Daily Archives: November 26, 2022

Multiple challenges over the years have significantly hindered development goals particularly with regard to education

Multiple challenges over the years have significantly hindered development goals, particularly with regard to education. The Covid-19 pandemic posed serious challenges in the form of prolonged school closures, limited access to technology and economic distress. As a result, either many children decided to drop out of school to pursue means of income, or parents were forced to take their children out as they couldn’t afford tuition fee.

In order to combat the rising rate of school drop-outs, the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the World Bank and Global Partnership for Education, has initiated a national workshop for creating pathways to mainstream out-of-school children. This workshop is unique from other previous initiatives as it includes the strategic use of ‘design thinking’ to propose community-based solutions to encourage children to come to school. The workshop will help identifies social challenges as well as critical themes within the wider socio-economic context of Pakistan that are adversely affecting the education sector. This will provide a benchmark analysis as to where exactly focus is required. While this initiative will help build upon the existing structure, it is equally necessary to understand that a strong foundation in the form of adequate infrastructure, top-notch facilities and essential resources are required. Majority of schools across the country cannot offer nutritious meals or clean drinking water. Secondly, education must be thought off as a wicked problem. While reforms will enhance education across the country, government officials must also focus on other development indexes to ensure quality education.

The real dilemma is that during a financial crunch, a family will always prefer having their child earn money to put food on the table rather than letting him receive an education even for free. Curbing inflation, providing employment opportunities for parents and ensuring a healthy school environment are as important as providing educational incentives.

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In my last op-ed (October 19) on the issue of the attempted land grab of Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) to build a bypass road I opined that it is a convenient path of least resistance for the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

It sidesteps the root-cause of the Bara Kahu traffic congestion bottleneck – encroachments along Murree Road. Instead of confronting its own impotence against encroachers, the CDA has identified a ‘weak’ party, the QAU, and has elected to take a short-term approach to solving its problem by grabbing the QAU’s land and building a bypass through it that will bisect the campus into two. Based on developments and documents that have come to light since then, this is beginning to look like the most innocent of possible explanations.

Two things are happening: The first is the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training (MoFEPT) exercising authority over the HEC, which it recently took over through last year’s amendments to the HEC Ordinance. The 18th Amendment to the constitution has greatly clipped the MoFEPT’s authority since it cuts it out of decisions on school education in provinces. The ministry is now attempting to seize authority on matters of higher education, thereby expanding its turf, which had otherwise been reduced to the federal capital.

Second, like almost all public universities, the QAU too has been suffering from chronic underfunding for the last many years. That has prevented the QAU from timely payment of land lease charges to the CDA, something that should have been addressed in the QAU’s annual budget allocation. The CDA has assessed those charges to be approximately Rs35 billion. For context, that is roughly equal to half of the entire annual recurrent budget for higher education for all public-sector universities combined! Alternatively, that is the going cost of establishing five or six new universities. It is an amount that is impossible for any university to scrounge together. To see just how absurd, a faculty member shared that the QAU does not have money to buy paper for exams and departments are asking students to bring their own answer sheets.

The CDA has decided to use that fact as a cudgel. It has cited the QAU’s non-payment of these leasing charges as justification to declare it (in verbal discussions) an illegal occupier and (perhaps as a starting bargaining position) consequently lay claim to all its land. Apparently, in this country anyone with a little influence and / or power can be allowed (indefinitely) delayed payment, maybe pay a modest fine, or even have payments waived in the name of amnesty – anyone, except common people and universities.

The MoFEPT, which is chairing a joint working group comprising representatives of QAU, CDA, and HEC, is obviously representing the interests of the federal government which is in election mode and digging up quick wins before the polls. It relayed an offer of goodies from the CDA to the QAU. Those goodies included compensatory land, an effective waiver of the land charges by the federal cabinet facilitated by the MoFEPT, building of a new road connecting the QAU to Murree Road, repaving and widening of existing roads, and a student discount on the use of Islamabad’s mass transit system.

Very significantly, the CDA was willing to break its own rule of prohibiting universities from conducting commercial activities on leased land which, in the past, has stymied attempts by at least some universities in the capital to become more self-sufficient and less dependent on sources of public funds. Apparently, this bypass road has become so important that the CDA was able to make an exception.

On top of all this, the MoFEPT had offered to sweeten the deal by bailing the QAU out of its financial difficulties to the tune of Rs5 billion, stemming from pension / endowment and other deficits. All these goodies would have been the QAU’s, if only it relented on its claim to the land. When that did not happen, the CDA withdrew the deal-sweetening goodies.

The regulator was proceeding with such haste that it even neglected to conduct an environmental impact study by the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA). That has now become one of the arguments in the QAU community’s legal challenge to the bypass. On November 18, the Pak-EPA held a public hearing in Islamabad to which both the CDA and QAU community were invited. The meeting was well attended by a large number of QAU stakeholders.

According to attendees’ accounts, on seeing the large number of people in attendance (faculty and students, genuine stakeholders), an official of the CDA, itself party to the dispute, sidelined the officials from the Pak-EPA. Attendees report that CDA officials on the scene called for ‘reinforcements’ and, a little while later, several buses packed with those that claimed to somehow be on the CDA’s side arrived. It is unclear what their association was or who they formally represented; hooliganism ensued which forced an early end to the meeting. Images and videos of the incident are still floating around on social media. According to attendees these people were likely shipped in for the purpose of intimidation by the other party.

The Islamabad High Court has taken notice of this thuggery, set a hearing for November 21, and summoned the DG of the Pak-EPA to appear and answer the court’s concerns herself. On the day of the hearing the DG did not bother to appear but sent her deputy who, being a much junior civil servant, was said to have been sidelined by the same CDA member in attendance (party to the dispute) in the meeting that was the subject of the hearing. Thus, a regulator (the Pak-EPA) gave up its authority and bowed to the regulatee (the CDA) by first not appearing for a hearing on a matter that has garnered great public interest and then by sending in a much junior officer. So transparent was this to the court that it summoned the DG to appear in person for an explanation on November 25 (yesterday).

I said earlier that seizing the QAU’s land may just be the CDA’s way of following the path of least resistance, instead of fixing its own inability to deal with encroachers and resolving the traffic problem on the existing stretch of Murree Road passing through Bara Kahu. Others have even cited fears – unsubstantiated but in the realm of possibility – of property development being a factor in play.

Clearly, there is something broken in the way the QAU (and possibly other universities) are set up. What free inquiry can we hope for from universities, what autonomy do they have when anytime they are seen being critical or prove non-compliant with the wishes of the powerful, they can be threatened by having their land pulled out from under them?

Asking a public university to pay billions for a lease reminds one of a loan-shark. No public university in this country has that kind of money. And then offering a forgiveness of leasing charges and other goodies in return for a tract of land – what is that if not forcing a negotiation while holding a gun to your head?

The writer (she/her) has a PhD in Education.

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We have often blamed politicians for ignoring the plight of the dismal nature of our education sector while focusing on other issues. We have critiqued policymakers, decision-makers and the establishment for not making education a priority.

But why don’t we ever beg the same question to the media who seem to be completely silent on the visible decay and crumble of our education sector while they run after lesser important yet juicy issues for the purpose of ratings and entertainment? Do all stakeholders, pillars of the state and the real handlers of this country even realize the impact of our poor education sector and what all have we missed out on because of our pathetic lack of focus on this primary issue and the best route to make Pakistan better?

We all know, have a fair idea or at least have heard the state of affairs as far as education is concerned. If nothing else, we have experienced it as students or as parents/ relatives of students in this country. A lot has also been written, spoken about and debated on this topic by civil society, NGOs and concerned educationists.

Yet, the media seems to give scant attention to, or simply ignores, the plight of students and education on a regular basis. We did see some attention on education when the Single National Curriculum was on the table, but soon this ‘boring’ topic was shelved for everyday masala and the regular leg pulling and ugly politics.

Just switch to prime time TV on any given day of the week and see what all is played on a daily basis while education burns. We do have those rare insights into other issues too but politics seems to dominate our screen time. No mainstream anchor has taken up the cause of various issues within the education sector in a sustained manner to help form opinions, policies and debate across the country.

This article is also an open letter to some of our most celebrated TV journalists and anchors to please pay attention to this most important and yet most ignored sector of Pakistan and help the country and its future – the children – get a charter of education, an education emergency, and a plan to deal with the severity of issues within education and more. Nobody is asking them to give up their daily focus on politics and give all the time to education, but can we please talk about education on a regular basis so that even the nation realizes the importance of education as a route to be educated individuals and not just literates? Can news channels introduce regular weekly shows, discussions and debates on the structural, philosophical and every-day gaps in our education sector?

Millions stand outside the education sector, while millions within its ambit are not getting quality – or any – education. Millions lack so much that would be a given in any responsible state.

The recent floods destroyed whatever little the poor had in this country. While the media took their voices to their screens, nobody asked the burning question of who and how governments and political parties plan to reconstruct schools, what plans they have to rehabilitate schools, what budgets, and how they will get those budgets.

The cost of this apathy towards education has now turned dangerous. Look at the birth rate in this country and then see the growing gap between children born and schools available for them. This article is keeping aside the glaring issues of quality education, poor and no teaching, female literacy statistics etc. and for now is simply demanding attention. It is too late and the results of these grave oversights and deliberately designed poor priority has, is and will cost us even more severely. This does not just have terrible social issues, but also paves the way for economic mayhem and political madness.

Just a basic look around Pakistan’s neighbourhood and across the world will tell you how far behind we are and how far ahead others are. Just study the role of heavy and quality investments in education in the more developed countries and see where they are today and then match it with the peanuts we allocate towards education in our country and then the poor structure of education we have and its impact on Pakistan as a whole. Simply match the innovations, developments and research in countries with better and quality education versus ours. Talk to students abroad and then speak to Pakistani students to see the gigantic gap in terms of thinking, skills, knowledge and attitude towards education.

Millions of Pakistani students – from primary to university level education – deserve to be heard and made stakeholders in deciding an education policy or even curriculum. They deserve to be counseled about their options, careers, skills and much more on a weekly if not daily basis. Those students living in smaller towns, villages or marginalized areas of cities, whose parents can’t afford good schools, expensive student counselors or international/ national exposure can demand to get all that through a responsible, aware and involved media. They need the attention of the country’s media houses so their issues can be addressed on the micro and macro levels. Popular anchors across TV channels can create, influence and control attitudes towards education and then pressurize governments, politicians and political parties to listen, act and implement what is missing in education.

Pakistan is light years behind where we should have been in the education sector; 2023 is an election year and this is the right time to help political parties debate, deliberate and design and later implement an education policy. This is the time to allow our students to ask hard questions from the decision-makers of this country. If the media can spend umpteen hours on a completely time wasting discussion on who will be the next army chief day in and day out. If our anchors can talk at length about less important issues of the country and if our politicians, influencers and establishment can make or break ideas in this country over time, then why can’t they make education their priority as well?

The students of Pakistan are now begging for the kind of attention they deserve and which has not been given to them by the media. This is simply the right thing to do by the fourth pillar of the state for a better, progressive and developed Pakistan.

The writer is an educationist and International baccalaureate (IB) consultant.

Twitter: @TBandey

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ON Barack Obama`s first day as president, he pledged to make information about government operations readily available to US citizens. He then `signed an executive order that made open and machine-readable data the new default for government information`. Since then, the US administration has made significant progress in opening up its administrative data, and as envisaged, the openness has resulted in improving the efficiency of government agencies and strengthening their democracy with more informed civic engagement.

The data was already there, however, the political will and leadership changed attitudes towards it and nourished a culture where the government started to use data as an asset by making it more available and usable.

While many legal and policy changes were adopted to achieve this cultural change, one of the first and most critical step was the development of a centralised government data portal (in May 2009, where dif ferent government agencies made large amounts of information available to the public.The portalprovided easy access to public, policymakers, researchers and data developers to thousands of computerreadable government data sets. The UK soon followed in January 2010, and since then many countries have adopted the philosophy.

A survey by Open Data Barometer suggests that the majority of the countries in the survey (55 per cent) now have an open data initiative in place. Pakistan, however, was in the bottom 10 along with Yemen, Swaziland and a few other developing countries. The barometer ranked the countries on many indicators such as data availability, openness, accessibility, usage and impact.

Pakistan`s most disappointing results were on implementation and impact where we scoredjustfour(outof100)andzero(outof 100) respectively. This implies that most of our data is either unavailable (or not machine readable) and there is absolutely no impact of the data on increasing governmentefficiency and effectiveness.

This inability to govern ef fectively is also evident from our ranking on the World Bank`s collection of development indicators where we are currently ranked at 37.5pc (percentile), and our score on government effectiveness is -0.4 this was around 0.68 in 1996. On the other hand, India, which inherited a similar governance structure, has improved its score from -0.11 in 1996 to 0.28 in 2021. More worrying is the fact that instead of improvement, the state of affairs is getting worse with time. Moreover, with the current bleak outlook for local and global economies, with high inflation andslowing growth, it is even more pertinent now to spend wisely. We need more openness, more transparency, more accountability and more data. And we need the will, leadership and capacities to use this data scientifically for better planning and policymaking.

To be fair, we do produce a lot of data on population, demographics, health, education and other key indicators. However, most of the data is available in hard or PDF formats at dif ferent locations (websites, government of fices, per sonal computer s) which are hard to turn into usable information. For efficient and effective usage, we need central data platforms or open data portals where government departments can share information easily and prevent silos from emerging.

Eventually, data should be collected and stored digitally, to reduce errors and increase the speed with which it can be made publicly available. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bureau of Statistics has taken the first major step towards this dig-itisation, with the KP Data Portal where all the available administrative data for the last 20 years has been digitised and made available for both policymakers and general pubhc.

They have beensupported on this by The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

Other bureaus, including the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, only have their data available in PDF format of their websites which users cannot easily access and modify, thus severely restricting their usage.

McKinsey has estimated the value of open (accessible government data) data at $3 trillion a year globally, which has the potential to improve government spendings, bring more transparency and countability, reduce spendings, improve services and create new businesses, digital service and innovation. With a young, digitally connected and tech-literate population, we have the potential to improve our policymaking and planning processes through data and evidence. However, for this to happen, we need to produce more timely and relevant data; make the data more accessible by developing a PBS-led central data portal with machine-readable data; and build capacities in government on data usage for planning and policymaking.• The writer is an adviser to the Sustainable Energy & Economic Development Programme.

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