Rs85 billion to be spent on health in five years

By Ihtasham ul Haque

ISLAMABAD, Dec 29: The government has decided to allocate Rs85 billion for the development of new programmes in the health sector during 2005-10. Official sources told Dawn that for the first time such a huge funding would be made available for different health programmes for which a comprehensive plan has been developed to be implemented by the provinces and local government institutions.

The ministry of health will be playing a lead role and offering institutional and administrative support to help meet various health-related targets.

The new funding programme, sources said, has been finalized in line with the measures adopted during 2000-05 by the government to improve primary and secondary health-care services and reproductive health-care services.

However, according to an official document, the main challenge is the availability of access to skilled manpower. It is a well-established fact that public health facilities — particularly in rural areas — are inadequately staffed by female staff in general and women doctors in particular.

In recent years, the health sector has witnessed a major drive to increase the number of lady health workers but the remote and under-developed districts have not benefited from this due to non-availability of qualified women. This concern also applies to lady health visitors.

It is also said that there is a need to institutionalize management and governance reform and build better incentives through civil service reforms so as to ensure efficiency at the management level. “A system of reward and accountability within the system may be encouraged so that civil servants are motivated to perform better.”

Talking about challenge and constraints, the document said that lack of coordination between federal and district governments affects health service delivery.

Under the district devolved system, many health activities are meant to be locally implemented. However, these are being marred by the souring of relationship between the provincial and district governments. The provinces sway control over personnel and are reluctant to let go of funds.

Therefore, there is a need to devolve fiscal and administrative responsibilities in full to the districts, the document urged.

Another important barrier to achieving maternal health outcomes is fragmentation of maternal health services. Successive health policies since the 1950s have emphasized the need for an integrated maternal and child health programme.

http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/30/nat24.htm
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Curricula being improved, says Musharraf

By Our Staff Reporter

LAHORE, Dec 29: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said the syllabi and curricula are being improved and efforts made to dispel confusion over the medium of instruction. He was speaking at the 17th annual convocation of LUMS here on Thursday. He said: “There is no denying the fact that Urdu is our national language and English our strength. We, therefore, need to strengthen both. It has been decided that some subjects at the primary level must be taught both in English and Urdu.”

About the state of higher education, he said it was altogether ignored in the past. “It was shameful for a country with nuclear and missile technology to have a few dozen PhDs back in 1999. Now we have more than 700 PhDs and after two years the country will produce 1,500 PhDs every year,” he added.

The president said the budget for the higher education had been enhanced from Rs600 million to Rs22 billion. He said the emphasis was on science and technology on which the economy based.

He said the allocation of the funds would be made in three areas: maintenance of varsities; development of libraries, laboratories and other infrastructure; and improvement in the quality of education.

He said a couple of months back 100 PhDs and 250 Pakistani doctors, who had settled abroad, returned to serve their country which was an encouraging sign regarding the strengthening of faculties.

Gen Musharraf said a holistic approach towards education would lay a strong foundation. He said the provinces were investing a lot in improving the literacy rate. He said five universities would be established in the country with the foreign financial support by 2008.

He said technical education was yet another priority of the government. The standard of technical education would be improved up to the requirement of industries. The madaris reforms were also being given due importance.

The president urged the students to pay attention to their intellectual and moral development. “The character of a nation is collective, and the individuals and nations which lack this virtue, never rise,” he said. He asked them to develop honesty, truthfulness, contentment and humility in their personalities. Later, he gave away medals to the students.

Rector Abdul Razak Dawood, pro-chancellor Syed Babar Ali and Souriya Anwar also spoke.

http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/30/nat37.htm
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When schools become cattle shed

By Abid Mehdi

SIALKOT, Dec 30: The Government Girls Primary School, Olakh Awan in Sialkot, now virtually turns into a cattle shed, has been lying closed for the last three years due to absence of teachers.

Area notables, including Muhammad Akram Bhatti, Shehzad Fazal, Tahir Sarfraz and Muhammad Afzal Bhatti, informed reporters that all the affected students were forced to take admission into private schools.

They claimed that female teachers appointed in this rural area school had never visited it, but were getting their monthly salaries with the alleged connivance of officials concerned of the education department.

Villagers had tethered their animals in some classrooms and playground as the iron gate of the school had long been disappeared. Fodder also found its place in classrooms. Furniture, doors and windows had been damaged as well, they claimed.

Similar is the situation of the Government Girls Elementary School, Looni, in Bajwat. Also closed for the same reason, its students are compelled to get education in far-off places.

This school falls in electoral constituencies of National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Ameer Husain and Punjab Industries Minister Muhammad Ajmal Cheema.

Sialkot EDO (Education) Dr Saifullah Cheema said that a strict departmental probe had been ordered against teachers of these schools and officials concerned of the education department.


http://www.dawn.com/2005/12/31/nat15.htm

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5,000 enrolled in adult literacy plan

By Our Correspondent

CHITRAL, Dec 31: Learning for All (LFA) project has enrolled about 5000 adult males and females to make them literate in its second batch and doubled the number of literacy centres keeping in view the growing number of learners.

Talking to Dawn here on Saturday, sector director of LFA Chitral Mir Ahmed Khan said that the literacy project “has gained unprecedented popularity” throughout the district which can be gauged from the fact that in the first academic batch, the number of learners was 2467 which spiralled to 5000 in the second batch. The number of literacy centres had to be increased to 210.

An academic batch is of four-month duration during which they are enabled to read and write and make simple arithmetical calculations at the end of which examinations are held to assess how much they have learned. Those obtaining 60 per cent marks are awarded certificates. In the examination of the first batch, 1847 learners were declared pass, out of a total 2467.

Expressing his satisfaction over the efficiency of the learners, he said that much enthusiasm was evinced by them.

He said that womenfolk engaged in housekeeping came in great numbers to the centre, sparing three hours a day for the purpose. Mr Ahmed said that in the next batch, the number of literacy centres will further be increased.


http://www.dawn.com/2006/01/01/nat46.htm
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nice article...

Elusive development goals

By Afshan Subohi

Set aside the GDP growth rate, which has been projected at around seven per cent or slightly less, the year 2006 will offer disproportionately less to the poorer segment of the population. The government will spend less than what is needed to pull a sizeable proportion of the poverty stricken out of the mire. There may be an issue with the adequacy of resources to deal with the problem of economic exclusion. This, however, seem not to be the limiting factor. The problem is with the national leaders who are quite contented with the performance of the economy in terms of GDP growth and other numbers and see no need for any change in the set of policies guiding the economic management. They expect the GDP growth to be sustainable even when its base is relatively narrow and beneficiaries limited.

The year ahead will, therefore, be another good year for the rich and prosperous people. For city dwellers who are left behind, it might be more of the same. But for about 10 per cent crushingly rural poor who are at the survival level, the year ahead could prove to be more distressful with many losing their loved ones to hunger and disease.

Person who works hard all day for Rs35 in paddy fields of Sindh and has to support ten people, young and old, with no help from the society has little future to look forward to. These overworked underfed Pakistanis probably accept suffering as their fate. They are mostly illiterate, ignorant and therefore vulnerable.

It is probably the instinct of survival that keeps them going. It is only when they see their very survival in danger that they look for alternatives. Those luckier and bolder with exposure, require resources or connections, get a chance to break out of their local ties and move to unfamiliar world of cities. Others continue to toil and suffer.

Had life been tolerable in rural areas the pressure on cities wouldn’t be what it is. Many families from Southern Punjab and men from upcountry in NWFP and Azad Kashmir move to cities in the south every year to join the teeming millions living a pitiable life in horrific slum areas. The decision to migrate is most certainly a conscious one based on economic assessment of options.

Life might not be easy for them, but in cities at least they do not sleep hungry. Big cities like Karachi, no matter how dehumanized, feed all its residents somehow. You may not be able to find the type of employment you prefer but if willing, you can find work to pay for your meals. Then, there are charities and dargahs and so many rich people. Here poor who cannot or do not work can beg, borrow or steal; options not always viable in their homelands.

The results of a sample survey of the Federal Bureau of Statistics were reproduced in the current Economic Survey by the government to substantiate its claims that a stellar growth along with increased spending on the social sector is taking care of distributive justice.

A quote from the survey: “Not only has the incidence of poverty shown a significant decline but other social indicators as well as those that represent the living conditions of the people have shown marked improvement (in FY20904-5) over 2000-01.”

The government finds the results of household consumption expenditure survey “highly encouraging”. The following paragraph from a public document reflects the fact that government is fully satisfied with direction of economic policies: “Wide ranging structural reforms, prudent macroeconomic policies, financial discipline and a consistency and continuity of policies, not seen before, have transformed Pakistan into a stable and resurgent economy. The stage is now set for economic growth to accelerate with private sector expected to play the leading role in the taking the economy on a higher growth trajectory.”

There is no denying the fact that the growth aggregates are good. But they are a poor measure to reflect a realistic picture of the economy. The distortion is greater when an economy is plagued by stark disparities (in-between regions and classes). It tends to translate reality no better than the statement that: ‘mean age in X room is 40’. In the X room an old woman of 79 is rocking an infant of one year.

The official documents state: “The per capita income in dollar terms increased from $526 in 1999-2000 to $625_ an increase of 24.0 per cent”. This does not necessarily mean that living conditions of all people of the country has changed for better.

Even if we ignore newspapers reports that do not confirm the official claims of rich dividends of prudent policies, brush aside from memories interaction with tragic reality and just take into account the specific poverty-centred development targets that the government is committed to achieve over the next ten years, the progress is far from satisfactory.

Pakistan endorsed eight millennium development goals along with other United Nation members in the year 2000. The overriding goal was to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

The current Pakistan Millennium Development Report 2005 that is a self-evaluation of the progress made by the country towards achieving development goals claims that the country has made “significant progress in all critical areas since the UN Summit in September 2000”. The relevant numbers were not convincing.

According to figures in the report the proportion of population below the calorie based food plus non-food poverty line was 32.1 per cent in 2001. The target is to reduce it to 13 per cent by 2015, i.e. bring it down by 19 per cent. To be on the target the country should have reduced it by above six per cent in the first five years to little above 25 per cent.

The report instead of giving the actual percentage to reflect the progress has given a target figure of 28 per cent. In all other categories such as prevalence of underweight children under five years of age and proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption again targets and not actual prevalent rates are produced in the table dealing with these numbers.

Again the government did not feel any compulsion to explain as to why it has not been able to provide these key numbers instead of targets. How in absence of relevant numbers to confirm the progress can the government justify that the philosophy of liberalization, deregulation, and privatization has enhanced the prospects of attaining these goals is not clear.

The government again took a position in the report that was not authenticated by the leaders of the private sector. It says that the MDGs are now centre piece of the country’s development agenda and that the involvement of all tiers of government, civil society and development partners has strengthened national ownership.

All indications, however, were that the report was prepared in comforts of government offices by a closed group of experts in consultation with representatives of donors who are now referred to as development partners.

The private sector leaders who are in constant touch with the government were not aware of any such exercise. Some even confessed that they were hearing the term MDGs for the first time. This was the participatory nature of evaluation.

Interestingly, the table reflecting the trend in income distribution covered the period till 2000-01 in the said report. What happened after that and during the period under review is left to the readers’ to imagine.

To give credit where it is due the pro-poor expenditure over the period of last five years has doubled in absolute terms from Rs150 to 300 billion. The spending as percentage of GDP increased for the first three years fell in 2003-04 and is static since.

By facts and policy statements of the government stated earlier, it is clear that there is no reason to expect anything dramatic that could trigger a process of change to ensure distributive justice in surging economy over the year ahead. The government is comfortable because rich who have power to pressurize are happy. Poor on the sidelines are distressed and not organized and therefore in no position to exert pressure on the government for their economic rights.

The initiatives to popularize micro credit and success of telecommunication sector resulting in massive increase in connectivity from three to 15 per cent of country’s population will improve lives of urban lower classes and rural middle classes over the year 2006. However, unless the government realizes and acknowledges the limitations of the current economic philosophy and changes it to more inclusive set of policies not centred on GDP growth alone, there is little hope for the poorest of the poor.

Even the State Bank of Pakistan has warned of deviation from the growth trajectory if the government is not vigilant and fails to address the weakness in the key indicators such as “lack of buoyancy in taxes, growth in current expenditure, and the external sector imbalance”. Achieving MDGs is crucial in social expenditure focused on rural sector, where poverty is most biting.

The view that policies of economic exclusion are not sustainable has failed to attract attention of dominant economic players.

Pressure is required to persuade the government to adopt more people friendly policies. In the current scenario the government in its quest for higher GDP growth seems to be insensitive to the distribution aspect of the growth and that is disturbing. In the absence of full political democracy, a move towards social democracy is a goal unattainable.

http://www.dawn.com/2006/01/02/ebr2.htm
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KARACHI: Eight more engineering varsities planned

By Mukhtar Alam

KARACHI, Jan 5: Pakistan will set up eight new world class engineering and technology varsities in its different cities with foreign collaboration during the next ten years, said Dr Attaur Rahman, chairman, Higher Education Commission (HEC), on Thursday.

He was talking to newsmen after attending the inaugural session of the 10th international symposium on “Natural product chemistry” at International Centre for Chemical Sciences (ICCS), University of Karachi.

Dr Atta said that the government had decided to embark upon a project aimed at establishing five engineering and 3 technology varsities of international standards and it was likely that a couple of varsities would go functional in two or three years time. The president of Pakistan will be briefed about the entire project, which is likely to cost Rs80-90 billion, on Jan 9, following which the matter would be placed before the Central Working Development Party of the government.

He said that lands for establishing three of the varsities in question had already been made available at Lahore, Karachi and Sialkot, while countries like Germany, Sweden, Austria, Korea and France would be assisting in the process. Initially, foreign experts and senior academics will be engaged on key posts, including those of the vice-chancellors, at the varsities, which would be run under the federal government charter, he added.

He said that a MoU had also been signed between Pakistan and Austria for mutual academic cooperation in the higher education sector and setting up of an engineering university. On average 300 students will be admitted at one university annually for undergraduate education and training in engineering or technology discipline, he informed a questioner, adding that postgraduate education would also be imparted at the varsity on cards.

To another question, he said that it was likely that the government’s spending in the educational sector would be raised up to 4 per cent of the GDP in a couple of years.

Replying to a question, he said that developments and quality were must both in the higher education and primary and secondary education sub-sectors simultaneously as both were complementary to each other.

He said that the government was allocating its budget for school and varsity education at a ratio of 7:1. The present budget allocation of the federal government for higher education is around Rs22 billion, he added.

Earlier, speaking as chief guest at the international symposium, Dr Atta, who is also adviser to the prime minister on science and technology, said that interaction among the scientists of the world, particularly those dealing in the science of chemistry was necessary to harness economic and health benefits of natural product across the globe.

He hoped that the symposium would prove a purposeful meeting of leaders and researchers coming down from both the developed and developing countries.

Dr Atta also informed the gathering about measures the HEC had taken in Pakistan to develop and promote higher education, particularly focussing on infrastructure and faculty development initiatives at varsities and institutions of higher learning.

Coming on the activities of the HEJ Research Institute and its shaping into the third world centre in chemical sciences, Dr Atta said that President Musharraf would inaugurate the LEJ National Science Centre at HEJ, a modern information and communication technology centre, hopefully next month.

The 10th International Symposium on Natural Product Chemistry being organized by ICCS, KU and Pakistan Academy of Sciences will continue till Jan 9.

Speaking at the inaugural session a German scientist, Prof Dr Wolfgang Voelter, said that high quality researches and sophistication in science and technology was possible only when a precise allocation of fund and personal freedom of scientists were ensured.

On the occasion, he also talked about the establishment and development of the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry and role of the German government with special reference to its funding in training programmes and said that it was heartening that the small chemistry centre had now become a prestigious institute of chemistry.

He also paid tributes to the services of late Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, the HEJ founder and lauded the role of Dr Attaur Rahman in bringing the centre into lime light.

Speaking on the occasion KU Vice-Chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim said that it was pleasant to see the ICCS holding another high standard symposium, wherein about 600 delegates from outside and within the country were participating.

The chairman of Hussein Ebrahim Foundation, Aziz Latif Jamal, and Dr Iqbal Choudhary, the HEJ acting director also spoke on the occasion.

About 196 scientists from abroad are attending the symposium comprising plenary lectures, invited lectures and poster presentation. Each lecture session scheduled to be held at a hotel will focus on a theme within the broader area of natural product sciences. Nobel laureate scientists of the world will also deliver their lectures on different core issues of chemistry.

http://www.dawn.com/2006/01/06/local3.htm
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Establishment of six varsities approved

RAWALPINDI, Jan 9: A high-level meeting on Monday approved the establishment of six new engineering universities in partnership with world class centres of excellence located in advanced countries to groom young talent in modern disciplines and spur industrial development.

President Pervez Musharraf chaired the meeting, which was also attended by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and senior officials.

The project of establishing the universities will be completed at a cost of Rs80 to 90 billion spanning over a ten-year period.

These universities will be developed in partnership with consortiums of engineering universities in Germany, France, Sweden, Austria, Korea and the Netherlands.

Speaking on the occasion, President Musharraf reiterated his emphasis on development of human resource as a way forward to sustained development.

He said the initiative of setting up engineering universities would provide synergy between higher education and the country’s industrial advancement and step up the pace of socio-economic development.

From the beginning, the president said, the government had realised the importance of science and technology and increased its budget.

In this context, he cited the huge difference that technological advancement makes in multiplying exports of a country and said the imparting of education in consort with requirements of fast-paced industrial development would lay a strong basis for long-term progress.

In his remarks, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said the government is focused on preparing the youth of the country in accordance with development needs on modern lines. The government, he said, will commit financial resources for establishment of these centres of excellence.

The six universities will be set up as part of a federal university system, close to industrial areas of major cities of Pakistan, and first classes at these universities will commence by 2008.

In the first ten years, about 300 to 400 of the brightest students would be sent abroad for training in foreign universities and during this training phase they will undergo tertiary level training.

These universities will be headed by leading foreign university academics in the first ten years.

The head of the Higher Education Commission, Dr Attaur Rehman, said the presence of leading foreign professors at key positions in the first ten years will help ensure high international standards of education at these institutions.

“In addition, we will also have external quality assurance agencies located in these countries, monitoring the examination system so that we are at par, and there will be complete equivalence between these universities and the universities in the respective foreign countries so that the students who study for one or two years in Pakistan, can carry on abroad and spend additional years in foreign universities.”—APP

http://www.dawn.com/2006/01/10/nat7.htm
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Kuwait Red Crescent to build two hospitals

ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: Red Crescent Society of Kuwait would construct two modern mobile hospitals of 40 beds in AJK and NWFP. Both the hospitals would be well equipped with modern facilities.

The decision came during a meeting between Faisal A. Al- Mulaifi Ambassador of Kuwait and chairman, Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) Lt-Gen Muhammad Zubair.

Both the hospitals would be ready by the end of May 2006. It was also decided that capacity-building of medical staff would be carried out by the authorities of Singapore which would construct the hospitals for Kuwait Red Crescent Society.

These two hospitals would not be included in the package which had already been announced and pledged by the Kuwaiti authorities, which was about 100 million dollars.

The Ambassador of Kuwait said that they were making all possible efforts to facilitate the Government of Pakistan in providing health facilities to the earthquake affected areas population.

Lt. Gen Muhammad Zubair thanked the Kuwaiti Envoy for extending assistance to the Pakistani authorities in reconstruction and rehabilitation of the areas affected by a devastating earthquake.

He said the act of kindness would be remembered by the people of Pakistan. He said Pakistan had a strong friendship with the Kuwait and the bilateral relations would become stronger with the passage of time.

UAE medical supplies: UAE Ambassador Ali Mohammed Al Shamsi handed a consignment of medicines over to the Federal Government Services Hospital (FGSH) here on Monday.

The medicines which had been donated by the UAE Red Crescent Society and other organizations were received by Dr Shahbaz Qureshi, the head of FGSH department of cardiology.

Speaking on the occasion, the ambassador said the UAE was continuing with its relief efforts and providing local hospitals with medicines.gencies

http://www.dawn.com/2006/01/10/nat15.htm
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Govt plans 82,000 new schools to boost literacy

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan plans to establish and operate 82,000 basic education community schools across the country at a cost of Rs28.2bn to increase the literacy rate, official sources said here yesterday.

The project of paramount importance is in line with the objectives and initiatives of National Education Policy, Perspective Plan and Education Sector Reform (ESR) Action Plan for the promotion and improvement of primary education and literacy in the country.

The establishment of the basic community schools would help overcome non-availability of primary schools in the remote areas and would promote accessibility to basic education which in turn would raise literacy rate and reduce poverty in the country.

According to sources in the Planning Commission, the Ministry of Education has submitted for approval the project valuing Rs28.251bn.

Presently, 156,000 primary, 28,700 middle and 8,970 non-formal basic education schools are functioning in the country. In addition to these facilities, the provinces and National Commission for Human Development have also launched their programmes.

Besides, the sources said, there are other ongoing and potential projects in the sector, according to which the federal government is in the process of establishing 350 community schools in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with a cost of Rs448.2m with foreign exchange component Rs303.2m, completing Adult Literacy Programme across the country at a cost of Rs100 million and executing ICT Adult Literacy Programme costing Rs34.5m.

The sources said the Punjab government is establishing 338 Early Childhood Centres in 26 districts (13 centres in each district) costing Rs27.450m, 4,216 Adult Literacy Centres (124 centres in each district), PIU costing Rs133.880m and establishing 42 model districts for literacy costing Rs981.374m.

The sources said the Sindh government is implementing the Skill-Based Literacy Programme in Karachi district and ESR in each district.

Likewise, the North West Frontier Province government is also implementing Literacy For All at the cost of Rs250m, Universal Primary Education at the cost of Rs120m and Basic Education Improvement Project at the cost of Rs591.302m.

The Balochistan government is implementing the ESR programme in each district.

The sources said that in addition to the mentioned projects, the literacy programmes have been implemented and community schools established by the National Education Foundation in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Fata and Northern Areas.

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Di...06010131257.xml
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Anything that is successful is a series of mistakes

Pakistan: Newsline

Making strides towards gender equality in the Punjab

An unexpectedly enthusiastic response to the call for girls’ education means that the Shahpur Government Girls Primary School cannot supply desks for all the classes.


On a steamy day at the Shahpur Government Girls’ Primary School Sidra Yasmin rises before her classmates, a group of attentive six-year-olds, and confidently counts to one hundred. “I used to stay at home with my elder sisters to look after my sick father,” says Sidra. “My mother works as a maid so we have to do the housework. Then one day I told my parents that I’d decided to go to school. I want to know how to read and write. They aren’t angry that I’m here. In fact, they’re proud of me.”
Sidra and her 92 classmates are packed three to a desk, but each has her own set of textbooks. By the time they complete Class 1, they will have acquired the basics of numeracy and literacy, as well as a general grounding in religious studies.

Next door in the pre-school class, an elfin five-year-old with pale skin and blue eyes is sniffling into a handkerchief. As she stands up, she fumbles for her satchel and bursts into tears. The teacher bends to her ear to deliver some words of reassurance. Stepping back to let the girl pass, the teacher explains, “She’s going home to her mother” as she watches her new charge cross the dirt courtyard and leave the compound. “It’s only her second day and she’s frightened. There’s no point in being strict if we want her to like school.”

Both girls, one reluctant, the other eager, are testimony to the success of the major education reforms introduced in the Punjab, Pakistan’s most densely populated province. With the aim of having every child between the ages of five and nine in school, the Punjab administration has passed legislation to make education compulsory, abolished school fees up to high school level, and sanctioned the provision of free textbooks.

In collaboration with the Punjab Education Department, UNICEF and partners are helping this vision become a reality through the Universal Quality Primary Education Project that was launched in 2003 with funding from the Norwegian Government. The target is to provide a good quality elementary education to every child, with an emphasis on girls’ education, in line with the Millennium Development Goal of achieving universal and equal primary education by 2015.

UNICEF chose six districts where enrolment rates were especially low: Kasur, Mianwali, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur, Sargodha and Sheikhupura. Just over half of the 1.4 million youngsters aged between five and seven living there had never been to school.

Community outreach boosts enrolment

Participation by the community is the driving force behind the enrolment campaign. At the start of the project, local organizations, supported by UNICEF and the Education Department, s howed teachers and community volunteers in 4,800 rural villages how to determine the number of children out of school. Knocking on door after door, they interviewed families in every house with children. Over cups of tea and coffee, they urged parents to send their children to school.

© UNICEF Pakistan/Zaidi


At another school, the Government Girls' Primary School Kotala Rajanapur in Punjab, students read from the free textbooks provided by the government for grades one to eight.


By the end of the first year, more than 304,000 children between the ages of five and seven had filed through the gates of primary schools. The enrolment rate in these communities was 85 per cent, compared with a provincial average of 50 per cent. The following year, 2004, enrolment exceeded the UNICEF target of 90 per cent. This grass-roots approach to enrolment has worked so well that the Pakistan government has replicated it in 16 other districts in the country.

Dropouts remain a challenge

However, full classrooms do not necessarily spell success. In the past, one out of every two children who has been enrolled in school in the Punjab has failed to complete primary education. This 50 per cent drop out rate mirrors the national average, which is amongst the highest in the world.

The statistics demonstrate a gender bias in retention rates that favours boys over girls. In the Punjab, two out of three girls drop out before completing primary school. One reason for this attrition rate is that many in Punjab’s conservative and patriarchal society regard girls who attend school as flouting religious and cultural codes of conduct.

At Shahpur, the Class 1 intake was so large it was divided into two. Yet, if past experience is any guide, most children will drop out in two or three years. By the fourth year, for instance, only 26 students remained in class. One of Shahpur’s teachers says, “Every girl has a right to be educated, but when they reach puberty their brothers and fathers make them drop their studies. They say ‘Now that you are big, stay at home and don’t show yourself out in the street’.” WE NEED TO GET RID OF THIS STUPID MENTALITY

Education quality improves

The focus on quality education, at the heart of UNICEF’s current country programme, is lready helping to reduce the dropout rate. The organization works through 18 local organizations and the administration’s learning coordinators, to train and monitor 30,000 teachers in child-friendly and gender-sensitive approaches to learning. It has also selected 150 schools for a pilot project to create development activities.

The members of 13,500 school councils already know how to monitor the school attendance of both pupils and teachers, and the enrolment of out-of-school children. UNICEF works closely with the District Education Departments and has trained 180 district education officials in the rights-based approach to education.

The push for universal enrolment is thought to have impacted on an equally important educational requirement - comprehension of what is being taught. A survey conducted among Punjabi primary school graduates revealed that they had retained and understood only one third of the standard curriculum.

Just as telling, only 34 per cent of Punjabi teachers surveyed could pass the primary school competency exams. Nevertheless, parents are motivated to keep their sons and daughters in school and are increasingly seeing that they are in an environment where they are truly learning.

“My girls are the first in the family to go to school,” says Azra Batool, who sits on the Shahpur School Council, “The head teacher’s father-in-law…persuaded my husband to send them. Recently, when he died, my daughter stood up and paid tribute to him as the man who opened up her future…. She’s planning to do a bachelor’s degree in teacher training now.”

http://www.ungei.org/gapproject/pakistan_175.html
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