Our Education
Deficit
By Dr Shireen M. Mazari
It is a strange phenomenon that
as the number of private educational institutions
in the country has increased; the overall standards
of education within the country have declined. The
public schools fast-declining standards have been
a given for many decades now and much has been written
on that count. But scant attention is being paid
to the burgeoning industry that private schools
have become. Yet these are the institutions that
a sizeable chunk of our bureaucracy and other elites
are eventually drawn from and that is why we have
increasingly poorly educated civil servants -- as
reflected in the story published in The News on
April 2. It was sad rather than funny.
Despite the increasing fees and competitiveness
of private schools, it is not difficult to see the
declining educational standards that are rampant
across the country -- because schools are the nurseries
for our universities. Of course, some will contend
that our children's performance in the O and A level
examinations has seen a steady increase in A grades;
but the picture is fudged because many private school
systems, especially, compel their weak students
to appear as private candidates so that the school
picture is artificially rosy!
One of the problems today is that education has
become an extremely lucrative business in Pakistan
and therefore all manner of private schools are
mushrooming around the country -- with no control
or accountability system. Some schools have become
school systems, and none are answerable to any authority
in the country. Parents often get short shrift if
they become interventionist, because there are always
students waiting to get into one or the other private
school. This is not to say that all schools are
bad. There are some excellent schools but these
are scarce and are exceptions.
The major issue is one of accountability. No one
is accountable either for what is being taught in
these schools or for how it is being taught. The
owners are the final arbiters and can hire, fire
and expel at will with no control from any supervisory
body. This issue was raised in the present cabinet
by the education minister, but vested interests,
especially of the private school systems, raised
a major hue and cry and that was the end of the
issue. But there are some serious issues involved
and the government does need to lay down some basic
ground rules.
To begin with, there has to be some supervisory
body which includes parents and civil society members
to oversee private schools and to receive and examine
complaints relating to these schools. After all,
the multi-branch schools often have six to ten sections
in each grade, and each section has over twenty
students with only one teacher. So the slower or
quieter children often get neglected -- especially
in a class of almost thirty students. That is why
there is now a growing menace of excessive homework.
The teachers are shifting the burden of teaching
on to parents at a time when in many families both
parents are working. So eventually the norm of private
tuitions has become pervasive and often the schools'
own teachers provide tuition to their own students
thereby earning extra income.
However, this means the children spend a good two
to three hours studying after they come home from
a full day at school -- hardly a healthy life for
young people who need their leisure hours, especially
outdoors. Nor is this the only health hazard that
confronts the school child of today -- and I am
talking of those children whose parents often struggle
to meet the costs of private education in the vain
hope that this will provide better opportunities
in life to their child.
The other basic hazard is that schools are opening
up in all manner of residential houses and their
conversion to schools requires no building examinations
or minimal standards. With crowded classrooms, and
often no fire exits, these schools put the children
at risk every day. In addition, a lack of professionalism
in the teachers, as well as bad student-teacher
ratios, encourages violence in schools often leading
to injury. Again schools will rarely accept liability
or even responsibility for the results of the growing
violence in schools.
Coming to the education imparted, since there are
no minimal standards to comply with either in terms
of course content or teachers' qualifications, women
with time to spare suddenly transform themselves
into teachers and are allowed to teach subjects
in which they are not specialized -- often having
studied them only at school or intermediate level.
Then there is a high turnover of teachers' themselves
since many are simply whiling away their time either
till their husbands get posted elsewhere or they
themselves get married. It is not uncommon to find
children dealing with at least three new teachers
for some subjects every year.
Fee structures are also totally controlled by the
owners and there is no supervision so as schools
become more popular their fees rise higher and parents
are presented with a fait accompli. Also, many private
schools pay no heed to the government rule that
O level students must take up Urdu, Pakistan Studies
and Islamiat; while some are inculcating their own
political values on to the young children. In any
event, the standard of Pakistan Studies is a serious
issue and achieves no purpose. Instead, a proper
study of the history of this region and the Pakistan
movement would be more useful in secondary schools
along with world history -- which is presently a
major deficit in our educational system. As for
Islamiat -- the O level syllabus is absurd because
it has a sectarian bias with children being allowed
to choose which sectarian version of the subject
to take up in terms of the O level examination.
In any case, religious instruction should be part
of a child's home environment and not a compulsory
secondary school subject -- rather an optional one
for anyone wishing to specialize in it later. What
should be taught in schools -- that is, the national
anthem is often missing altogether from some private
schools.
In this environment, the government has to take
swift and rational action if we are to overcome
our education deficit at the primary and secondary
school levels. There is a need to lay down minimal
standards for the curricula as well as rationalizing
it. There is also a need to lay down a minimum pay
scale and other facilities and qualifications for
teachers. Perhaps most important, there must be
supervisory bodies to oversee the functioning of
private schools and to take note of complaints from
parents. Private schools cannot function in a legal
void; hence the need to create laws to regulate
and supervise these institutions.
Some of the older and established private schools
have their governing boards, but most private schools
do not even have these. In any event, with a few
exceptions, governing boards are not inclined to
be full time watch dogs and an external regulatory
authority is needed to ensure that private schools
are imparting standardized and quality education,
through properly qualified and trained teachers,
in safe and properly constructed buildings. The
profit motive must be balanced by societal responsibility.
(The writer is director general of the Institute
of Strategic Studies in Islamabad. Courtesy The
News)
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