Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS), a non-governmental organisation, urged the ‘politicising’ of education to help propel the concerned quarters towards seriousness of purpose in provision of quality education.
It maintained that if the civil society and media create awareness among the masses on the standard of education, the policymakers could be held answerable for their failures in this regard. Talking to reporters on issues of public financing of education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday, I-SAPS office bearer Naeem Sidhu said education was not simply a technical issue, adding that priorities were not fixed rightfully and because of it the country had a very low literacy rate.
He said things like ‘block allocation’ for education development which is at the disposal of the chief executive of the provinces makes it unclear as to where these funds would be spent, making accountability next to impossible, apart from automatically leading to deprivation in certain areas, adding that such condition needed special attention in Punjab.
Dwelling on the distribution of development budget, he said in the current budget of 2011-12 the allocation of primary education had been decreased from Rs 1,879.47 million to Rs 1,113.74 million, adding that university education’s budget had also been cut from Rs 700 million to just Rs 153 million. He said refresher courses and training programmes for teachers were being held regularly in the private sector, while in the public sector nothing was being done to keep the teachers updated on the latest educational techniques.
Sidhu said 13.6 percent had been allocated for in-service teacher training against 75.6 percent and 10.8 percent for pre-service teacher education and directorate of curriculum and teacher education respectively. For opting to modern system it was imperative grant handsome allocation to in-service teachers training. He said in the wake of 18th amendment it was yet to be figured out how the provinces will assure the implementation of Article 25-A of the constitution which states ‘free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years’.
