• An attempt to initiate long delayed reforms

It was rightly remarked on Thursday’s launching ceremony attended by Punjab chief minister that education was ignored during the past seven decades, and indeed the country is today paying for this callous, even criminal, neglect. Human resource development, nowhere to be found in the wish-list or vocabulary of our various rulers, is actually the simple ‘secret’ key behind fabulous success of many backward societies. Like most other national spheres, the all-important educational sector overall lies in decay, functioning without an effective, comprehensive strategy or goals attuned to needs of the modern era. There exist three vastly different models with different curricula, the madrassa, private (English medium) and Urdu-medium government-run schools, divided not only by language, but by divergent social, cultural and financial disparities. About 4.8 million children are not attending school in Punjab (20 million nationally), school buildings, where they do exist, lack basic amenities (including clean drinking water), the number of public schools in Punjab, 52,000 with around 12 million enrolled children, are woefully inadequate to meet the demands of a sharply increasing population, the chief patron of our many pains. Because of lack of easy access, many children drop out of middle and high class levels.
Hence the newly unveiled policy’s main thrusts are directed eventually towards a unitary school system and syllabus, both in standard of teachers and modern facilities, end educational elitism, provide child-friendly environment, bring and retain the 4.8 million ‘outcasts’ back into the educational system, construct 5,000 classrooms, and encourage the return of dropouts and truants in ‘afternoon schools’ by introducing friendly environment. The avowed ultimate goals are improving the quality of education, affording equal opportunity to every child, irrespective of social background or gender by necessary amendments to the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014. Urdu, the national language, would be the common medium of instruction, with English as a specialised subject, greater use of Internet, with science subjects introduced at middle school level. The government’s intentions are well-meaning, the task undertaken gigantic on many fronts and at every step, not least on the astronomical financial investment required. But for the sake of future of 28 million children (and counting), they must be accomplished.