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2008 Education Policy-
Rural-Urban Gap but No Remedial Policy Recommendations

By Syed Sadiquddin Hashmi, Karachi,

Education is the backbone in development of a nation, With Education, nation identifies it self in the nations of the world. Education give power and respect to small countries and enables them to control over its economy, with education one can conserve it resources in a better way. Education is the tool of success and dignity in this world. Educations help in character building and improve their moral responsibilities. Educations reduce crime and poverty from the society.

Last week, the federal Education Ministry issued a policy draft containing several policy statements regarding the future Education Policy of Pakistan. I urge the Peoples� Party of Pakistan (PPP) to reject this draft and appoint a commission composed of representatives from all provinces, ensuring that true representation from rural Sindh, Balochistan, and FATA. These three regions have poorest of poor educational facilities and opportunities and the people there are substantially lagging behind the rest of Pakistan.

The Ministry of Education of Government of Pakistan issued a draft of the National Education Policy on April 14, 2008. The draft available at http://www.moe. gov.pk/nepr/ new.pdf. Although the draft policy is comprehensive in many respects and clearly recognizes the inequities between rural and urban areas, it fails to mention that the conditions of educational facilities and opportunities in RURAL SINDH are as bad as in rural Balochistan and FATA. A synopsis of the key points from the draft is given at the end of this letter. My arguments for asking PPP to reject the draft policy are as follows:

1. The policy unfairly and irrationally pushes for centralization of Pakistan�s educational system. The centralization is one of the main reasons that has kept Pakistan from progressing. The over centralization has resulted in various forms of discrimination that the draft policy has itself recognized. However, the draft policy wrongfully says that modern states have one national education system. In fact, in most modern and progressing countries (including USA, India, Canada, etc.), the federal governments simply create some high-level guidelines, national standards and assessments systems but otherwise the matter of education is considered totally a provincial subject. This is the reason that constitution of Pakistan emphasizes gives the responsibility of education to the provinces. Unfortunately, the over-zealous proponents of the centralization have succeeded in continuing the �education� to be largely a federally controlled subject. But, we all know that the days of concurrent list are likely to end soon. The education policy makers must realize this reality and make changes to the policy to comply with the new era of decentralization.

2. The draft policy claims that new National Educational Policy supports the reflection of the local cultural contexts through curricula, etc. It forgets that only educational system that is run by provinces can truly reflect the real cultural context of their provinces.

3. The draft policy lumps all regional dialects and languages into one category. The education policy must recognize that the Sindhi language is the historical language of Sindh. Unlike other provinces, Sindhi has been used as the main medium of instruction for more than a century. The education policies must be amended to ensure that this historical role of the Sindhi language is preserved for generations to come.

4. The federation of Pakistan is composed of four (4) federating units with their distinct history and heritage. The draft policy does not recognize this important fact. Relevant policy changes must be made so that students are not only taught the modern history of Pakistan but they are also taught about their province�s distinct history and heritage.

5. The report distinctly refers to the �Federal� government but lumps provincial governments and other local governments under one phrase �Provincial/Area Governments� . The education policy makers must realize that during these times when the need for �provincial autonomy� has become the cry of almost all Pakistanis and because �education� is a provincial subject, such references in policy recommendations be changed to recognize the prominent role of provincial governments in meeting the educational objectives of Pakistan. The policy draft should recommend that jurisdiction between the local areas located in a province is to set by the provincial governments and the federal government must not interfere in such matters.

6. A policy action must include a provision that starting next year, additional 0.5% of GDP will be spent on improving education facilities in rural Sindh, rural Balochistan, and FATA areas until the the educational facilities and opportunities in those areas are brought to be apar with rest of Pakistan.
7. A policy recommendation must be made to allow provincial governments to negotiate foreign assistance for improving education facilities for their provinces.

8. The federal role in education should be limited to creating high-level guidelines, setting of national quality standards, and establishing assessment tests. The federal government must not interfere more than that in the education matters and let the provincial government meet their responsibility in education sector as the founding fathers had envisioned. There is no need for Inter-Provincial Education Ministers� (IPEM) Conference to be used as a tool to deny further provincial autonomy.

I hope some of you will also take time to read this dreadful policy draft, whose aim seems to be to further the yoke of centralization on federating units.

I look forward to hearing soon that PPP will create a new education commission to create guidelines that will empower provinces to improve education in their provinces and allocate substantial funding towards bringing educational equity between urban and rural areas of their province.