Emerging issues in Early Childhood and Primary Education in Pakistan

Emerging issues in Early Childhood and Primary Education
Mehr Parwar Program Officer Education Policy & Advocacy
Hashoo Foundation
February 16, 2017
The literacy rate in Pakistan is recorded as about 57% in 2015-2016. The first goal of the Dakar Framework of Action, is to expand and improve ECE for all children, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. The Education Policy 1998-2010 developed a policy naming National Plan of Action (NPA) to support and focus on ECE. Hence, due to scarcity of resources and lack of proper planning NPA could not achieve its target so far. Current observation reveals that quality of primary education is alarming in most of the public schools. The performance of children in basic literacy and numeracy is falling behind. Learning outcomes of government primary schools across the nation shows that 52% of children in class 5 can-not read a story, 56% cannot read a sentence in English, 58 % cannot solve a two digit division problem. Hence, presently, the education sector is facing crisis and falling behind at wider level. Following are the major threatening problems in education system in our country.

• The parallel structure of education i.e. private schools and Madrasas affects uniformity in education. This results in lack of uniformity and forms an uneven playing field that promotes inequities in the communities. The education policy (2009) is aware of historical context and suggests to merge them in to the national educational system. Yet no efforts have been put to improve this condition.
• Weak Governance is another main issue in education. The Educational policy review suggests a public private partnership to implement public policy for better allocation and management of public resources.
• The aspect of social development and social inclusiveness is mislaid in our education system. Yet no education policy in Pakistan has contributed to increase social inclusiveness in education system. Uneven distribution of resources and opportunities promote social exclusion that increases poverty, inequity, political instability and injustice in society.
• Corporal punishment exists in almost all provinces of Pakistan but there is lack of Policy action for eliminating this issue.
• The concept and significance of inclusive Education and Multi-grade Teaching has not been identified and discussed in education policy.
• The notion of ECE has not been recognized at broader level in the community. Mobilization and orientation of stakeholders such as Head Teachers, Parents and Community on ECE is need and demand of the time but it is lacking in public education system.
• The formative assessment approach is another important missing aspect that needs to be improved to eliminate traditional paper pencil test in ECE and Primary Education.
• Weak quality of education at primary level has put the system in risk of defaulting on EFA 2015 targets. Continuous low performance of children in exams compel the parents to send their children to either private schools or prefer to give tuition services by spending huge amount of money.
• Access rates remain low, as noted in NER at 66% for primary are the lowest compared to the selected reference countries. The narrow base is further attenuated through high dropout rates. The survival rate to Grade 5 is 72%. Of those who succeed in completing Grade V, cannot continue secondary schools due to access and other reasons.
• The annual school budget must be properly utilized to improve classrooms and libraries rather wasting public money on making offices luxurious and attractive.
• The recent observations reveal that besides, trainings and experience the teachers display lack of motivation and ownership which create hurdles in improving the Education system.
• Various NGOs are rigorously putting their efforts and resources for quality education but their impact is very limited because these organizations are working in isolation not focusing on national objectives. Thus, these organizations need to come together to get best return on investments and efforts. They should work on a common vision of education in whole country.

Conclusion
This crucial issue requires a paradigm shift in education through addressing vision and objectives of education, prioritization of issues and allocation of resources unanimously. In this regard NGOs must facilitate public private partnership in education sector including education departments, schools, communities and relevant stakeholders. This will be accommodated with the provision of resources to ensure the quality education in schools.