Absence of Basic Education in Rural Villages Main Cause
of US Failure in Afghanistan/Pakistan War on Terror
By Pervaiz Lodhie
Torrance, CA
Ever since Pakistan came into being the children of the rich, privileged, feudal, politicians have received expensive and highest quality of education, first in Pakistan, and later in the West. Once these children move to the Western countries for higher education they seldom come back to Pakistan to play a role in its progress. This has been going on for over 50 years.
About 15 years ago, in 1995 to be precise, a group of rich Pakistani businessmen started “The Citizens Foundation” (www.thecitizensfoundation.org/) to bring quality and affordable education to the children of the middle class in cities and urban areas. In 1997 a group of Pakistani-American women from Southern California started the “Development in Literacy” (www.dil.org/) program for women and children of the poor in cities and urban areas of Pakistan. Similar initiatives on a smaller scale were started by others like the 2002 “Zindagi Trust” program (www.zindagitrust.org/) by Pakistani Rock star Shezad Roy. All these educational programs starting around the same time for the poor and the middle class are paying dividends today in a big way. Today you hear the desire and urgent need for imparting education in every corner of Pakistan. It is coming from those that opposed education for the masses like the feudal. Today private education is big business and thousands of private schools are successfully educating the middle class.
The only area that was left out and ignored was the underprivileged segment of the population - millions of the poorest in rural villages. Generations of these villagers and their children could not afford to send their children to cities. They did not have enough to eat. They remained slaves to the feudal lords. Lack of education fueled overpopulation, disease and provided the biggest resource to extremists to build their terrorists base by brainwashing, indoctrinating children of the poor in madrassas in return for basic meals, clothes and shelter. This goes on unabated today.
In 2002 a revolutionary program to educate millions of poor village children and their parents along with basic mother and child healthcare was started by Pakistani-American and global Diaspora in conjunction with the Pakistan government. Together they launched the first of its kind Public-Private partnership for the education of the rural poor at unbelievably low cost and with limited financial resources. The program is UNDP recognized and supported and called NCHD or National Commission for Human Development (www.nchd.org.pk/). In a short span of eight years the program has brought K-5 Universal Primary Education to over 10 million children and adult literacy to 10 plus million at a minimal cost of around $15 per child per year. This compares with around $120 per child per year by TCF and $80 per child per year by DIL. NCHD is an autonomous body which gets the major part of its funds from the Government of Pakistan while the private sector guides, directs and audits it.
Unfortunately, the NCHD program is only able to take care of 30% of the total annual needs to help Pakistan meet the UNDP Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015. The only way to turn the war on terror and extremism around is to provide basic primary education to the rural children so that they no longer go to the madrassas. It is also necessary to help the madrassas become qualified basic education institutions. All this requires additional funds for years because successful benefits of education only become visible after years. Pakistan’s resources for education are shrinking. Most available funds are used for fighting the war on terror. Without a large financial supporting partner like America imparting education in the rural villages will remain a challenging task.
The United States Economic Assistance Fact Sheet for Pakistan 2010 shows $281 million designated for general category “Education”. Out of this allocation $28 million have been earmarked for Higher Education and $72 million for Basic Education. USAID Pakistan has the responsibility to utilize these funds for qualified projects. USAID funds “High Impact” or “High Visibility” projects. There is no sign or proof on the ground in Pakistan on how these $281 million USAID funds are spent. NCHD Universal Primary Education Schools and Adult Literacy Centers are present in all the 144 Districts of Pakistan. They are in all the four provinces including FATA, Gilgit-Baltistan. There cannot be a more “High Impact” or “High Visibility” Education program other than the existing very successful NCHD model. USAID can help take this already functioning model to a higher level by becoming the third and catalytic partner in the present Public-Private partnership. This is the only way to turn the war on terror around after 30 years. (Pervaiz Lodhie is President and CEO of Ledtronics, Inc. plodhie@ledtronics.com)
