Education sector has been in decline for 30 years: MPA

ISLAMABAD: The education sector has been in decline for almost three decades, Aisha Nawaz Chaudhry, the chair of the Punjab Standing Committee for Education, said on Saturday.

Addressing the National Conference on Girls Education organised by the Human Development Foundation and Oxfam, Ms Chaudhry said it was embarrassing to see what has happened with education and how people have been kept illiterate.

The MPA said the decline of the education sector began after the 1970s, and no one bothered to look at the quality of education.

Punjab, Sindh parliamentarians discuss provinces’ efforts for girls’ education at conference

“The education of girls is considered a basic criterion for the development of countries. I believe that change cannot be brought without changing the education system. However, we have started education reforms and hopefully things will improve soon,” she said.

An e-transfer system has been introduced in Punjab, she said, which has made it possible to ensure transfers are merit-based as they will also be carried out through an online system.

“There are around seven million employees in the education department, so it is the biggest institution after the armed forces. We have been focusing on training staff to get positive results. The curriculum and syllabus is being changed and we will bring modern technology to the education system,” she said.

“We are also working on incentives for teachers, as there is only a difference of Rs500 in the salary of a senior teacher and headmaster, because of which no one is willing to work as headmaster. We want to digitalise the education system to remove anomalies,” she said.

Speaking on child marriage, Ms Chaudhry said the government was focused on addressing this issue. She also said a number of vocational training projects will be launched.

Sindh Assembly MPA Munawar Ali Wassan claimed the provincial government is working to ensure every girl is education.

“Just like Punjab, we will also introduce an e-transfer system in Sindh. Women are the basic pillar of society so they should be educated,” he said.

Religious scholars should play their role to ensure girls are educated, educationist Saqlain Daud added.

During an earlier briefing, participants of the conference were informed that human development advocates have brought significant evidence over the last 20 years to show that one of the most strategic interventions for sustainable human development is educating girls, which brings a multitude of social, cultural, political, environmental and economic benefits. But to attain the goal of quality education for all, a country is required to invest substantially in education in general and that of girls in particular.

In the 2016-17 fiscal year, Punjab had marked 33pc of the total education budget for girls’ education and 38pc for boys. In Sindh, only 19pc of the 2016-17 budget was earmarked for girls, compared to 48pc for boys. The per student expenditure for girls in Sindh was Rs15,792 in 2016-17, compared to Rs28,526 for boys.

Punjab and Sindh have the highest number of out-of-school children from all the provinces – 10.5m and 6.4m respectively. This is largely due to overall population figures, but the magnitude of out-of-school children presents a great challenge for the state.