With the passage of the 18th Amendment to the constitution, education is devolved to the provinces. But it seems the federal government has not reconciled with the idea. What sense does the National Education Policy 2016 make? The interprovincial dialogue being initiated by the federal government to improve NEP 2009 is unconstitutional and an act of infringing upon the right of the provinces. The toils of the 2009 policy will be lost if the centre tries to thrust its views on the provinces.
Constitutionally, the federal government cannot legislate on subjects that are devolved to the federating units. However, the logic given by the centre to advance the cause of education is that people at the provincial level are not trained enough to take this ‘onerous’ responsibility. In addition, there are concerns being aired by some quarters in the security establishment that if provinces are allowed full authority on matters as important as education it may somehow compromise the ideology of the country and may loosen the federation. This argument does not hold the ground. The federal government solely prepared education policies in all those years. Now saying that education in the hands of provinces will threaten the federation is like putting the cart before the horse.
Syed Baqar Hussain Shah
Larkana