Governments in developing countries have often prioritised capital-intensive mega projects over schemes that might benefit the vast majority of their populations. Electoral politics and constituency dynamics are among the reasons governments initiate such projects. These dazzling projects capture the imagination of the masses during election campaigns, which is why they remain high on politicians' priority lists. As a result, governments in the Global South have spent trillions of dollars on such initiatives over the past six decades.
The situation has not been rosy in Pakistan either, where billions of dollars have been pumped into similar projects since the 1980s. Many complain that successive governments have always ignored the most pressing issues. Consequently, the country has yet to make it to the list of states with a strong Human Development Index. Over 900 million people are facing one or another form of poverty in the country. Literacy levels are still unimpressive, and over 40 per cent of children face the spectre of stunted growth due to food deficiencies. In addition, millions of children are condemned to work as labourers, while over 80 per cent of the population does not have access to clean drinking water.
Amidst this gloomy scenario, it is encouraging to know that the Punjab government has enrolled 1.1 million out-of-school children. This is a paltry number compared to the more than seven million children who are out of school in the most populous province. There are conflicting figures about the total number of out-of-school children. A few years ago, Unicef revealed that Pakistan had the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children (OOSC), with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5–16 not attending school, representing 44 per cent of the total population in this age group. In the 5–9 age group, five million children were not enrolled in schools, and after primary school age, the number of OOSC doubled, with 11.4 million adolescents aged 10–14 not receiving formal education.
The report stated that disparities based on gender, socio-economic status, and geography are significant. In Sindh, 52 per cent of the poorest children (58 per cent of them girls) are out of school, and in Balochistan, 78 per cent of girls are out of school. Nearly 10.7 million boys and 8.6 million girls are enrolled at the primary level, but this drops to 3.6 million boys and 2.8 million girls at the lower secondary level.
It seems that criminal negligence has been demonstrated by the ruling elite toward this critical issue. For instance, in 2021, the federal cabinet was briefed by the then education minister that there were 18.7 million OOSC. However, a report prepared by the Pakistan Institute of Education in collaboration with Unesco – based on 2021 and 2022 data and released in January last year – claimed that the number of OOSC had risen to 26.2 million. This marks a phenomenal 40 per cent surge since 2021.
Given all this, it is heartening to know that the Punjab government has finally decided to pay attention to this vital issue. However, it must remember that in the past, there was often a huge gap between claims and reality. Therefore, the government must verify officials’ claims that they have indeed enrolled this number of children in school.
The Punjab government should also take note of the joint Unesco-PIE report, which claimed that the province topped the list in this matter, with 10.11 million children lacking access to education. This means that a huge number of children are yet to be enrolled. Hectic efforts are needed to ensure that the remaining children are brought back to school before the end of Maryam Nawaz’s term in office.
The situation is not promising in other provinces either. In Sindh, the number of such children is believed to be over seven million; in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 3.6 million; and in Balochistan, 3.1 million. The federal ruling elite is equally negligent, with Islamabad having more than 80,000 children who are not attending school.
Governments seem to have been adopting misguided policies to address literacy, the issue of out-of-school children in particular. For instance, provinces have been pumping billions of rupees into the coffers of so-called education foundations, which amounts to the privatisation of public education in one form or another. The issue is simple: the government needs to recruit more teachers, improve school buildings, and provide all the modern facilities required for learning environments.
A school is not an abstract concept. In the absence of required facilities, no child would want to attend. For instance, media reports in 2023 claimed that in KP, 4,528 out of 35,000 government schools lacked electricity, 3,289 had no water supply, 1,648 lacked lavatories, and 1,552 had no boundary walls. While facilities may be comparatively better in Punjab, the province still has the largest number of out-of-school children. This contradiction needs to be thoroughly investigated.
Maryam Nawaz has instructed the provincial School Management Councils to provide necessary facilities in schools, for which Rs10 billion has been allocated. The Punjab government will reportedly build the required classrooms in all schools within a year and repair 580 of the most dilapidated and 2,770 precarious school buildings.
While these are welcome moves, outsourcing schools is not a wise decision. Similar outsourcing in various government departments only exacerbated problems. Education foundations and NGOs have been working for decades, yet these private entities have failed to produce any miracles. They are often more interested in acquiring school and college buildings because of their lucrative locations in large cities. Given the fact that regulatory bodies in government departments are largely ineffective, these buildings could be used for commercial purposes in the future. These private entities could also raise fees, making education even more inaccessible for poor children.
It is disturbing to learn that 11,000 schools have been outsourced in Punjab alone. Other provincial governments are also pursuing some form of privatisation. Such moves could drive more children out of school, as private entities often make one set of promises when taking over school buildings and act contrary to those promises once they have consolidated their control. For example, all private schools are supposed to reserve a certain percentage of seats for poor students. Yet, from elite English-medium institutions to low-income schools in working-class areas, no school effectively implements this policy.
Therefore, the Punjab government must halt all forms of privatisation, enforce the quota policy for marginalised students in private schools, and launch multiple shifts in public schools to address the issue of out-of-school children. Punjab’s literacy rate is around 64 per cent or slightly higher. It is shameful that the PML-N has failed to achieve universal literacy despite ruling the province for over 20 years.
The writer is a freelance journalist who can be reached at: egalitarianism444@gmail.com
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