now to gradually convert these into vocation oriented schools with a special emphasis on training as agriculture support workers, para-professional, mechanics, and computer programming. A selected number of these colleges should also be converted into teachers training institutions.

One can add a few more small steps likely to make the difference from bad to a fair educational environment. The public needs evidence of the government's will and capacity to begin the process of reform. Only when it starts, the process can take hold. The need is to get out of the current educational quagmire.