I'm sure all of us are familiar with the deplorable statistics pertaining to educational outcomes across all the provinces and at every stage of schooling, from primary to tertiary education.

Background
While there have been some promising reforms in the last decade or so in terms of curriculum quality, a switch in policy discourse from just enrollment to enrollment and quality, standardization of key educational inputs such as examinations and teacher education, the reality is that the vast majority of students in public-sector schools still display very sub-par learning outcomes. National assessment surveys such as the ones conducted by the Annual State of Education (ASER) report and the National Education Assessment System (NEAS), as well as province-specific examinations such as the Standardized Achievement Test (SAT) in Sindh and the Punjab Examination Commission (PEC) substantiate the notion that our students are not developing the 21st century skills of critical thinking, language fluency (not just in English, but in Urdu as well), and technical expertise needed to both reach their God-given potential and to compete globally.

Diagnosis
While the problems for this absence of quality are myriad, I believe that the four of the biggest contributory factors are the following:

• System of governance: The system of governance in place in Education is both outdated and inefficient. There is a huge focus on accountability without the concurrent emphasis needed on mentoring (of teachers, teacher trainers district education officials etc.)

• Lack of technical leadership in key apex institutions: Contrary to popular belief, the organization of educational management is a highly technical discipline, requiring not just good leadership and project management skills, but an in-depth knowledge of the particular strands of educational activity. By that, I mean that no matter how effective a person is as an administrator, if s/he is appointed as the head of an institution like, for example, a provincial textbook board, the board will not succeed unless that person has academic knowledge regarding curriculum development, textbook writing, etc.

• Political stasis: As some of the reform required will involve a rationalization and reorganization of both financial and HR resources, there is strong opposition to change from various influential individuals and institutions who see any change in status quo as a threat to their current standing. As a result, any authentic reform activity is either watered down or not sustainable. As an example, we all know that the assessments created by the Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Examinations across the country are of poor quality and encourage rote memorization. Yet, there has been little reform in this area. Why? The chairmen of the BISEs enjoy a great deal of political hegemony, and even voices emanating from within these institutions are drowned out by the need to preserve the status quo.

• Teaching as a viable career: As the saying goes: Teaching is the profession of the Prophets. Despite this, teaching, especially the teaching of young children (which one can argue is actually the most important stage in education because of the neural plasticity of children at this age and their ability to absorb information) is not considered as a feasible career option in our country, both in terms of the financial incentive and in terms of the perceived prestige of the profession. I myself have had to personally face this struggle, as I taught for two years at a public-sector school but had to switch careers because of intense pressure from otherwise understanding family members, relatives and friends. As a country, we have neglected what many respected commentators regard as one of the most important resources a country can have, i.e. skilled and passionate teachers. As the saying goes, a country's education system is only as good as the quality of its teachers.

Solution
A holistic solution is extremely multi-layered, so I won't go into details, but an essential component of the solution has to be a stream in the bureaucratic arm of the government that is dedicated to addressing the problems in education. And yet, despite the fact that there are dedicated streams for Police, Customs etc., there is no such service for education. I believe that from induction training to the posting into a leadership role, we need a cadre of individuals who spend their whole careers in the field of education to develop a familiarity with grass-roots problems and the technical expertise needed to reform institutions from within. And yet, this is not the case.

The questions I pose to everyone are:

• Why isn't there a stream dedicated to education in our civil services?

• What will it take to actually introduce this stream into our bureaucracy?

As long as these questions don't become part of the regular discourse happening in the top echelons of power, we will continue to do a disservice to the millions of children studying across the country with the potential to lead productive, fulfilling lives because of quality education but who face the reality of not having the cognitive and linguistic tools at their disposal to fulfil that potential.

One thing which required to be done as far the syllabus concerned is up gradation. Only this can possible when the indigenous dynamics channelised to the policy makers. Such existing gap is the backdrop against the lack of devotion towards research in strengthening National Education Sector. At the local level, teachers' grievances always left unheeded and snubbed while revising syllabus and other reforms.
Second, well trained and experienced teachers often switch due to attracted salary packages offered by the private sector. Consequently, incompetent and next to layman teachers inducted to run the already dying national institutions and often hired through nepotism to show books filled which seldom left with ghost incumbents.
Third, Human Resource Management is a broad area though we adopted some of its features in departmental affairs but it yet has to be taken from the very emphasis of the policy makers.
Fourth, incumbents currently serving in education departments are not utterly obsolete neither devoid of Civil Servants' Assistance. PAS officer often acts as Secretaries for Education Department.
Fifth, adding another cadre will only put immense weight on the already dying economy.
Significantly, impediments against we posed, the stumbling blocks on the road of reviving education sector, are socio-economic, socio-cultural and socio-political.
Broader National Education Policy can uplift education sector which will cover HRM, TRAINING, SKILL DEVELOPMENT, RESEARCH AND MANY OTHER LANGUISHING AREAS all at the national level
In a nutshell, of the utmost concern, is economic, which if get robust can create enough breathing space for opening gates towards emphasising National Education Policy (Long Term).
On the flip side, it may soon shrink and turn into oblivion due to Private Sector Domination which is another area of concern.

__________________
Once more into the fray, into the last good fight I’ll ever know. Live and die on this day.