Article
list – by Dr. Shahid Siddiqui:
---
There are varying claims at governmental level about the
increase in literacy rate in Pakistan.
The Ministry of Education document
(Education in Pakistan: Facts and Figures) claims that the current
literacy rate is 47% and it plans to enhance it to 60% by 2003. Interestingly another government document,
Economic Survey of Pakistan 2000-2001, suggests that the present literacy rate
is 49%. These figures look quite encouraging but at the same time arouse
scepticism for two main reasons: gaps in methodology of measuring literacy and
lack of correlation between increase in Literacy rate and social and economic
development.
The Method issue:
Let us look at the first reason, i.e., methodology. One
main problem that confronted the policy makers was the actual definition of
‘literacy’. This definitional problem
is of primary importance as the statistics heavily depends on it. To have a better appreciation of this issue
let us look at the statistics of literacy for the past years in Pakistan:
Pakistan Literacy Statistics
(1951-2000)
|
Year |
Literacy Rates |
|
1951 |
17.9 |
|
1961 |
16.7 |
|
1972 |
21.7 |
|
1981 |
26.2 |
|
1998 |
45.0 |
|
2000 |
47.0* |
*47% according to the ministry of education document and
49% according to the Survey of Pakistan.
It is interesting to note that in 1951 the literacy rate was
17.9% whereas after ten years, instead of having an improvement it fell down to
16.1%. What could be the justification
for this downfall? Among other factors,
a major reason was the definition problem.
The definition established for literacy in 1951 was that a literate
person is “One who can read a clear print in any language.” It is important to note that here understanding was not the
condition. This meant that any body who
could recognise alphabets and would pronounce them could be considered as
literate. In 1961 a literate person was
redefined as, “One who is able to read with understanding
a simple letter in any language”. Since
the condition of “understanding” was added to the definition a large number of
people who could recognise and pronounce the alphabets (for instance reading of
Quran in some cases) with out understanding were left out of the category of
literates. This definition kept on
changing in the following years.
Census definitions of Literacy
|
Census year |
Definition |
|
1951 Census |
“One who can read a clear print in any language.” |
|
1961 Census |
“One who is able to read with understanding a simple
letter in any language”. |
|
1972 Census |
“One who is able to read and write in some language with
understanding”. |
|
1981 Census |
“One who can read newspaper and write a simple letter”. |
Source:- LAMEC Annual Report 1984-85, Islamabad –
Pakistan.
The other potential problem was the actual procedure of
data collection. Usually a person would
go to a house and ask for literate people and would jot down whatever is told
to him. There was no way to confirm the
information. The people involved in
data collection were not professional people trained for data collection for
research purposes. So the final outcome
in the shape of literacy percentage apparently looked inflated.
Lack of correlation with social and economic development
The second reason for scepticism about the figures is the
lack of correlation between literacy growth and the social and economic
development. To understand the
co-relation between education and social and economic development one can turn
to some concrete examples cited in the Human Development in South Asia (1998). I will just refer to two examples one from
India and the other from Nepal.
According to the report in India increasing average primary schooling of
the work force by one year “increased output by 23 per cent”. Similarly in Nepal, increasing the average
education of a farmer by one year expanded agricultural output by 5.2 to 5.9
per cent.” The co-relation in the
developed countries is on a much higher side.
Need to revisit basic notions in education
Why not then in Pakistan enhancement in literacy could
ensure development in economic and social sector? I believe that there are a number of factors responsible for this
gap in Pakistan. Among other factors,
one main reason is fixed and orthodox notions about some fundamental aspects of
education. This article will attempt to
unpack some major aspects of education which need to be re-conceptualized and
re-engineered in order to correlate education with social and economic
development.
These areas include curriculum, role and purpose of
education, role of teacher, role of students, concept of knowledge, and the
assessment system. I emphasize on the
need of reconceptualization as it has an impact on the remedies we suggest to
redress the problems. The notion of
education is the foremost notion to be ‘unfrozen’ and reconceptualized. In most of our schools the function of
education is considered to be the transmission of knowledge, skills, and
values. This view of education is
conservative as it highlights the significance of conserving knowledge and values.
Consequently the whole emphasis is laid on transmission and if education
is transmitting the knowledge from one generation to another it is considered
effective education.
The concept of knowledge
also needs to be reconceptualized. In
the prevailing predominant paradigm in Pakistan knowledge is viewed as static and ‘out there’ which can be learned
through behaviouristic model of learning.
This model lays extra emphasis on imitation and repetition. With the this view of knowledge requires a
lot of memorization and cramming on the part of students as there is hardly any
need in this paradigm, to reflect and critically think.
Related to this traditional view of knowledge is the
conservative view of learners and the learning process. The general concept of a student, in the
mainstream schools of Pakistan, goes back to the behavioristic view of learner
who is considered to be an empty vessel or
a clean slate who knows nothing and
whose sole responsibility is to absorb
the knowledge delivered by their
teachers. A metaphor that describes
this kind of students is that of a sponge.
A good student or learner in this paradigm is the one who sits in the class
quietly, behave nicely, never
disagrees with the teacher, hardly asks any question, and has a sharp memory to
repeat what the teacher has taught.
The conservative view of teacher is the one who transmits, knowledge, skills, and
values. The primary aim of the teacher
in this paradigm is to prepare the students for the examination, to presents
himself to the students as a model who is perfect in all respects and who
should be knowing the answers to any question on this planet. For this purpose the teacher can use any
measure from persuasion to restraint to coercion and physical punishment. A good
teacher in this paradigm tries to fill the empty
vessels (the students) and expects from students to conserve this knowledge
and reproduce it when required. There
is hardly any room for disagreement on the part of the students.
The philosophy can be traced back to the behaviouristic
orientation of learning where Skinnner’s experiment on rats led him to offer a
powerful mode of learning which was later applied to the learning of human
beings. The model rests on stimulus, response, reinforcement, and repetition.
The quintessence of the model is that learning is like habit formation of which
two important components are imitation and repetition. This model was severely criticized by the
congnitivists and humanists for a number of reasons. Two major objections were that learning is much more than just
repetition as it involves thinking, the finding of the experiments on subhuman
species cannot be applied to the human beings, and all objectives cannot be
measured through observations. But ironically this view of assessment is
considered a an effective way to measure the performance of the students. With the result the only criterion of
obtaining good grades is sharp memory.
Another frequently mentioned and largely misunderstood
notion in education is that of curriculum. The common understanding of the term
curriculum among the most of the practitioners is that it is an external document which has to be
followed religiously. Majority of our
teachers are not clear about the concept of curriculum. Either it is confused with syllabus or, in
most of the cases, prescribed textbooks.
This very traditional view of curriculum, i.e., it is a shelf document,
shapes teachers own image of a helpless creature who is no more than a puppet
in the hands of curriculum.
So far I have referred to some fundamental notions which
are mutually linked in such a way that one impacts the other. For instance concept of education
(conservation of knowledge) impacts the role of teacher (as transmitter of
knowledge) which in turn views students as passive recipients (empty vessels),
which calls for the assessment system that tests the ability to conserve and
reproduce. The order is not linear but
circular in nature so if we start from assessment and come back to education we
may find a similar impact.
Let us now try to unpack theses fundamental concepts whose
perceptions or misperceptions impact the plans of action, the process of
action, and the ultimate outcome. Our
concept of education in mainstream schools needs to be reconceptualized. For instance going beyond the narrow and
conservative view of education that is concerned with the transmission of
knowledge, skill, and values we need to look at education as a more dynamic
tool that helps learners to construct knowledge, develop skills and
attitudes. For that education should
not be hinged at transmission mode but it should be used for transformation of
learners’ lives and the society where they are living. The purpose of education, thus, should not
be social control but an intellectual emancipation.
The two related concepts are the role of teacher and
student. Student should not be viewed
as a clean slate or an empty vessel. We
need to wean away from behaviouristic paradigm and try to view the learner from
humanistic angle that advocates that learners, when they come to schools, do bring
with them peculiar experiences, ideas, and thought patterns and each learner
has a tremendous potential for self actualization. Similarly the traditional concept of knowledge should also be reviewed where knowledge is seen as
something static and stationary. There
is a need to reconceptualize knowledge
as some thing fluid and which can be co-constructed in the class. This view of knowledge legitimize learners
as knowledge constructors and sees the teachers as learners as well who can
also learn from their students.
The concept of curriculum as a cold document which acts as
a straight jacket for the teachers also need to be reviewed. Viewing curriculum as merely a fixed
document is a very narrow concept of curriculum. Curriculum, on the other hand, is sum total of interactions of
teacher, students, materials, and school milieu. According to this definition of curriculum teacher himself
becomes an integral part of curriculum whose own action and interaction with
other factors, i.e., students, material, and school milieu constructs the
curriculum.
Conclusion
In this article I raised a central question about the lack
of correlation btween increase in literacy rate and social and economic
development in Pakistan. I suggested
that the gap refers to the a need of qualitative improvement in our educational
system. One important step in the remedial efforts is to reconceptualize some
basic aspects of education. I referred to the traditional view of education,
teacher, curriculum, learner, and assessment, predominantly prevailing in
Pakistan. This view of education and
other fundamental notions of education cannot ensure any co-relation with
economic and social development. What is needed is the unfreezing process of
fixed nations of education and then trying to reconceptulize them. It is this receptulaization that is badly
missing in our teacher education system that is focusing only on strategies and
skills.
---
21
October, 2001
While evaluating the educational system of Pakistan people
have propounded various theories as to what could ail the system and as to how
to revamp it. One of the factors which
has been mentioned quite often in various circles is curriculum. In almost every seminar or conference on
Education curriculum is inevitably on the agenda. The criticism launched about
curriculum includes its non- relevance with the real life, its ‘out-datedness”,
its fixity, and lack of regular revisions etc.
This criticism is jointly shared by some practicing teachers, educators,
and researches. In this article I
intend to challenge some basic assumptions related to the curriculum
issue. This should lead to
reconceprtualize the term curriculum and re-determine the role of classroom
teacher visa-vis curriculum.
A general notion of curriculum, enjoyed by decision-makers
is that of a document that reflects the course of studies in terms of content
to be covered in a stipulated period of time. The decision-makers think that if
they could come up with a brand new curriculum document, education in Pakistan
would be saved. This notion is not only
incomplete but misleading as well. The
direct outcome of this notion is that every new government that embarks upon the
task of educational change immediately announces the re-engineering of curriculum. The whole process of re-engineering
curriculum is absurd. A selected group
of people gets together for a day or two and hurriedly suggests some changes. These documents then travel on a long and
windy bureaucratic path and one fine day the good news is out that the new
curriculum is ready to take off. The
finalization of new curriculum also implies that all educational problems are
taken care of now. The basic flaw in this
approach to curriculum is that the implementation side is totally ignored. The decision-makers tend to forget the
important fact that it is the real execution, and not just planning, that
matters at the end of the day.
The teachers, on the other hand, have a much narrower
notion of curriculum. Most of them
confuse curriculum with syllabus or textbooks. If you ask the teachers about
their view of curriculum they consider it as a straight jacket, that is there
to usurp their freedom and no educational change or innovative initiative can
take place in its presence. Why is it
so? One major reason is that the
majority of teachers is not provided with this document, called curriculum by
the school and is expected to be content with the textbooks to be used in
classrooms. There is also no compulsive
motivation to look for the curriculum as most of the teachers are concerned
with finishing the textbooks within the stipulated period of time. The common
understanding of the term curriculum among the most of practitioners is that of
a sacred document which cannot be modified.
Teachers usually complain about the straightjacket nature of curriculum
that, according to them, leaves no room for their academic freedom and which has to be followed strictly. With this fixed notion of curriculum (in the
shape of textbooks) the teachers find themselves as slave to it and cannot
think of any innovation.
While reflecting on the term curriculum we need not just
look at the list of contents but the teaching materials, procedures, and
evaluation as well. Connelly and
Clandinin (1988) write that, “ Curriculum is often taken to mean a course of
study. When we set our imaginations
free from the narrow notion that a course of study is a series of textbooks or
specific outline of topics to be covered and objectives to be attained, broader
and more meaningful notions emerge.”
The term curriculum is usually used in three different ways: (a) plan
for suggested action, (b) curriculum as instruction, and (c) curriculum as a
broad term that includes students’ experiences in school. While unpacking the
term of curriculum we need to look at the four commonplaces of curriculum. These commonplaces include teacher, teaching
materials, students and school milieu.
A curriculum then is not just a static and frigid phenomenon but a living and vibrant reality that is the sum
total of interactions among teacher,
materials, school milieu and students.
This reconceptualiztion is very significant because once we start
looking at curriculum from this perspective we suddenly realize how important
are students, teaching materials, school milieu and above all the classroom
teacher and the interaction that takes place as a result of their impact on one
another. This view of curriculum
recognizes the significance of explicit
and implicit aspects of
curriculum. By implicit I mean the
hidden curriculum, e.g., the attitudes or values which are imbibed by
students not as a result of direct
teaching and planning by teachers but as an outcome of the way the activities
are planned organized and implemented.
Having briefly looked at the notion of the term curriculum we now turn to the role of
teacher in curriculum. As mentioned
earlier the traditional view of teachers’ role with respect to curriculum is
that of a passive recipient. This view
of teacher as a helpless character needs to be challenged. But before we embark on that task we need to
further view the various forms/phases of curriculum. I shall very briefly mention some of these phases here.
Intended
curriculum: The intended curriculum can be defined as the curriculum
which is visualised by the policy makers and is handed down for it consumption.
Manifested curriculum: A large part of intended curriculum is then
manifested in the textbooks and other reading materials specially written for
this purpose.
Comprehended
curriculum: The books and
reading materials are then read by the teachers before they actually teach them
to students. The way teachers
comprehend the curriculum may be considered as comprehended curriculum.
Taught
curriculum: The way the teachers exploit the textbooks/reading
materials can be termed as taught curriculum.
Learnt
curriculum: Finally, what is learnt by students at the end of the
day through implicit or explicit way can be called as learnt curriculum.
It is interesting to note that the intended curriculum may
be modified by undergoing the phases of manifested,
comprehended, taught and learnt curriculum. From intended
to learnt curriculum the most
important commonplace is teacher who comprehends and implements the
curriculum. This view of looking at
curriculum underlines the important role of teacher who is not just a passive
recipient but an important stakeholder who can act as a useful catalyst in
generating interaction among school milieu, students and teaching materials.
Unfortunately most of teacher education programmes in
Pakistan do not focus on the reconceptualization of the notion of curriculum
and the role of teacher with respect to curriculum. Consequently many teachers, even after attending the teacher
education programs or workshops, do not change at conceptual level. The curriculum remains to them as something
‘out there’, which is imposed by the top authority and they cannot do anything
about it now. Ironically most of the
teachers never happen to see the curriculum and syllabus by themselves. To them, textbooks are the only
manifestation of curriculum which should be adhered to religiously.
What is required in our teacher education programmes is an
emphasis on reconcptualizing curriculum, re-determining the role of teachers
with respect to curriculum, and equipping the teachers with some useful skills
and strategies as to how to enhance and enrich a given curriculum. The role of teacher from this perspective
becomes central to the learning which is taking place formally or
informally. In Pakistan we tend to
emphasize more on one aspect of
curriculum, i.e., preparing a document.
For this, committees are formed and experts are gathered. But what about the real curriculum that happens every day in the real setting. There seems to be less emphasis on this
aspect, i.e., the construction of curriculum as a result of interaction among
teacher, materials, students, and school milieu. Do we have proper teacher education programmes which focus on
developing reflective practitioners? Do
we have an appropriate system of monitoring?
Are we satisfied with the process of evaluation of curriculum? Are we considering a teacher’s role as
central to curriculum? Before we expect to find answers to these questions, we
need to ‘unfreeze’ our notion of curriculum as a cold and mysterious document
which is sitting in the shelf of a policy maker or in the cupboard of the head
teacher. Curriculum is perhaps much
more than that. It is a living and
vibrant phenomenon of which students, teachers, materials and school culture
are important components.
---
9
September, 2001
Education is universally considered to be an important
tool of change which has a strong correlation with the overall social and
economic development of a country. The
economy and education of a country affect each other, e.g., a realistic and
effective education paves the way for economic development whereas spending on
education helps in the growth of human capital. In Pakistan we see a number of problems with financing in
Education. These problems range from
theoretical misconception to ineffective implementation of the plans.
In this article I shall focus on the financing of
education and the related issues. I
believe that there are different aspects of this problem which need to be
uncovered in order for a better appreciation of the issue. Some of these aspects include, allocation
for education in the budget, actual spending, and the way the money is spent. The last two aspects can be covered under
the broad heading of governance.
Allocation for Education:
Let us look at the percentage of allocation on education
in Pakistan which should give us a picture of our prioritization of
Education. In the following table one
can see the year-wise percentage of allocated amount for education.
National Education Budget
During 1993 – 2001
(Rupees in Million)
|
Year |
Allocation for Education |
%age of GDP |
|
1993-94 |
34,872 |
2.22 |
|
1994-95 |
44,096 |
2.34 |
|
1995-96 |
52,643 |
2.43 |
|
1996-97 |
64,425 |
2.68 |
|
1997-98 |
64,084 |
2.32 |
|
1998-99 |
69,926 |
2.40 |
|
1999-00 |
69,964 |
2.20 |
|
2000-01 |
72,237 |
2.06 |
Source: Ministry of Education
Glancing over the figures given in the table one can see the
alarming trend of reduction in the allocation for education. For instance in 1993-4 this percentage was
2.22 and in 2000-01, instead of showing an increase it has fallen down to 2.06. This trend suggests the ‘priority’ we are
giving to the sector of Education.
For a comparative study let us look at the allocations
being made for education in the countries in the region. Following table presents a brief summary of
allocation made in 1997:
|
Country |
% of GDP |
|
Mongolia Maldives Iran Malaysia South Korea Thailand India Sri Lanka Nepal Afghanistan Bangladesh Pakistan |
8.5 8.1 5.4 5.1 4.2 4.0 3.7 3.1 2.9 2.3 2.3 2.2 |
Source: E-9 Conference on Education for All 1997
As is clear from the above table the percentage allocation
for education of the total GDP in Pakistan was 2.2. This allocation is less that the amount allocated by other
countries in the regions like Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India,
Thailand, Malaysia, Iran, Maldives, and Mongolia. This trend suggests that as we are moving forward with greater
education needs, instead of enhancing the spending, we are reducing
substantially.
A similar trend is reflected in the following table that
is based on the percentage of GNP.
|
Country/Region |
% of GNP (1993-4) |
AS % of total government expenditure (1992-4) |
|
India |
3.8 |
11.5 |
|
Pakistan |
2.7 |
7.9 |
|
Bangladesh |
2.3 |
8.7 |
|
Nepal |
2.9 |
13.2 |
|
Sri Lanka |
3.2 |
9.4 |
|
Bhutan |
n/a |
8.4 |
|
Maldives |
8.1 |
13.6 |
|
South Asia |
3.5 |
10.9 |
In 1993-4 public spending of education was 2.7 % of GNP
which is below the average (3.5%) of South Asian Regions. It is interesting to note that the spending
on education is perhaps the lowest in South Asian Regions in comparison with spending
in other parts of the world. Similarly
we spend 7.9% of the total expenditure on education as compared to the average
of 17.3 % in the South Asian Regions.
These figures suggest that education in our priorities comes at a very
low level.
Actual Expenditure:
A usual criticism heard in the educational domain is that
the allocated money for education is very small. There can’t be two opinions about that. Not only the allocated money is very little as compared to other
countries in the region but also there is declining trend in allocation. So far
we have seen a formidably low allocation of funds for primary education. This situation takes a far more serious turn
when we come to know that in almost all the plans the actual spending was far
less than the allocation. This is quite
evident from the following table:
Statement of 1st to 7th plan
allocation and expenditure on education in Pakistan
(Rs in million)
|
Sub-Sector |
1st plan |
|
2nd plan |
|
3rd
plan |
|
Nonplan period |
|
5th plan |
|
|
1955-60 |
|
1960-65 |
|
1965-70 |
|
(1970-78) |
|
1978-83 |
|
|
|
Alloc. |
Expr. |
Alloc. |
Expr. |
Alloc. |
Expr. |
Alloac. |
Expr. |
Alloc. |
Expr. |
|
|
Primary Education |
51.40 |
21.20 |
78.00 |
18.80 |
67.51 |
24.74 |
473.93 |
443.76 |
3049.70 |
1413.10 |
|
Secondary Education |
68.10 |
44.00 |
96.40 |
95.30 |
294.18 |
124.50 |
502.52 |
541.55 |
3257.00 |
1090.10 |
|
Teacher Education |
23.30 |
4.90 |
17.40 |
17.50 |
36.01 |
15.05 |
109.90 |
114.01 |
380.00 |
290.30 |
|
Technical Education |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
College Education |
31.80 |
29.50 |
17.00 |
68.30 |
64.04 |
64.16 |
314.81 |
374.02 |
767.00 |
536.60 |
|
University Education |
48.50 |
36.50 |
47.50 |
58.90 |
91.95 |
59.69 |
334.05 |
398.78 |
725.00 |
687.00 |
|
Scholarships |
2.60 |
1.00 |
18.70 |
49.10 |
91.00 |
76.85 |
257.74 |
289.87 |
430.00 |
349.60 |
|
Literacy and Mass Education |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Libraries &
textbook |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
Miscellaneous |
29.80 |
39.10 |
137.80 |
55.24 |
83.55 |
61.45 |
519.54 |
397.50 |
287.00 |
526.10 |
|
Sub-total |
255.50 |
176.20 |
412.80 |
363.14 |
728.24 |
426.44 |
2512.49 |
2559.49 |
8895.70 |
4892.80 |
|
Other divisions |
49.43 |
21.76 |
77.20 |
85.65 |
358.36 |
154.17 |
485.65 |
843.16 |
1802.3 |
750.70 |
|
Total Education |
3043.93 |
197.96 |
490.00 |
448.79 |
1086.60 |
580.61 |
2998.14 |
3402.65 |
10698.00 |
5643.50 |
(Rs in million)
|
Sub-Sector |
6th
plan |
|
7th
plan |
|
8th plan |
|
9th Plan |
|
|
1983-88 |
|
1988-93 |
|
1993-98 |
|
(1988-2003) |
|
|
|
Alloc. |
Expr. |
Alloc. |
Expr. |
Alloc. |
Expr. |
Alloac. |
Expr. |
|
|
Primary Education |
7000.00 |
3172.40 |
10128.00 |
6399.17 |
32669.00 |
23340.37 |
69860.00 |
|
|
Secondary Education |
4125.00 |
3231.02 |
6404.00 |
5507.31 |
16521.20 |
4930.36 |
33140.00 |
|
|
Teacher Education |
305.00 |
156.75 |
287.00 |
260.26 |
3360.00 |
616.93 |
2000.00 |
|
|
Technical Education |
1315.00 |
857.95 |
2000.00 |
943.17 |
2447.00 |
2373.32 |
5000.00 |
|
|
College Education |
1300.00 |
991.95 |
61500.00 |
1730.54 |
2507.50 |
2350.80 |
2000.00 |
|
|
University Education |
2100.00 |
1629.70 |
1800.00 |
1890.86 |
4100.00 |
1727.75 |
4000.00 |
|
|
Scholarships |
660.00 |
663.67 |
760.00 |
867.12 |
1400.00 |
1215.74 |
15000.00 |
|
|
Literacy and Mass Education |
750.00 |
724.09 |
300.00 |
510.31 |
1750.00 |
409.16 |
1000.00 |
|
|
Libraries &
textbook |
455.00 |
128.32 |
86.00 |
26.85 |
200.00 |
19.20 |
300.00 |
|
|
Miscellaneous |
570.00 |
3663.97 |
150.00 |
1216.44 |
3877.00 |
1217.85 |
1000.00 |
|
|
Sub-total |
18580.00 |
15219.81 |
22530.00 |
19345.98 |
68831.70 |
38201.50 |
119800.00 |
|
|
Other divisions |
250.00 |
1368.20 |
154.78 |
880.95 |
200.00 |
165.99 |
200.00 |
|
|
Total Education |
18830.00 |
16606.01 |
22684.78 |
20226.94 |
69031.70 |
38367.47 |
120000.00 |
|
Studying the table we come to know that in the 2nd
plan (1960-65) the allocated money for primary education was 78 million rupees
where as the actual expenditure for the purpose was 18.80 million rupees which is
less than one third of the allocated money.
Similarly in the 8th plan (1993-98) the allocated money was
32669.00 million rupees whereas the actual expenditure was 23340.37 million
rupees. This trend of spending is far
less than the allocated money can be seen in all eight plans. One possible
reason for this could be the long bureaucratic channel necessary to draw
money. There are, it is said, twenty
two steps before you could draw the allocated money.
Actual Utilization:
Having looked at the low allocation
and the actual expenditure we now turn to the actual utilization of funds. It is a common feeling that funds are
utilized inefficiently without getting the desirable results. Lack of financial resources is just one
aspect of the problem; the other aspect of problem is poor governance of
financial resources. We have already
read the news about the schools which had beautiful buildings and able teachers
with a sizeable number of students. The
only problem with these schools, however, was that they existed on paper and
not in reality. The interesting part of
the story was the regular drawing of salaries by the ghost staff. This is just one example of misappropriation
of funds. Many such examples are
dispersed here and there of funds which were wasted.
A very glaring example of such mismanagement is that of
Iqra surcharge which was introduced in the national budget of 1985. This surcharge, which was worth 5 percent on
all imports yielded substantial revenue.
The very innovative initiative fell prey to the political motives of the
then government. The money accumulated
in the name of Iqra surcharge disappeared in a ‘mysterious manner’ as no body
knows about its whereabouts. Nobody has
been held responsible for it.
Another disturbing aspect is our less spending on primary
education. We (1994-5) allocated 46% of
the total expenditure for primary education whereas Bangladesh had allocated
52% for the same purpose. It is
important to note that countries who made tremendous economic progress made their
base stronger by spending more than 70 percent on primary education. A related issue is that, contrary to many
countries in the world, our fees for higher education are very low. For instance countries like Indonesia, South
Korea, Nepal, and India have higher fee rates for higher education as compared
to Pakistan. The fact of giving
subsidies at higher education level and spending less on primary education is
hard to understand.
Some suggestions:
There is an urgent need to be realistic about the significance
of education in the contemporary world where human capital has become the most
important asset for any country. We
need to increase allocation for education
The second aspect of the problem mentioned above is the
actual expenditure which is always less than the already small allocation.
There is a need to reduce the steps and simplify the procedure of drawing
funds.
There is a need for an in-built monitoring system. A number of educational projects started
with a lot of fan fare but ended without any substantial outcome as there was
no in-built monitoring system. Every
new project must have an elaborate on-going monitoring system.
There needs to be an effective and equitable
accountability system to make sure that people do not get away with
misappropriation. One such example is
that of the mysterious disappearance of “Iqra Fund”. An effective accountability system should make sure the
appropriate spending of the allocated amount.
The process of planning needs to be tidied up. Usually the needs are not assessed properly
which results into faulty planning.
The educational leadership (Head teachers, principals,
education officers) should be trained properly in order to plan and execute
different aspects of allocated budgets.
Higher Education fees should be increased and extra income
in this regard should be spent on enhancing the quality of education.
The educational institutions should not depend solely on
the grants by the government but try to explore some innovative ways to
generate resources.
---
15
April, 2001
Higher education plays a very important role in the
socio-economic progress of a country.
In Pakistan various governments, from time to time, took initiatives for
the promotion of Higher Education and announced certain benefits, especially
for Ph.D. holders. Some of these
included, preferences in induction and promotion of employees and special
allowance for Ph.D, qualification. Why
then in the past we could not enhance the base of Ph.D in our country? What are
the potential dangers of going to the other extreme and opening the floodgates
for Ph.D.? In this article I shall deal with these questions by looking at some
of the quantitative as well as the qualitative aspects of the issue as they are
interrelated and relevant to the discussion.
Until the recent past there were two main options
available to the people desirous of doing Ph.D. One option was to go abroad and get enrolled in some
university. For that either you should
have sufficient money or you should be able to avail certain scholarships. In the first category, i.e, self-financing only rich people could go to
a country of their choice. As far as
scholarships are concerned a number of scholarships/grants lapsed at the
ministry level mainly because of the bureaucratic delays. A number of students who managed to get
these scholarships, after doing their Ph.Ds, never returned to their country. One major reason for staying abroad was
better job prospects.
The second option was getting enrolled in one of the
national public universities. Here one
could face two kinds of problems.
First, that M..Phil. or/and Ph.D. were not available in all the
subjects. The second problem was a
popular notion that getting a Ph.D degree from a public university in Pakistan
is really a tough job. There is a
general belief that it takes ages before one is entitled to receive his Ph.D.
degree. The delay is not necessarily
because of the intellectual challenge or academic rigour; Its main cause, in most of the cases, is
unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks. Most of the candidates give in and give
up as they cannot cope with the trying
conditions (mostly bureaucratic) of the universities. As a result the two options (going abroad or doing Ph.D. from a
public university) had not been quite successful in enhancing the Ph.D. base in
Pakistan.
Almost a decade ago a new scenario emerged as three
important seats of learning were granted charters. They included the Aga Khan University
(AKU), the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology (GIKI), and Lahore University
of Management Sciences (LUMS). They were established on sound financial footing
and had the latest educational resources available necessary to create enabling
environment. It is interesting to note
that these three institutes/universities did not plunge into M.Phil and Ph.D.
programme despite the fact they had excellent human and physical resources
available with them. They consolidated themselves
first and only recently introduced graduate programmes. Higher education is relatively expensive
here but people are convinced that they receive their money’s worth. These three seats of learning also have
financial assistance schemes for the deserving students who come on merit.
The quantitative issue of Ph.D could not be resolved until
this time. In this
scenario we can see three important initiatives which are
likely to change the complexion of higher education both quantitatively and qualitatively.
These three initiatives are as under:
1. More commercialized stance of public universities
Let us first look at the changed, more commercialized
stance of public universities. In the recent past the universities all over the
world faced serious financial problems.
In the drastically changed circumstances universities started fighting
the battle of their survival.
Pakistani public universities were having a similar experience. They not only started M.Phil and Ph.D
programmes more frequently but some universities started special classes on
self- finance basis. This was the start
of sacrificing merit in order to earn more bucks. The ultimate result was that if you have money you could buy your
seat.
2. Mushrooming of “street institutes” in Higher Education
The second and perhaps the most popular initiative is
mushrooming of street universities and affiliated institutes at higher
education level offering Masters, M.Phil and Ph.D. This is rather a new
phenomenon as we were familiar only with the mushrooming of schools at primary
and secondary levels in the last three decades. It has become much easier now for institutes to get affiliation
with certain newly chartered universities.
Again the financial factor plays a crucial role in making the
affiliation process easier. The
universities that give affiliation to these institutes get their share
according to the number of students. On
the other hand theses institutes get legal cover as their degrees, because of
their affiliation with the chartered universities, are recognised by the
University Grants Commission.
With the more commercialised stance of public universities
and with the mushroom growth of affiliated street institutes some hitherto
strange scenarios emerged. I shall
describe some of these as under:
A number of institutes in Pakistan, engaged in offering
Ph.Ds., do not have a strict admission criteria. One does not have to undergo
any strenuous process entry test. The
result is that whoever is ready to pay has a chance to enter a higher education
programme.
M.Phil and Ph.Ds are research degrees where the final
research projects/theses need to be supervised very carefully. That is why advisor/advisee ratio is
considered so important all over the world.
With total commercialization of education, however, in some institutes
the strength of M.Phil and Ph.D classes are gone to twenty five. The result is that one person is supervising
an unmanageable number of students.
That ultimately impacts the quality of learning and research.
There are certain newly chartered universities/affiliated
institutes that do not have permanent qualified core team of faculty
members. When this point is raised that
how can an institute without having Ph.D faculty offer a Ph.D. programme, a
cliché answer can be heard that there are so many professors abroad who do not
have a Ph.D. but who have produced a number of Ph.Ds. Those who give this answer tend to forget the long career of
research work that qualifies a non-Ph.D. to act as a supervisor. If we could find such supervisors here that
objection can be removed.
In the absence of qualified faculty (in terms of Ph.D.
qualification and research experience) the whole show is being run by the so
called visiting faculty. The visiting
faculty, no matter how good it is, lacks a sense of belonging. They are not available for joint planning or
for the advisement of the students.
Some of these faculty members simultaneously act as visiting faculty for
more than one institute.
In a few cases the relevant institutes have expertise in
one field but they are offering Ph. Ds in a number of other subjects.
For research degrees it is crucial that the relevant
educational institution should have lattest educational resources available
including a well equipped library with the recent publications and research
journals in the relevant field. It is,
however, seen that in some educational institutions M.Phil and Ph.D classes are
being run without proper library facilities.
Some institutes that do have “coursework” do not bother
about the attendance. As long as one is
paying the dues one can enter, leave, and re-enter the course at any time.
3.
Emergence of online dubious universities
The third initiative I would like to discuss now is the
emergence of a number of online universities of dubious repute that
have made the task of Ph.D. acquisition much easier. What you have to do is provide the required amount of fees and
rest of the job is a piece of cake. In
some such universities they would ask you for a thesis (no more than a
formality) but there are other universities that are ready to confer on you
Ph.D. without asking you for a thesis.
What you have to do is simply share with them your ‘experience’ and send them the required fees.
Potential outcomes of
inflation of degrees
The future scenario with the floodgates opening for Ph.Ds
is not very difficult to visualize. Some of the potential consequences of the
inflation of higher education degrees are following:
The market will be flooded by people with the highest
degrees in education. The quality of
most of these degrees would, however, be questionable.
The employers are more concerned about the actual
knowledge and expertise of human resources.
Besides they are aware of the image of institutes in terms of quality
(or otherwise). So there is a possibility that people with highest degree
acquired through easy means do not get a positive response from the
market.
The short-cut degree holders thus getting not very
encouraging response from market may accept jobs below their
qualifications. This may lead to a lot
of frustration.
There could be a general disillusionment and mistrust
about the validity of degrees of higher
education, especially Ph.D.
Some recommendations
As discussed in the beginning of this article we
desperately need to enhance the Ph.D base in Pakistan but this should not be at
the expense of quality. The government
should encourage the opportunities of doing M.Phil and Ph.D. but with some
criteria and conditions in order to maintain standard and respect of such
degrees. Some of the conditions which
could be laid down for the universities and institutes and should be monitored
by the University Grants Commission are as under:
There needs to be a permanent
core team of qualified faculty members capable of advising research students.
There are sufficient research
resources available in he institute/university.
There should be a reasonable cutting
point while giving admissions to Ph.D. programme.
The number of Ph.D. students
should be manageable keeping in view the advisor- advisee ratio.
Some basic research courses
should be mandatory for a candidate to go on to research.
The process of research at Ph.D.
level should be rigorous and provide the students the required grinding in
research.
There should be proper external
evaluation of the theses of candidates.
The government of Pakistan
should set up an Accreditation Board to make sure that required academic
standards are met. Such board is
necessary to sift grain from husk and to maintain general trust in the higher
degrees of research.
---
11
November, 2001
…she [Alice] went on. `Would you tell me, please,
which way I ought to go from here?'
`That
depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
`I don't
much care where--' said Alice.
`Then it
doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
(Extract taken from Alice
in Wonderland)
Which way we need to go should be largely determined by
the curriculum that is planned and practiced in the classrooms. But are we sure that it’s the curriculum
that determines the destination or path to destination in Pakistan. In theory the answer should be in affirmation
but unfortunately it is not true in practice.
A large number of policy -makers do not realize that before actually
looking for a path one needs to have a fair idea of the destination. Changing
the curriculum document is not the answer to the problems of education. We need to identify the major force of
resistance that is hindering, shaping, and coercing the good initiatives,
before we expect any reform to succeed.
If we ask the classroom practitioners, educationists and
researchers about the strongest factor that can make or mar any educational
system, the chances are that they would refer to the assessment system. In
Pakistan the impact of assessment system is even more conspicuous. It’s the
assessment system that has emerged as an omnipotent force that is calling the
shots in the educational scenario of Pakistan.
Each new government claims to realize its significance but hardly takes
any practical, meaningful, holistic, and sustainable steps towards streamlining
the system. Before we discuss its influence on the major stakeholders of
education let us unpack the underlying philosophy of the assessment system
prevailing in Pakistan. The guiding philosophy can be traced back to the
behaviouristic orientation of learning where Skinner’s experiment on rats led
him to offer a powerful theory of learning which was later applied to the
learning of human beings. The model rests on stimulus, response, reinforcement,
and repetition. The quintessence of the model is that learning is like habit
formation of which two important components are imitation and repetition. This
model was later challenged by Cognitivists who were of the view that learning
is not as simple as imitation and repetition but is much more complex than
that; it primarily involves thinking, assimilation, and modification. Similarly
the Humanists also differed from the behaviouristic view of learning and
emphasised the holistic learning of child.
The criticism on behaviourist view of knowledge and learning
was launched in the west immediately after its initiation. But, interestingly,
it is still the guiding paradigm in Pakistani assessment system where knowledge
is considered as something static and ‘out there’ and all efforts are placed in
cramming the knowledge. The only criterion of getting good grades in the
existing assessment system in Pakistan is good memory. Whoever can cram things
more efficiently, even without proper comprehension, is bound to secure good
marks. This system of assessment hardly requires reflection or critical
thinking on the part of students.
Let us now look at the potential influences of this
memory-driven assessment system on key players in the process of education and
on the milieu of the school. We start with parents who take the brunt of
children assessment. Most of the parents get seriously upset during the
examination days of their children. Their role becomes very important as they
help their kids in the process of memorization; sometimes by giving them mock tests at home and sometimes asking
questions and expecting their children to verbally reproduce the answers. Certain parents think that it is more of
their assessment than that of their children. Every parent expects merit
positions for his/her child and, in the process, not only gets stressed but
also puts tremendous pressure on the child and at times on teachers as well.
The children, getting a cue from the parents, get hooked
on to the ways and means of securing good grades. They seem to be least
concerned about making sense of the text or understanding the ideas. This
process of blunting the critical thinking and risk taking leaves lasting images
on the child. As a part of the society he/she develops the psyche of being a
blind conformist and hardly challenges any cliches. As a result education which
is considered to be a powerful vehicle for brining change at societal levels,
appears to be an impotent and depleted force. A major role, in this regard, is
played by our assessment system that excludes critical thinking and reflections
out of its legitimate boundaries.
Now we turn to the head-teacher whose major concern is
that his/her school is rated as a good school. The only yardstick that is used
in appraising a good school is its excellent academic results which simply
means how many ‘A’ grades are fetched by the school. The head teacher’s own
appraisal largely depends on the results of the school. This pressure trickles
down to school culture and to the teacher in the classroom as the teacher who
shows good results is considered to be the best teacher.
The negative backwash effect on teaching is of two kinds:
implicit and implicit. In the Pakistani context, explicit effect is shown in
the apparent tactics, the teacher uses or has to use, to help students get good
grades. For instance, focusing on certain chapters and excluding a few which
are ‘not important’ from the examination point of view. The implicit backwash
effect is the teacher’s own view of teaching which gets contaminated by the
hanging sword of memory-geared tests. The teacher, at the unconscious level,
repositions himself to meet the demands of the examination. This would
consequently extinguish any spark of individuality, critical thinking and
independent learning lest it kindles and turns into a flame. The whole
classroom dynamics and culture are imbued with the fright of assessment. The
collaboration and collegiality, which are prerequisite to meaningful learning
become a rare commodity and a negative competitiveness prevails in the
classroom culture. This does affect the patterns of relationship between
teacher and students and students and students.
The school milieu is the ultimate victim of the assessment
system which in turn impacts other stake holders. The schools, in order to be
considered as the best school with excellent results, resort to some
interesting tactics. For instance, teaching of only selected parts of the
textbook, as mentioned earlier. The syllabus of class 9 is taught in class
eight and the syllabus of class 10 is taught in class 9. This means extra
workload and the required “ragra” (an urdu equivalent for toil) to the matric
students to ensure good results. Another tactic of showing good results is
detaining the unwanted students before the board examination. All those who are
likely to flunk the examination or secure lower grades are not allowed to sit
in the examination representing the school. How far is this tact moral or legal
is a separate issue, the technique has proved quite effective in securing “
hundred percent results” and a large percentage of ‘A’ grades.
Under the foregoing circumstances, we can fully realize
that there is an urgent need to focus on the issue of the influence of
assessment. In the Educational Policy 1998-2010 it is claimed that “The reform
of the existing evaluation systems will be done through National Testing
Service. The new professionally structured service will cause improvement in
the examination systems and will at the same time strengthen the principle of
merit based selection”. The present government has also announced to initiate
reforms in the assessment sector. The
announcements, as ever, look promising but what about the realization phase as
a number of good plans could never be realized because of poor
implementation. The partial
experimentation with the admission tests for the professional colleges in
Punjab brought to the limelight some related problems, as for example, since
the selection test was based on a totally different style, it was suited more
to ‘A’ level students. Those who followed the mainstream system of education
and those who did very well in that system were the ultimate losers.
This finding leads us to a bigger reality inherent in the
philosophy of change, namely that change takes place in a holistic way. If we
intend to bring a change in our assessment system by setting up a National
Testing Service, we should, at the same time, endeavor to bring changes in
teacher education programmes, focusing more on exposing the course participants
to alternative modes of assessment. To initiate a meaningful change in the
examination system there is a need of collaboration between the
institutes/colleges of education and the examination boards. One of the ways of
collaboration is meetings, workshops, and conferences where the target audience
should be the decision-makers in the area of assessment. During these
encounters alternative modes of assessment should be shared with them. There is
also a need for a preparing materials, in the initial phase, and sharing with
the examination paper setters as to how the examination papers could be
prepared in different ways to tap the higher order thinking skills. These
materials can be developed in workshops specifically organized for this
purpose. It is through this collaborative approach to change that the National
Testing Service could produce the desired results in the education sector.
---
23
February, 2002
Schools occupy a significant place in the educational
systems of a country. The quality of educational the higher level is strongly
correlated with the quality of education schools. How should we improve our
schools? This is the pivotal question that concerns educationists, researchers
and practitioners alike in a number of countries. One can come across a large number
of concept papers, plans, and practitioners alike in a number of countries. One
can come across a large number of concept papers, plans and initiatives in
different parts of the world focusing on schools have been made on the basis of
different policies and plans that have been introduced from time to time. The
outcome, however, does not match the intensity of the rhetoric.
The situation has aggravated to such an extent that a
number of schools in the public sector are up for grabs. The NGOs can adopt
these schools for giving them another chance. These schools are just like the
sick economic units that are kept on artificial support by the ‘messiahs’
coming from private sector. Why have various polices, plans, and initiatives to
bring about improvement in public schools failed? A critique of the situation
in question points to the lack of a monitoring system or a defective summative
evaluation structure. Large and ended without any significant change in the
school environment. A number of consultants finished their contracts
‘successfully’ and easily got away in the absence of an effective
accountability system.
Lack of planning, mismanagement, poor monitoring system
and absence of effective accountability could be some of the legitimate causes
in their own right that have contributed to the inaction or undesired
contributed to the inaction or undesired outcome of the initiatives taken for
school improvement in Pakistan. Another important cause, however, could be the
conceptualization of the term ‘improvement’. Unfortunately, the popular view of
school improvement lies in the traditional behaviouristic paradigm of school
effectiveness where change should be observable and the impact measurable in
terms of numbers in a stipulated period of time.
This view of improvement is apparently very convincing,
easy to demonstrate and replicate, and serves the purpose of writing the
end-of-project reports. For instance, some of the observable indicators which
are highlighted in such ‘crash projects’ are the number of teachers who got
training the number of books/teacher books that were published, provision of
furniture and the erection of school buildings. The problem with this notion of
improvement is that it only captures the observable aspects of a school. The ‘good
thing’ about this view, however, is that some reports with ‘happy endings’ can
be written on the ‘success’ of initiatives at the end of the end of the
projects.
Let us unpack the notion of improvement as it is only then
that we would be able to prepare an
action plan for an improvement in the situation. There are who main strands in
the existing literature on school change, namely school effectiveness and
school improvement. The strand that uses the term ‘school effectiveness and
school improvement. The strand that uses the term ‘school effectiveness’
focuses on school itself as an organization. The potential targets in school
effectiveness are usually school organization, the proper implementation of
curriculum, and students’ achievement.
Hopkins views school effectiveness paradigm as skewed
towards pupil outcomes primarily where the other aspects of development are not
focused. In this paradigm, the school and pupil outcomes are not considered
problematic. For instance, the concept of good school is not considered
relative which may vary from context to context. In this paradigm, the
organization is focused rather than the people; teachers and students as human
beings and the patterns of relationship between teacher and teachers, students
and teachers, students and students, and head teacher and teachers, as the
former is more easily quantifiable as compared to the latter.
This kind of change, though very popular with
administrators, does not touch the hidden part of the iceberg. One of the
criticisms on school effectiveness paradigm is its overlooking of the process
in terms of school milieu, values, and attitudes which are very important in
contributing to the conditions amenable to learning. The whole emphasis, it is
observed, seems to be on creating lists of factors that are important in school
effectiveness. The underlying principles, the evolutionary nature of change
processes, are either neglected or underplayed.
The other strand of school change uses the term ‘school improvement,.
The contemporary approach to school improvement, according to Hopkins, views
change as a bottom up process, it focuses on process-based targeting outcomes,
it is more teacher focused, it believes in qualitative evaluation, it advocates
school-based development and it focuses on the whole school. The focus here is
on the process rather than the product, on the actual learning strategies
rather than mere academic outcomes. The focus of school improvement is thus the enhancement of learning conditions.
School improvement is not confined to short-term, observable and socially
desirable changes but focuses on long-term developmental vision that advocates
change as being instrumental in bringing about change at the social level.
There are, however, some objections to the school
improvement approach. One common objection is that school improvement
initiatives focus on the process but hardly talk about the measurable outcome
which rare also improvement in their own right. This objection cannot be brushed
aside so easily by the advocates of school improvement,. Another objection is
the term ‘holistic’ used in school improvement paradigm. At times, this term
remain unpacked and thus turns into a mere abstraction. Similarly, it is said
that in the school improvement paradigm, the wholeness of school is so much
propagated that some important specific issues and strategies at lower levels,
like classroom level, are sometimes overlooked.
Having looked at the two paradigms of school change we
realize that both school effectiveness and school improvement paradigms are
interested in bringing positive changes in school. They, however, differ by
their theoretical orientations and methodological dynamics. The proponents of
the respective paradigms seem to be engaged in a zero-sum game where the loss
of one is the gain of the other. What is required is the useful synthesis of
the two paradigms at the methodological level, at least where good strategies
may be pooled together to bring about positive change at school level where
change is not just top-down or bottom up but could be a blend of the two, that
is participatory in nature. Where vision could be shared and the goals and
objectives are owned by the people in the school, where there is emphasis on
product as well as process, where organization gets attention and so do the
people working in it, and where there are administrative structures but also
the norms of collegiality, mutual sharing, and joint work.
In Pakistan, however, most of the local and foreign funded
initiatives are based on the school effectiveness are based on the school
effectiveness paradigm where the organization is focused and students’
achievement is considered as the sole criterion for measuring positive change
in school. One could look back and around to see such initiatives with
fashionable rubrics, as for example, competency based teaching’, ‘curriculum
reforms’, ‘structural changes in school’ and so on. All these initiatives
emanate from school effectiveness paradigm which belie3ves in external
expertise, top-down philosophy, discrete point reforms, and quantifiable
outcomes. If we are really interested in improvement of our schools, we need to
do away with the only observable –change phenomenon. The other aspe4cts, which
are not visible or measurable in quantitative terms, may be more crucial in the
process of change in schools. What is thus required is a combination of process
and product, skills and values, school and people, and observable attributes
and invisible changes.
---
17
March, 2002
The relationship between education and the economic
development of a country has been established through various researches. This
relationship can be seen in a number of countries in the South Asian region. In
the World Bank Report 1998-99, it was suggested that the knowledge gap between
the developed and developing countries lead to economic gaps between them. A
more realistic view is stated in the report prepared by the Task Force on
Higher Education in 200 that suggests that ‘Higher Education has never been as
important to the future of the developing world as it is right now. It cannot
guarantee rapid economic development but (even) sustained progress is not
possible without it’.
In the last three decades, most of the efforts at the
donors’ level have been directed at the strengthening of primary education in
the developing countries. No doubt, there have been some positive results of
this approach, especially in East Asia. Without denying the significance of
primary education in the future development of a country it is pertinent to
realize the relationship between the higher education and the immediate
progress of a country and hence a more realistic policy towards higher
education.
In Pakistan higher education has been facing the
challenges which impacted on its quality and quantity. If we compare the in
higher education at the time if independence with the number of students
enrolled now in our universities and colleges, we see a tremendous rise.
Unfortunately we have been able to cater to the increasing demands of students.
Until the 1990s we were confined to the limited number of public universities
and colleges, responsible for imparting higher
education. It was only in the mid-‘90s that universities in the private
sector were given charters. This phenomenon gave a new direction to higher
education in Pakistan. Since then we have made some progress quantitatively,
but still the number of higher education institutions are far from
satisfactory.
Quantitative expansion is just one aspect of the problem.
A related issue is the quality of higher education. The quality issue includes
the physicals facilities as well as the faculty, curriculum and the actual
dynamics of teaching. Let us look at the quality of available facilities in the
institutions of higher education. Generally the facilities we offer do not
match with the enhanced demand. Most of the buildings are old and poorly maintained.
According to a study conducted by the Ministry of Science and Education in
1987, most of the science and technology facilities in our 20 universities were
limited. There were no sufficient funds available for the provision of science
equipment and accessories. Besides, there was no systematic flow of funds to enrich
the libraries with contemporary books and research journals.
The other
aspect of quality is purely academic. This aspect refers to questions like:
what kind of faculty is there? How useful and relevant are the syllabuses of
courses being offered? What kind of knowledge is being generated in the
classroom and labs? Let us look at the faculty issues first, keeping in view
the significance of the role of the teaching faculty, we expect a lot from it.
But out academic dynamics seem to be fully barricaded by political interest.
The faculty available in most of the universities does not come up to the high standards set up by the world’s
universities.
The process of the hiring of teaching faculty is
questionable. In many cases, these decisions are influenced by political
pressure at various levels. Though there are written rules about the
eligibility of candidates applying for different teaching positions, these
conditions may be bent as and when required. For instance, writing of research
papers is one condition for the position of Assistant Professor and above, but
one can wade through either by having no paper to one’s credit or writing
impressionistic description about something and insisting on calling it a
research paper.
A related aspect of the problem is the low salaries of the
teaching faculty and bureaucratic sanction on academic freedom of the faculty.
As a reaction to this, a number of teachers, instead of strengthening their
academic base in the institute they work for, engage themselves in teaching
assignment in various other institutes. Consequently their academic performance
is affected negatively This situation is not very encouraging.
Research is considered to be the most powerful source of
creating knowledge. At our higher education institutes, the state of research
is miserable. The number of Ph.Ds. available in the institution is far from
satisfactory. There are very few faculty members engaged in meaningful
research. Faculty of resources is just one aspect one aspect of the problem. The
real issue, however, is lack of motivation. In the absence of a strong research
tradition in higher education, we are promoting the kind of education that
supports the status quo, as it does not permit any fresh ideas, and blocks the
way to a positive change at the societal level.
A quick look at the syllabuses of programs (and their
execution in the classrooms) that we are offering at the higher education level
would reveal that these program cannot prepare the students to meet the
challenges of the new millennium. This situation puts a big question mark on
whether kind of higher education we are promoting can ensure the results
attached with the higher education worldwide, that is, a rise in the living
standards, enhanced productivity, alleviation of poverty and a more civilized
society.
In the
contemporary competitive world just acquiring a degree is not enough. What is
required is the relevant knowledge which could be of real use to the market.
The whole scenario of economic development which used to revolve around the
wheel, that is, manufacturing, is now centered around knowledge. Knowledge
which is vibrant and relevant. In other words, knowledge which is not merely a
noun but a verb, rather an action verb. But is knowledge an action verb in our
classrooms? The answer to this question can be found in our dull and drab
teachers dynamics and memory-oriented assessment system. The assessment system
coupled with transmission style teaching can only produce students who are very
good at memorizing and reproducing. Expecting creativity from them is rather
asking too much from them. This is rather asking too much from them. This does
not mean that there is no talent in our country as the same students excel in
creative output when they go abroad. The point I am trying to highlight is vide
to them in our educational institutions.
In Pakistan, while the access to higher education in
public universities is not very difficult in terms of financial requirements,
the rapidly changing world poses a much bigger challenge for us. By 2010,
according to our Education Policy 1998-2000, a population of 2.5 million will
need to be provided higher education. Are we ready to take up this formidable
challenge? The answer is not very simple and straight forward as the real challenge
is not only to attain the quantitative target, but the kind of higher education
that ensures the economic development of Pakistan,. One that pave the way for
raising our standards of living, not just in terms of provision of physical
facilities but for attaining the values of mutual respect, tolerance peace, and
harmonious social coexistence. This
kind of tragic can only be achieve by bringing some revolutionary changes to
ensure better planning, more funding, enhanced physical facilities, ongoing
monitoring, meaningful research, good
faculty, relevant syllabuses, effective classroom dynamics and better
educational governance.
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2
December, 2001
One of the major problems facing Pakistan is that two
thirds of its population is illiterate. According to latest census, literacy
rate in Pakistan is 49 per cent; with female literacy almost half of that of
male. Thus in terms of literacy rate Pakistan touches the lowest line in the
South Asian region. If we believe in the strong correlation between literacy
and economic and social development, these figures portray a very dismal
picture, more so now that we have entered the millennium of knowledge and
information. If one is asked to point out the major issues that all our educational system the top three would be
the problems of access, dropout and quality.
According to latest figures, a large number of boys and
girls in the primary school-age are out of school. The rest of theme, the lucky
ones, who make it to the school are not guaranteed a good physical and social
environment. A large number of schools are roofless, many are without boundary
walls and/or facilities of drinking water and washrooms. Many schools are one
or two-teacher school, and quire a few of them are without teachers altogether.
Where teachers are available there is a tendency of absenteeism. Even if they do come to school, the quality of
teaching is not ensured for a number of reasons. Some of these reasons are
teacher centered, while the other exist beyond the classroom and school. The
ultimate outcome is that more than 50 percent (male 45 per cent and female 65
percent) of the children drop out before teaching class five. This is a
tremendous national loss which could be averted with proper planning and
implementation.
What could be the possible causes for the dropout of
children? They may vary from context to context, however, economic pressure,
remote location of schools, mass scale failure, lack of awareness on the part
of community, punishment in schools, and lack of motivation inside the schools
and classroom are a few causes of
dropouts. A large number of poor parents in the rural areas refer their
children to remain at home and work with them in the fields or at domestic
chores. This way, they think, their children could be more useful to them as
compared to their involvement with studies. There is a real need to educate
these parents. A proper mobilization of community could lead to a possible
change in the situation. Sharing with the parents the usefulness of education and its long-term advantages could help them
review their notions about the usefulness of schooling. Similarly, education at
the primary level should be free tuition fee, e.g. textbooks, uniform, school
bag etc, should also be provided by the state. Subsidizing on tuition fee alone
is no more than an illusion as the real crunch is the allied expenses.
Besides empowering the community by creating awareness and
alleviating the economic pressure on parents subsiding the tuition and related
expenses we also need to bring drastic changes in the physical and social
environment of our schools. A lot is required to turn these buildings into real
schools. This may require fund generation. One way to face the problem is to
keep on complaining against the government about the scarce supply of funds,
while the other option could be the generation of funds on self-help basis.
During my involvement with a community schools project in rural Sindh, I came
to realize how a community can participate in the uplift of education. This
help could be in various forms, e.g. piece of land, wood, skilled labour etc,
and not necessarily in the form of hard cash.
Now I could like to allude to the other aspect of school environment,
i.e., the social environment. For that, one doesn’t need cash. It is the
relationship between head teacher and teachers, teachers and teachers, students
and teachers, and students and students. The more collegial, collaborative and
friendly the atmosphere, the more chances there are of enhanced and meaningful
learning. The classroom dynamics sets the scene for the kind of learning the
students are going to experience. In majority of our rural and some urban
schools physical punishment is considered as a norm. the classroom environment
does little to encourage the students to ask questions disagree with the
teacher’s view point and express their
own perspective about the question in hand.
A large number of students drop out because of the extreme
nature of physical punishment. Similarly, there are severe non-physical
punishments. For instance during my visit to a school I observed a primary
level class. At the head of a row a signboard was erected every day (that day
it was lying under a desk as some outsiders were comi8ng to the class). The
sign board read in Urdu Nalaoq bachhe
(dumb chidden). When I asked a little girl about this board she told me that
those children who could not give the correct answers to the teacher’s question
were made to sit in that row. One can imagine the kind of impact of this
psychological punishment of the self-image and self-respect of those children
throughout their lives.
To develop a friendly and caring atmosphere does not
necessarily require extra funding but change in teachers’ ethos and attitudes.
Similarly, the relationship patterns between teachers and head teachers, and
teachers and teachers and teachers do influence the outlook of children as the
nature of school milieu has a strong
impact on the process of learning. Usually there is a lot of emphasis given to
the kind of curriculum we use in schools. There are calls to regular revisions
of the curriculum. But how about the hidden curriculum which is more powerful
and which is least monitored and hardly subjected to any accountability, e.g.
teachers’ harsh behavior in the classroom, non-punctuality or absenteeism etc.
Ironically, the definition of a good teacher is that of one who shows the best
academic results. This definition is not only accepted but encouraged at all
levels of administration as well. The extra emphasis on good academic results
ignores or underestimates the significance of the actual process of learning.
Keeping in view the gravity of the situation and the
enormity of challenge posed by illiteracy resulting from problems of access and
retention we need to step up our efforts to increase our literacy rate. This
could be done by making schools more accessible to children by creating
awareness among the parents about the long reaching consequences of education
and subsidizing the educational expenses of the children. Besides, we
desperately need to make our schools more attractive by creating a culture of
collegiality, collaboration and care. This needs a collective effort on the
part of head teachers, teachers, parents and students alike.
The suggestions given above are not very novel and may
meet with a cliché response which is given to any new proposal/initiative for
change, i.e. ‘How can we do it? We don’t have the resources’. Are we really
convinced from within that lack of resources is the only and real cause of all
problems? Perhaps lack of resources is just one tiny piece which is missing, or
misplaced to be more precise). The real problem, however, is the poor
governance in education. Lack of political will at macro level and want of a
broad based, holistic approach at micro level combine to act as strong
resistance forces against any new initiative in the domain of education. What
is needed thus is a genuine shift in our thinking paradigm; only then can an
initiative work.