Hefty funding required to implement NEPF

ISLAMABAD: Hefty funding is required to implement even partially the National Education Policy Framework (NEPF), formulated by the Ministry of Federal Education & Professional Training during the first 100 days of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

The NEPF, a copy of which is available with The News, identifies the major challenges with the first and foremost being the addressing of 22.5 million out of school children (OOSC) and ensuring children complete education. Introduction of uniform education for all children, provision of quality education across the system, and tertiary education and skill are the other challenges cited in the NEPF.

The document says the federal education ministry will lead an active dialogue with the finance department, accountant general and controller general of accounts to remove financial bottlenecks and bring efficiency in the education budgets and audits.

Talking about the removal of financial barriers, the NEPF suggested better targeting of the “Waseela-e-Taleem (conditional cash transfers for education under Benazir Income Support Programme) to augment primary enrollment and completion; catalytic funds to support provincial implementation especially in disadvantaged areas; active coordination with finance departments for timely fiscal transfers to education departments and efficient utilization of existing budgets. It said all provinces are already providing girls stipends for transition to secondary and will consider better targeting of stipends for improved results.

According to the NEPF, the OOSC will primarily require a special focus particularly in the disadvantaged districts with the highest number of out of school children. The information can be easily compiled from existing data sources (education census and household surveys) and further validated by sample survey in selected disadvantaged areas to reconfirm the number of OOSC and the reason for them being out of school. Understanding the reason why children are out of school in an area would be the key to the selection of the intervention to bring OOSC into the school. Considering the diversity across Pakistan there will be a need to use a variety of interventions based on the research findings and especially target girls and minorities.

The NEPF recommended maximisation of existing infrastructure by consolidating primary, middle and high schools; introduction of afternoon shifts where feasible to address school shortage; improvement of missing facilities in existing schools to attract and retain children; increase of access to secondary schools particularly for girls either through the establishment of new schools, school up-gradation and provision of transport in remote areas; and redeployment of unused public buildings as education facilities, which has been successfully implemented in certain parts of Balochistan.

Titled as “innovative solutions”, the framework recommended introduction of Taleemi Razakar/Teach for Pakistan internship programmes for young graduates to teach in schools, especially to fill the gap of science, mathematics and language teachers. Such Razakars will take care of the shortage of teachers and capacity across Pakistan. It proposed integration of basic skill programmes with non-formal programmes.

The NEPF suggested restructuring and improvement of existing programmes to deliver non-formal education and accelerated learning programmes in targeted areas and community mobilisation for bringing OOSC in schools, increased school enrollment and retention; technology interventions to improve teachers and student content knowledge; online web-portals for free education content; offline content solutions and options in remote areas and use of technology to improve education management systems.

The framework also listed the priorities: decrease in OOSC and increase in school participation; uniform education system; quality; and enhancement of access to and relevance of skill training.

The NEPF noted that Pakistan faces significant education challenges in providing uniform and quality education for all children. It systematically performs lower than its South Asia neighbours and countries with similar per capita income. It is also amongst the E9 countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan) that have the world’s highest OOSC.

It said that with more than half of its adult population unable to read and write, Pakistan lacks a literate and skilled human resource that can contribute in its development. Low financing coupled with inefficiency in budget spending and weak management have crippled the system resulting in poor education outcomes.

According to the NEPF, the latest education data indicates that there are almost 22.5 million OOSC with more girls than boys. Increase in primary net enrollment rates (NER) across Pakistan have remained static over the years and even show a decrease in some provinces. There is a large gender, economic and geographic disparity in education enrollment. The enrollment data when disaggregated by geographic areas is much more alarming for certain districts for e.g., primary NER (age 5-9) is as low as 40% in Bahawalpur, 26% in Tando Muhammad Khan, and Harnai and 30% in Kohistan against an average of 57% for Pakistan.

This indicates that some parts of Pakistan are at a more disadvantage than others. Similarly, children from poor families and those residing in rural areas are further disadvantaged. Also girls are more disadvantaged than boys. Most of the OOSC reside in rural areas with Balochistan and tribal areas having the highest percentage.