Punjab emerges as a top performing province followed by K.P.K, while Sindh and Balochistan are lagging behind
- More than half of Pakistan’s districts (76) falls into the low performance category. These low performing districts are predominantly in Balochistan (33) and Sindh (22)
Ghansham Narwani
Nowadays, Pakistan has been entangled in the worst crises of the time. Almost, all sectors, including education, which indicate the progress of country are proven failed. This state of affairs did not occur in a couple of years. The fact is that from the inception of state to date, all the policies and programs miserably failed. All avenues of progress begin with education but unfortunately we have overlooked it, in terms of quality as well as quantity, which resulted into our failure.
Now, Prime Minister Shehbaz Shareef has admitted that 26 million children are out of schools in the country, and in view of such a grave situation, he has declared emergency in education. But the question is: What measures will be taken in this regard? It is not cleared yet, but a substantial increase was made in the education budget from the 1.5 pc of GDP 2023-24 to the 1.92 pc of this year. However, it is not fulfilling the international commitment of 4 pc of GDP which would require Rs.4, 242 billion.
In past many reports were published in media highlighting the harrowing state of affairs in education sector. Recently an official report has been published by Planning Commission of Pakistan titled District Education Performance Index (DEPIx) 2020-23. It focused district-wise performance of the education sector. It comprises the main five domains including Infrastructure and Access, Inclusion, Public Financing, Learning, Governance and Management. Infrastructure and Access has scored the highest at 58.95 of 100 points. It indicates some progress in expanding educational opportunities. It is followed by another domain ‘Inclusion’, based on equity and technology. Public financing scored lowest among all highlighting the need for increased and better targeted spending in education sector. Domain of Learning also scored poorly, reflecting persistently low learning outcomes among students. Governance and Management though slightly better than learning but still falls in the low category, mainly due to teacher shortages and high bureaucratic turnover.
Read: Education Inequality in Pakistan
Punjab emerged as a top performing province with a composite score of 61.39 followed by K.P.K with score of 54.88, while Sindh and Balochistan lagged behind with score of 52.49 and 45.70 respectively. Pertaining to the district level insights, the report said none of 134 districts falls within “very high” performance category, while only Islamabad in ‘high’ category makes an outliner as the highest performing district. More than half of Pakistan’s districts (76) falls into the “low” performance category. These low performing districts are predominantly in Balochistan (33) and Sindh (22). Notably all Districts of Balochistan province fall into low education performance category. No districts from Balochistan as well as Sindh represented in the top ten.
This disparity among provinces as well as districts proves anomalies. It triggers uncertainty in the minds of people of less developed areas. It certainly distracts the national harmony and cohesion.
Hoping for the best, but we have not enough time now, so start taking the solid steps to address these issues on war footings.
Read: Educational Standards of Sindh
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Ghansham Narwani is a young English graduate from Islamkot Tharparkar associated with teaching.
