Education challenges in Sindh
By Asghar Soomro

Historically, the federal government had no role in education and it remained a purview of provincial governments. From the Government of India Act of 1935 down to the 1962 Constitution, education policy was the full responsibility of provinces. For the first time, education policy was placed under the concurrent legislative list in the 1973 Constitution. Now that education has been devolved to provincial governments under the Eighteenth Amendment, there are, unfortunately, still plans afoot by vested interests to reverse this process and if this succeeds, it will contribute to the trust deficit between the federal and provincial governments. Hence, provincial governments must guard their constitutional right and make the most of this opportunity by demonstrating improvements in the education sector.

Making education a statutory fundamental right is not enough unless implementation steps are taken seriously. The situation merits a thorough understanding of the sector focusing on three main indicators: available resources, current enrolment and the number of out-of-school children, and quality. This analysis will explain how huge a task it is to provide free and compulsory education from the primary to matric level.

The Sindh government roughly spends 21 per cent of its budget on education. In 2013-14, it has kept Rs118 billion for education out of a Rs617 billion outlay. According to Sindh Education Information Management System’s 2011-12 data, there are 50,494 primary, elementary, secondary and higher secondary schools in 23 districts with a total enrolment of 4.33 million children. Of these schools, 91 per cent are primary schools claiming 73.6 per cent of the provincial education budget. This is the area where over 7,000 ghost and closed schools exist and teachers draw salaries without performing their duties.

This is a test of the Sindh government’s commitment towards its constitutional obligations. It needs to build new schools, hire additional teachers and incur other related expenses. All this has huge budgetary implications; the government has to increase the current budget by 100 per cent in order to achieve a target of 100 per cent enrolment at primary level by 2017-18. Considering resource constraints, this is unlikely to happen. So, what should be the strategy for resource mobilisation in order to accomplish 100 per cent enrolment? Two available opportunities are the involvement of the private sector and international donor agencies. Both sectors are already extending their help, though with reservations. The government must chalk out a clear policy of winning their confidence. At present, there is only the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Act, which can facilitate such involvement but even that is inadequate as it mainly deals with infrastructure projects in the province and does not mention ‘services’.

In addition to this Act, there is an adopt-a-school policy for engaging the private sector and individuals in improving low-performing public schools. The policy is implemented through the Sindh Education Foundation, a semi-autonomous organisation. There are a lot of lacunas in the policy, with school adopters having limited control over government teachers, curriculum etc. Realising these shortcomings, Sindh’s education and literacy department has started a process of review in consultation with relevant stakeholders. As a result, a first set of amendments to the PPP Act have been prepared by experts. The proposed amendments represent the needs of the education department only, so without taking input from other departments, possibilities are very low for it to be passed by the legislators.

Another challenge being faced by Sindh is the quality of the education. The findings of National Education Assessment System, Provincial Education Assessment System, Standard Achievement Test and others confirm apprehensions that public education is on the verge of collapse. The government must come up with a comprehensive policy for public-private partnership; otherwise, the aim of 100 per cent enrolment will remain unachieved.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9th, 2014.