The Punjab government is launching a comprehensive programme under “Schools Reforms” which roadmap has been prepared by foreign consultants to ensure for 100 percent enrolment of children in Punjab government schools. This project is financed by Department for International Development (DFID) UK. A door to door visit will be paid to motivate people to send their children to schools. It is not clear which department of government or agency will be assigned the responsibility to visit each house in a village, town, tehsil, district. What about those small villages, towns, and other rural area in which still there is no school existing? It seems the campaign will be only in those districts in which government schools are functioning.
What about the pathetic infrastructure of majority of government schools, which still don’t have roofs, drinking water and toilets facilities?
One fails to understand why DFID is expecting from Punjab government’s education department that it will achieve the objective of having every child in the province enrolled in schools, when the major burden of education has already been transferred to the private sector, which is providing much better education up to matriculation level at much lesser cost per student, than government is spending. In government schools the teachers are not motivated or committed to discharge their duty honestly.
I suggest that DFID instead of wasting money they should first ask Punjab chief minister to reform the present organisational structure of education department. Instead of having a centralised decision making the subject of education should be transferred to district level, and independent autonomous District Educational Authority (DEA), having members from civil society, government servants and parents, should be created.
The DEA should be empowered financially having responsibilities of monitoring the schools, the textbook publishing, improvement in infrastructure of schools, recruitment and training of the teachers. A law should be passed that a graduate of university must serve as a teacher in their native place for two years as a national service before joining the government job. This can be titled educating the Punjab.
The female teachers should be encouraged to teach up to fifth class in villages and towns at primary level, as the majority of parent belongs to poor segment of the society, who encourage their children to undertake petty jobs to supplement the family income instead of sending them to school.
S T HUSSAIN
Lahore
