BALOCHISTAN · · 2018-03-06election debates in Pakistan will establish the ... boys versus the...

BALOCHISTAN

2013-2018

Five Years of Education Reforms

Wins, losses andchallenges for2018-2023

Citation

Alif Ailaan 2018. 2013-2018 Five Years of Education Reforms in Balochistan. Wins, Losses and challenges for 2018-2023. Islamabad: Alif Ailaan. vi-33 pp.

ISBN: 978-969-7624-11-9

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This report has benefitted from the input and guidance of a deeply committed community of activists, thought leaders, researchers, economists and government officials that have helped sustain the Alif Ailaan campaign for the five year period that this report covers. They are too numerous to include in full, but we are especially grateful to: Ghulam Ali Baloch, Abdul Saboor Kakar, Noor ul Haq Baloch, Azizullah Jamali, Asfandyar Khan, Zulfiqar Jatoi, Syed Nisar Agha, Munir Ahmed Baloch, Syed Ali Shah, Ayub Tareen, Adnan Amir, Kaiser Bengali, Irfan Awan, Umbreen Arif, Sami Sadozai, Quratulain Bakhteari, Nadir Gul Barech and Nazar Ahmed Barrech.

Zunaira Ali and Noreen Malik merit special mention for design support and members of the Alif Ailaan team including Maheen Shakeel, Raiha Akram, Mashal Mushtaq and Palwasha Bangash.

2013-2018Five years of

education reformsBALOCHISTAN

Wins, losses and challenges for the future

2018-2023

byRafiullah KakarSalman Naveed

iii

Table of Contents1.1 Framing the debate in 2018 6

1.2 Policy complexity and simple metrics 6

1.3 Beyond competition between provinces 7

1.4 Balochistan’schallenge 7

3.1 Better government schools 14

3.2 Improved learning outcomes 15

3.2.1 Merit-based recruitment of teachers 15

3.2.2 Standardised testing of learning levels 15

3.3 Education data and statistics 16

3.3.1 Real Time Monitoring System 16

3.4 Increased and improved funding of education 16

3.5 Devolution 17

3.5.1 District Education Authorities 18

3.5.2 District Education Groups 18

3.5.3 Cluster based Management System 18

2.1 Balochistan education sector plan 2013-2018 10

2.2 Legislative cover 10

2.3 Summarising the BESP themes 10

1. Why provincial profiles,

and what they entail 5

2. Education reform in Balochistan

9

3. What changed for the better in Balochistan 13

iv

4.1 Trends during 2013-2018 20

4.2 The challenge of better government schools 20

4.2.1 The out of school children crisis 20

4.2.2 The state of school infrastructure 22

4.2.3 The crisis of retention and of girls’ education 22

4.3 The challenge of improved learning outcomes 23

4.3.1 Passive and outdated secondary and intermediate boards 23

4.3.2 The crisis of teaching 24

4.3.3 The challenge of content 25

4.4 Wide intra-provincial disparities 25

4.4.1 Primary school infrastructure score index 25

4.4.2 Middle school infrastructure score index 27

4.4.3 Education score index 28

4.4.4 Beyond primary readiness score index 29

4. Key education

challenges for Balochistan in 2018

5. Conclusion

19

31

5

WHY PROVINCIAL PROFILES, AND WHAT THEY ENTAIL

1

6

2013-2018 Five years of education reform: BALOCHISTAN Wins, losses and challenges for the future 2018-2023

1.1 Framing the debate in 2018

Pakistanis are scheduled to elect a new government later this year. The intensity and frequency of political debate is going to lead to full throttle election campaigns by all major political parties. An election presents a remarkable opportunity for the country to establish its priorities and create a framework to measure the performance of taxpayer funded politicians and bureaucrats.

Democracy is inextricably tied to the idea of accountability. It empowers citizens, as clients under the social contract to hold elected leaders accountable against certain promises, commitments, and demands. The coming election debates in Pakistan will establish the parameters of expectations in the country for the period from 2018 to 2023. What should these expectations be?

Despite significant strides in the right direction, the country’s education landscape entails very little that Pakistanis can be proud of. According to the most recent official national statistics, there are 22.6 million children out of school, the majority of whom are girls. This estimate is alarming on its own. However, what is even more worrying is the quality of education that children who are enrolled in school receive. From the very limited data that government produces in terms of learning outcomes, it is clear that Pakistani children are not being equipped with the cognitive skills they need to succeed individually, for their families, for their communities, for their neighborhoods, cities and villages, and for the country at large. Across the country and across both the private and the public domain, very little learning takes place in

Pakistani schools.

The proposition in the previously published report for Sindh, for this document, and for the accompanying two documents that will be published for each of the other two provinces is simple. It is reasonable to expect universal enrolment. It is reasonable to expect high quality teaching in government schools. It is reasonable to expect that the products of the Pakistani education system can be empowered to change their own lives, change the lives of their families and communities, and change their country—all for the better. Since education is principally a service delivery area that is the domain of the provinces, these expectations must be framed for each province. This document represents such an effort for the province of Balochistan.

1.2 Policy complexity and simple metrics

The provision of education is a political issue, as much as it is a technical one. But how does political contestation influence the quality of education that Pakistani children receive?

Politicians influence almost every aspect of education service delivery. They decide how much money is to be allocated to education, they decide what processes are to be followed in hiring teachers, they decide where schools are needed, of what level, and what kind. The decisions politicians take today are not binary: schools are being closed, and merged, new schools are being opened. Some of these schools are ordinary government schools, some are “superschools”, some are being opened by non-government entities, some by religious organizations, and some by profit-making entities. Schools are being handed over to

7

Why provincial profiles, and what they entail

non-profit organizations because governments cannot seem to fix them, and schools are being shut down where there are not enough students. Yet government itself acknowledges millions of out of school children, millions of dropouts and astoundingly poor learning outcomes.

1.3 Beyond competition between provinces

In this complex environment, simplicity is important but difficult to find. Alif Ailaan’s most recent District Education Rankings (DER) report was published in December 2017. The report’s primary purpose is to provoke debate about the provision of education using widely agreed metrics in infrastructure and education quality. The rankings highlight some long-standing trends in education, including

¡ The disproportionate provision of primary schools, compared to middle and high schools

¡ The retention crisis, as manifest in high levels of dropouts between primary and middle schools, informed by the relatively low supply of middle and beyond middle schools

¡ The imbalance in the supply of schools for boys versus the number of schools for girls at the primary, middle and high school levels

The DER also generated significant debate among political leaders, and provincial department representatives as they compare the performances of provinces relative to each other.

Channeling the DER, the objective of this document is to provide a deeper understanding of province specific successes, challenges and opportunities in education, and prompt a wider recognition of the disparities within

rather than between provinces. This report seeks to identify reforms attempted during the current government’s terms in office, take stock of the overall situation in the province, using province-specific data, which in some cases is not available nationally, but only for specific provinces, highlight the changes needed to take advantage of opportunities created by reforms, and frame an agenda for the future.

1.4 Balochistan challenge

When the current tenure of the assemblies began, in June 2013, Balochistan’s education landscape was defined by extreme inequality. Half of all schools were single room schools, and concurrently, but not proportionally, half of all schools were single teacher schools. Consistently, the DER document has shown Balochistan to be lagging on almost every indicator, across the province. Balochistan’s children have been the most abandoned of all Pakistani children.

The Balochistan Education Sector Plan 2013-2018 was devised in that context, and was supposed to serve as a roadmap for the province to extricate itself from the crisis situation that schools were in, and to set it on a path of reform. Balochistan’s unique topography, demography and the political instability faced by the people of the province, all combine to make education reform a low priority area, with low chances of success. Universal access to schools, high quality learning outcomes, adequate allocations and spending on education, and the accompanying data regime for education all represent structural challenges in Balochistan.

The reforms introduced during the current tenure have had some success in identifying closed schools, in reducing teacher absenteeism in government schools, and in partially addressing

the significant mismatch between access to primary schools and access to middle, high and higher secondary schools across the province. Yet Balochistan continues to suffer from an education system that is unable to create the hope among its people, of a better and brighter future.

This document aims to contextualise the challenges faced in the provision of education across Balochistan and summarise successes in education reform over the last five years. In the coming five years, Balochistan may have a generational opportunity to ensure that all children of the province have access to high quality education. This document attempts to frame how this opportunity may be utilised.

Education reform inBalochistan

2

10


Balochistan offers a unique set of challenges for planners, policy makers, politicians, bureaucrats and education providers. Population density, the quantum of technical capacity and the depth of the private sector in the other three provinces are dramatically different from Balochistan. Traditional measures will not work in Balochistan due to the very peculiar nature of the urban-rural divide in the province, and the traditionally weak capacity that has been afforded to provincial administrative resources. Often, the uniqueness of Balochistan is ignored at the risk of formulating irrelevant notions and plans for the province. Framing the debate more precisely and accurately than in the past is critical for Balochistan to have any chance of successfully executing reforms.

2.1 Balochistan Education Sector Plan 2013-2018

In 2013, the Policy Planning and Implementation Unit (PPIU), Education Department, Government of Balochistan prepared a comprehensive and costed Balochistan Education Sector Plan (BESP) 2013-2018, after a comprehensive review of challenges, issues and opportunities in the sector. The sector plan provided a holistic strategy and roadmap for guiding the reforms process over the following five years. It put special emphasis on improving quality, equity and governance. In terms of access, the plan focused mainly on upgradation, rationalisation, consolidation and efficient utilisation of existing schools. BESP also included a performance appraisal framework and a well thought-out implementation and monitoring plan. It was envisaged that BESP will be reviewed annually at various levels with the highest oversight body headed by the Chief Secretary of the province.

In addition to offering a coherent path for reforms, the sector plan helped engage donor interest and paved the way for increased donor investment in education in Balochistan. Many donor agencies, who had previously been reluctant to invest in Balochistan, came forward to support the implementation of the sector plan.

2.2 Legislative coverIn pursuance of Article 25A, the Balochistan Assembly passed the Balochistan Compulsory Education Act 2014 in February 2014. In 2015, the Assembly passed the Balochistan Private Educational Institute Registration and Regulation Authority Act, to ensure that the provincial government is able to plan and deliver education based on a robust data regime capturing all children enrolled in government, private, non-formal schools and madrassahs. In keeping with the sector plan, the government also passed the Introduction of Mother Language as Compulsory Additional Subject at Primary Level Act through which local languages, including Balochi, Pashto, Brahvi, Persian and Sindhi were to be introduced as compulsory subjects at the primary level.

2.3 Summarising the BESP themes

The sector plan identifies six coherent areas for reform, namely: quality and relevance in education, access and equity, governance and management, higher education, adult literacy and alternate learning pathways, and education financing. Each of these areas are then further explained with an exhaustive list of analysis of the state of affairs at the time, the objective sought, and the ways in which the sector plan envisages a tackling of the challenges within.

11

Education reform in Balochistan

For the purposes of this document, we have synthesised the BESP’s six areas into four key themes around education that ought to be used as instruments to adequately capture the expanse of the education landscape. Since this report focuses on school education, we do not include an assessment of higher education or of adult literacy programmes—though both represent important areas of investment for provincial governments.

1. Better government schools – An overwhelming majority of children in Balochistan attend government schools. Dilapidated school facilities and infrastructure, low population density, long distances between school and the home, and high number of single room and single teacher schools all combine to limit access to education. The only solution, available in a short period of time, and to scale, is more accessible, better quality government schools. This makes government schools the center of any meaningful education reform enabling access to education for the marginalised majority of the country’s children.

2. Better quality of education – The education challenge facing Balochistan, perhaps more than any other province, is not confined to the issue of access, but rather to the availability of high quality learning. Ensuring education quality in areas with a large pool of low cost teachers, and a

large number of private schools is relatively easier. Attempting to do so in Balochistan, where such resources are scarce, outside of Quetta, is exceptionally difficult. Making sure that children receive the best possible education and are able to retain it in a way that benefits them academically and also in terms of developing cognitive skills for mobility later in life must be an urgent priority in Balochistan.

3. Improved data regimes – Accurate, robust and timely data is a critical component of effective policymaking. Accurate and timely data not only facilitates evidence based policy interventions but also informs policy research that can steer policy making apparatuses in the right direction. The unique set of circumstances and challenges in Balochistan make the availability of timely and accurate data all the more important.

4. More budget spent more effectively – The scale of the education challenge in Balochistan calls for more resources to be allocated to the sector while ensuring that the money allocated is spent in the best manner possible to extract utmost impact.

In the following sections of this document, we attempt to highlight the positive steps taken to reform education provisions in Balochistan, and to frame the challenges that remain broadly within these four overarching thematic areas.

13

Education reform in Balochistan

What changed for the better in Balochistan

3

14


3.1 Better government schools

A clear focus on access and equity was one of the key pillars of the BESP. The primary objective was to increase enrolment and retention of children in school and elimination of inequities faced by marginalised groups, especially girls. To achieve this objective, BESP proposed a strategy that sought efficiency as much as it did effectiveness. In an environment of incredibly thin resources, this was an important concession. The focus was therefore mainly on upgrading, rationalising, and consolidating existing schools rather than building brand new ones. One key improvement this has helped deliver is a substantial increase in access to schooling beyond the primary level. The strategy also included an acknowledgment of the confluence of both supply and demand, in terms of public sector provision of education. In line with BESP, the education department has undertaken a range of initiatives to improve access and equity. These initiatives include:

¡ Horizontal expansion of schooling opportunities by building new schools in communities without schools.

¡ Vertical expansion through upgradation of primary schools into middle and middle into high schools

¡ Infrastructural improvement and provision of missing facilities in existing schools including construction of boundary walls, toilet facilities, drinking water, rooms, and multi-purpose halls

¡ Improved utilisation of existing schools through increased enrolment and rationalisation of teachers’ strength

¡ Provision of incentives to parents and children

¡ Declaration of all government primary schools across the province as “gender free” schools

¡ Giving preference to female teachers when recruiting teachers for primary schools.

Prim

ary

Mid

dle

Hig

h

Number of schools2016-172015-162014-152013-142012-13

947837836783745

1,127

1,2711,1841,2331,165

11,62710,92911,167

10,58510,484

15


3.2 Improved learning outcomes

Better learning outcomes have also been a key element of the BESP. Two of the reforms undertaken by the government of Balochistan are closely linked to the objective of managing, tracking and improving the quality of teaching and learning among students: one is the merit-based recruitment of teachers, and the second is the regular standardised testing of students.

3.2.1 Merit-based recruitment of teachers

The government of Balochistan introduced a merit-based system for the recruitment of teachers. Under this system, tests were to be conducted through a third party. The recruitment criteria was revised, and a policy decision was made to give preference to hiring only female teachers for primary schools. Moreover, the overall qualification requirements for junior and high school teachers were raised. In order to improve the efficiency of the recruitment process, the finalisation of the teachers’ merit list was devolved to district and sub-district levels through the formation of District Recruitment Committees (DRCs). The DRC is chaired by the Deputy Commissioner, with the District Education Officer and treasury officers serving as members of the committee. To ensure that the recruitment process is transparent, complaint registration and redressal mechanisms were established at divisional level.

Under the revised system, the government recruited 5,000 new teachers through the National Testing Service (NTS) and 1,200 Subject Specialist Teachers through tests conducted by the Balochistan Public Service Commission (BPSC). In addition to this, 1,209

teachers were recruited through a competitive process under the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) funded project, and 200 female teachers were recruited specifically for mathematics and science.

3.2.2 Standardised testing of learning levels

Three types of assessments currently exist in Balochistan: internal, external and diagnostic. Internal assessments are conducted by school teachers. The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) conducts external exams at the primary, secondary and higher secondary levels. Both internal and external exams have fundamental weaknesses. They encourage rote learning and test memory of students rather than conceptual clarity and understanding. Teachers and external examiners lack the capacity to design and conduct exams that can test the knowledge, critical thinking, and analytical abilities of students. Those who prepare exam papers are not familiar with curriculum. Consequently, exam papers are based purely on textbooks and past papers rather than curriculum or student learning objectives.

In order to improve learning assessments, the government established the Balochistan Assessment & Examination Commission (BAEC) to conduct standardised examinations for 5th and 8th grades throughout the province. Previously, external exams were conducted in Grades 9,10, 11 and 12 only. Moreover, BAEC will also conduct system wide diagnosis for improving learning outcomes. Previously, Provincial Education Assessment Centre (PEAC) was responsible for conducting diagnostic assessments but it ceased to operate in 2008. The BAEC essentially replaces the PEAC—but the risk of it meeting the same fate remains,

16


as long as citizen expectations are not modified to include regular standardised test results. Standardised exams and diagnostic assessments will help identify and address gaps in quality of textbooks, teaching, exams and school learning environment. BAEC began conducting grade 5 (class V) and grade 8 (class VIII) exams in 2015.

3.3 Education data and statistics

The setting up of the BAEC and the implementation of the real-time monitoring of government schools are two initiatives pertaining to the creation of a data bank on quality as well as input indicators.

3.3.1 Real Time Monitoring System In order to ensure and improve monitoring of schools, the education department has implemented an android-based real-time school monitoring mechanism which provides quick update and feedback about key educational inputs to education managers. Through this initiative, each and every school is now monitored in real time. Key indicators monitored are: ¡ Presence of Teachers ¡ Enrolment ¡ Provision of basic facilities/physical

infrastructure ¡ Class Room Learning Environment ¡ Cluster based procurement/funds

A dashboard that links the real-time monitoring indicator results with the EMIS data has been developed and government schools are being monitored on a monthly basis. The findings of the monitoring visits are shared at the District Education Group (DEG) meetings and actions against absent teachers are proposed.

3.4 Increased and improved funding of education

The education budget of Balochistan has substantially increased since the passage of the 7th NFC Award. Between financial years 2010-11 and 2017-18, the total education budget of Balochistan has nearly tripled from PKR19.4 billion to PKR55.3 billion.

The percentage share of education in the total budget of Balochistan increased from 14% in 2012-13 to 18% in 2013-14, indicating the commitment of the new nationalists-led government to improve the state of education in the province. The percentage share of education continued to increase over the following two years, reaching 20% in 2015-16.

Recurrent budget, which consists of salary and non-salary expenditures, has traditionally accounted for a major chunk of the education budget. The percentage share of recurrent budget reduced substantially from 92% in 2012-13 to 71% in 2013-14. It remained below 80% over the next two years and then rose back to over 85% in 2016-17. Salaries and related expenditures have traditionally consumed major chunk of the recurrent budget. The share of salaries has hovered around 85% of the recurrent budget over the past five years.

The development budget for education follows the same pattern as the overall education budget of the province. Share of education in the total development budget increased from 6% in 2012-13 to 24% in 2013-14, decreased to 23% in 2014-15 and 18.38 in the year 2015-16. In 2016-17, the share of development budget for education was slashed to 9% of the total development budget. Overall, the size

17


of development budget for education has increased over the past five years. A total of PKR48 billion were allocated to development for education between 2013-14 and 2017-18 compared to PKR12 billion between 2008-09 and 2012-13.

Balochistan has spent over 85% of the total budget allocated for education every year since 2013. However, a significant portion of the development budget for education remained unutilised every year. Of the approximately PKR 38 billion allocated to education in annual development budgets between the years 2013-14 and 2016-17, over PKR 11 billion (30%) could not be utilised. The share of unspent budget was the largest in 2013-14 when about half of the allocated budget couldn’t be spent.

3.5 DevolutionThe emphasis on governance and structural reform to streamline education service delivery in Balochistan has yielded positive results in terms of the devolution of administrative and fiscal powers to the districts and schools. Whilst this devolution is an important and courageous reform, the risks associated with it must not be ignored. Too many times, reformers have emphasised less central control, without an associated focus on coherence and clarity of control at the local level, leading to vacuums of leadership and inefficient administrative performance. Balochistan must be wary of such outcomes as it forges a new devolved system of administering education.

18.86

17.59

19.93

18.9919.33

Balochistan's education budget (as percentage of total provincial budget)

2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18

40.702 48.387

48.612 55.348

28.965

11.736 10.0186.437

9.557

38.36942.175

45.791

TotalCurrent

Development

2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18

Balochistan's education allocations - current and development budgets (in billions)

0

20

40

60

Balochistan’s yearly allocations versus spending estimates - (in billions)

Total Budget EstimatesTotal Revised Estimates

2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18

40.702 48.387

37.801 47.934

48.612 55.348

51.369

18


3.5.1 District Education Authorities

District Education Authorities have been formed in each district to manage, implement and monitor education affairs. Headed by District Education Officers (DEO), the DEA, rather than the Directorate of Schools and Colleges, is the main implementation body for education under the revised governance structure. Major implementation functions such as decisions about teacher training, recruitment, transfer postings (below grade 14), non-functional schools and absent teachers are now supposed to be exercised at the DEA level. The District Commissioner (DC) or his or her representative is a mandatory member of DEA—which helps link the overarching provincial government’s objectives and administrative imperatives to align with the DEAs of any given district—this can be both a blessing and curse, as it may impinge on the intended autonomy that the devolution process is intended to engender.

3.5.2 District Education Groups

A District Education Group (DEG) has been constituted in each district to coordinate and synergize inputs for education planning, implementation and monitoring at the district level. It is primarily a stakeholder forum that includes representatives of key political parties, district education authorities, teachers, representatives of PTSMCs, religious leaders and local elders. The DEG is headed by DC. One of its most important responsibilities is to suggest and recommend actions to DEA against absent teachers and non-functional schools. The DEG meets regularly and shares its findings and recommendations with the DEA and other concerned authorities.

3.5.3 Cluster based management system

While most implementation/administrative responsibilities have been devolved to district level, procurement, monitoring and data gathering and management responsibilities have been devolved to newly created sub-district education management entities called clusters. A cluster includes: “all public and private schools located in a contiguous geographical area with a minimum possible coverage falling under the catchment of a girls or boys hub school. The high school serves as the cluster hub while the middle and primary schools act as the satellites of the cluster to receive all program inputs through the cluster hub.”

A cluster has been formed around every high school in the province. Around 900 clusters have been formed so far. The government has devolved procurement responsibilities to the cluster level. Procurement of education resources for schools such as reading writing material, furniture, tatt/mat etc has been placed under cluster head i.e. the headmaster or headmistress of the high school. Previously, the process of procurement was very centralised with the Directorate and DEOs having full control over it. This system not only led to delays, limited redressal of individual school needs but also wastage of resources and corruption. Under the new system, the Directorate prepares a school-based budget which is spent through local procurement committee headed by cluster Head and comprising members of Local Education Councils (LECs). The committee supervises and processes the actual procurement of goods. Cluster heads take into consideration the needs and demands of schools within their catchment area as submitted by the heads of these schools.

19


Key education challenges for Balochistan in 2018

4

20


Whilst the gains made in education reforms are laudable, there is a significant gap between the targets set in BESP and the promise of a high quality, free and compulsory education to all children of Balochistan.

There is a need to ensure that the reforms undertaken continue to serve as the lynchpins of future efforts, and that the gains made in governance, access, assessment, teacher recruitment, financial allocations, and devolution are further cemented.

The data used to elaborate on the challenges for Balochistan below, has been drawn from the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS), the National Education Assessment System (NEAS), the Government of Balochistan’s budget documents, the District Education Rankings 2017, and the SCSPEB and Alif Ailaan’s PASS/FAIL report (Matriculation Examination Results in Balochistan and What They Mean for the Future).

4.1 Trends during 2013-2018

There has been only a slight improvement in the provision of post primary school infrastructure, with government primary schools still accounting for over 80% of the total number of government schools in the province.

This disparity in the supply of post primary schools results in a dramatic drop in the enrolment of children after grade 5, with the drop out ratio amongst girls disproportionately high. There is an eight time differential between the comparison of boys’ enrolment in primary versus high schools and that of the girls. While there are 40,047 boys in government high schools across the province, this number is at an abysmal 20,015 for girls.

The results of assessments carried out by the Balochistan Assessment & Examination Commission (BAEC) of students in grades 5 and 8 are not publicly available. However, the national assessment through NEAS does point towards a significant lag between teacher-related reforms and what, and how, children are learning in the classrooms.

In percentage terms, the allocations for education in Balochistan have seen the highest growth compared to all other provinces during the 2013-2018 tenure. The increase in allocation has not been matched with an improved ability to spend efficiently, and in service of the targets set out in the BESP.

Of the approximately PKR 38 billion allocated to education in annual development budgets since 2013-14, over PKR 11 billion (30%) could not be utilised.

Reforms in how funds flow from the provincial government to the schools have not yielded the envisaged results, with the school and district administrations inability to utilise the allocations. This challenge is not only limited to the Secondary Education Department, but will require a significant push for public financial management reform in Balochistan to take advantage of the increased allocations for education, and to spend efficiently.

4.2 The challenge of better government schools

4.2.1 The out of school children crisis

According to the Pakistan Education Statistics 2015-2016, there are 1.89 million children out

21


of school in Balochistan. Out of these children, over 630,000 are those who should be attending primary school, and over 1.25 million who are those that are missing out on a middle, high or higher secondary school education.

Whilst the challenge of providing access to all children of primary school going age is yet to be resolved, the most significant test of the government’s resolve is to provide access to children between the ages of 10 and 16 years to middle, high, and higher secondary schools.

However, there is a massive imbalance between the provision of primary and post primary schools across the province. Over 80% of all government schools are at the primary level only, with enrolment in government girls’ high schools as low as in the hundreds in some districts. In the absence of the operationalisation of the Private School Regulatory Authority, there is no data to assess if the imbalance between school tiers is being addressed by the private sector provision. Even if it were, the question of equity would remain. Balochistan’s people remain among the poorest in the country, and their capacity to fend for themselves in terms of a high quality education is certainly not comparable with wealthy residents of Islamabad, Lahore or Karachi.

Out of school children by age (in million)

5-9 years10-16 years

0.63

1.26

488,659

322,790

165,869

123,818

79,742

44,076

60,062

40,047

20,015

Primary Middle High

Enrolment by gender and level

Enrolment (2016-17)

TotalBoysGirls

22


4.2.2 The state of school infrastructure

According to the NEMIS data 2016-2017, the structural and governance reforms have yet to create an impact in terms of better provision of school infrastructure to students and teachers of the province. The creation of clusters and devolution to the district and local stakeholders, while important for school level decision making, should also be able to tackle dramatically improved school infrastructure.

The lack of basic facilities in government schools will hamper efforts for higher enrolment, parental interest in sending their wards to school, and limit the opportunities to children particularly given the geographical expanse of the province.

Reforms will not be able to provide better facilities to students enrolled in government schools in the absence of a robust accountability mechanism which responds to the real-time monitoring data and field visits of education managers.

4.2.3 The crisis of retention and of girls’ education

Access to education in Balochistan is not only limited by the imbalance between primary and post primary government schools, but the stark reminder that girls are particularly being deprived through poor and unavailable school infrastructure.

The number of children enrolled in primary schools is almost 2.5 times of children in middle and high schools

80.22

79.54

81.84

79.69

66.4

30.72 41,59

44.84

28.4

71.51

36.43

16.79

60.14

26.9

11.72

Percentage of schools with

unsatisfactory building condition

Percentage of schools with no

electricity

Percentage of schools with no drinking water

Percentage of schools with no

toilets

Percentage of schools with no boundary wall

Level of schoolsPrimaryMiddle High/Higher secondary

0

15000

0

15000

Number of schools

PrimaryMiddle High/Higher secondary

1,271 947

11,627

23


across Balochistan. Only a third of all children enrolled in government schools are girls.

To frame this within the literacy rate argument, 76% of all urban males in Balochistan are literate, compared to only 15% of all females residing in rural part of the province. The continuation of poor access to girls across the province is further exacerbating the challenge.

4.3 The challenge of improved learning outcomes

The challenge of improving learning outcomes of students enrolled in schools across Balochistan needs emergent attention. Students at both grade 4 and grade 8 levels in Balochistan scored below the scaled mean score of 500 out of a total of 1000 in the National Achievement Test 2016. This indicates that children who do progress from the primary to the middle school tier are not being provided the environment to learn.

4.3.1 Passive and outdated secondary and intermediate boards

Beyond the primary and middle school levels, there are exams results from the standardised board exams for Grade 10 (Matric) and Grade 12 (Intermediate). There are five matric and intermediate boards

BoysGirls

Enrolment over the years

303,549

308,248

475,793

284,159

236,889

229,960

445,875

464,193

442,579

456,738

2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17

Urdu ReadingUrdu Writing

Learning Outcomes (NEAS) student achievementat grade 4

Scale Mean Score (Out of 1000)

Maths Score

479485 490

Learning Outcomes (NEAS) student achievementat grade 8

Scale Mean Score (Out of 1000)

English ReadingEnglish Writing

Science Score

476

496

473

24


in the province operated by the government. Matric and intermediate assessments represent two critical dimensions in students’ academic journeys. Firstly, the assessment scores represent the culmination of school education – the output. At the same time, assessment scores indicate the input of talent being fed into the higher education system. Viewed from both angles, matric and intermediate board assessments are a critical component of the system. The quality of assessment needs to be improved dramatically to ensure robust tracking and management of talent. A very basic analysis of examination questions for various matric and intermediate boards for different years reveal several flaws, including:

¡ Syntax and grammatical errors in how questions are framed do not allow students to get what it is meant to ask

¡ Exclusive focus on rote memorisation as opposed to gauging how well the students have internalised concepts

¡ Inaccuracies within the questions

These issues need to be resolved on an urgent basis in order to ensure the robustness of the assessments carried out by matric and intermediate boards feeding talent into tertiary institutions of higher education.

4.3.2 The crisis of teaching Accountability of agents hired as employees of the system is carried out in a linear fashion in the private sector. Parents who pay fees to have their children educated act as principals overseeing how well a teacher is performing, how often they attend school, how well the headmaster is managing the affairs of the schools etc. One of the major criticisms of government schooling is that government systems do not allow for any such effective accountability mechanism.

For any education system to afford its students with the maximum opportunities to learn and excel, teachers are the most critical stakeholders. The system of accountability will come into effect only if teachers are adequately incentivised and disincentivised for good and bad performance. Like in any other profession where employees are expected to work their way up the ladder based on their performance, teachers in the public sector need to be managed within a framework that rewards good performance with career development.

A key issue that must be tackled to produce a meritocracy within the teaching profession is whether teachers’ promotions should be based on seniority alone. The archaic manner of promoting teachers based solely on their years of service sucks the motivation out from among teachers who are recruited on merit and are looking for ways to climb the hierarchical ladder based on their good performance.

Another consequence of the current promotion structure is that almost invariably, the most “junior” teachers are allocated to lower classes and as they become “senior” with years, they are moved to higher classes. Any substantial improvements to the system of education, and to the quality of education imparted, requires teachers to be provided with more opportunities to grow based on their performance. Another important aspect of this component is ensuring that teachers are equipped with both subject specific skills as well as pedagogical standards.

In order for the system to have a sustainable supply of skilled talent, the government needs to undertake some very foundational reforms to the teacher training centers across the province. These centers should act as nurseries that pump fresh talent into the system, and for that to happen the government will have to allocate technical and financial resources required to

25


upgrade these facilities as per the modern standards.

4.3.3 The challenge of content

Along with assessments and teachers, the content that is taught to students in schools is a critical component of quality. It is important to note that there is a clear distinction between curriculum and content. In Pakistan, conversations among non-governmental policy circles are often focused on curriculum. It should be noted that the curriculum is defined by basic standards and guidelines. The more pressing challenge for policymakers, and one that can be addressed on immediate footing is that of content. Content essentially means what the textbooks taught in school entail.

One issue that needs urgent attention is ascertaining whether the content published in textbooks does justice to existing curriculum standards and guidelines. The textbooks published by the government should be invaluable instruments at the service of teachers whose responsibility it is to make students learn and understand different topics for different subject as per the curriculum standards.

The first step in improving the quality of content taught to children is to issue contracts for textbooks on a competitive basis overseen by a technical committee formed by the government. This will be a critical first step towards allowing children and teachers in Balochistan the access to modern and sophisticated instruments of learning that they deserve.

4.4 Wide intra-provincial disparities

Among the key challenges faced by all

provinces in Pakistan is that of coherence, consistency and integration across the various districts in the province. Intra-provincial or inter-district differences are substantial and they have the potential to reinforce socio-political grievances and other problems of both real and perceived distributional justice across the province. The devolution of education to the provinces under the 18th amendment was meant to ensure the provinces are autonomous in making financial and administrative decisions. It was also meant as a requisite structural shift for effective management of education at the district level by “empowered” provincial headquarters.

This should have led to provincial machineries ensuring an adequate focus in the districts that required them most. Quality education provision is among the most important equaliser in any society and hence it is critical for the government of Balochistan to examine the trends where some districts lag behind others across different indicators. It is imperative that the provinces have the intent, the plans and the resources to address these gaps. The following sub-sections provide rankings of districts in Balochistan across a range of different metrics.

4.4.1 Primary school infrastructure score index

Alif Ailaan’s District Education Rankings 2017 contain four indices for districts from all over the country. The primary school infrastructure index ranked all districts in the country based on cumulative scores on availability of satisfactory building, drinking water, electricity, boundary walls and toilets in schools. For this index, the top most ranked district from Balochistan was Nasirabad that was ranked at 104 in the national rankings. The table below shows all districts from Balochistan with provincial and national ranks for reference.

26


ProvincialRank

NationalRank District Province/

Territory

School Infrastructure

Score

Availability Building Condition

SatisfactoryElectricity Water Toilet Boundary Wall

1 104 Nasirabad Balochistan 34.86 38.01 83.37 11.66 33.05 8.21

2 107 Mastung Balochistan 33.14 9.15 35.29 39.54 60.13 21.57

3 108 Nushki Balochistan 33.02 18.93 43.79 43.79 44.38 14.24 111 Sibi Balochistan 32.87 26.85 43.52 43.06 40.74 10.195 113 Harnai Balochistan 32.61 17.39 49.28 34.06 47.1 15.226 114 Chagai Balochistan 32.55 4.55 50.45 46.82 48.64 12.27

7 116 Quetta Balochistan 32.07 20.04 29.4 37.19 52.56 21.16

8 117 Jaffarabad Balochistan 32.06 29.78 78.88 14.62 24.55 12.45

9 120 Panjgur Balochistan 30.75 16.25 60.31 19.06 49.38 8.75

10 121 Killa Abdullah Balochistan 30.41 16.32 40.91 24.17 46.28 24.38

11 122 Gwadar Balochistan 29.91 18.02 41.44 33.78 40.99 15.32

12 123 Lasbela Balochistan 28.88 16.02 50.77 26.45 31.85 19.31

13 124 Sohbatpur Balochistan 28.66 20 77.01 19.7 20.3 6.27

14 127 Khuzdar Balochistan 28.17 7.56 60.21 18.61 41.3 13.16

15 128 Kalat Balochistan 27.96 6.26 57.17 19.19 41.21 15.96

16 129 Musakhel Balochistan 27.87 7.72 49.26 25 38.6 18.75

17 132 Kech Balochistan 26.82 13.6 50.77 25.67 34.1 9.96

18 133 Pishin Balochistan 26.11 12.41 44.99 19.93 40.93 12.29

19 135 Loralai Balochistan 25.5 18.13 40.71 12.04 37.59 19.02

20 136 Zhob Balochistan 25.26 18.09 48.03 11.84 29.61 18.75

21 138 Ziarat Balochistan 24.44 6.22 41.78 19.11 37.33 17.78

22 139 Kachhi Balochistan 23.79 19.95 47.63 9.98 31.42 9.98

23 140 Killa Saifullah Balochistan 23.35 14.34 45.04 13.6 34.93 8.82

24 141 Kharan Balochistan 22.8 8.6 42.47 17.2 27.96 17.74

25 142 Jhal Magsi Balochistan 21.87 25.48 50 12.6 18.9 2.36

26 145 Barkhan Balochistan 20.53 14.81 52.91 2.65 21.34 10.93

27 146 Awaran Balochistan 20.09 0.45 59.73 12.22 21.72 6.33

28 147 Sherani Balochistan 19.89 6.82 21.59 17.61 41.48 11.93

29 149 Washuk Balochistan 18.11 0.63 54.72 2.52 20.13 12.58

30 150 Kohlu Balochistan 18.09 12.56 45.81 1.86 18.6 11.63

31 152 Dera Bugti Balochistan 14.62 4.92 45.57 2.3 14.1 6.23

27


4.4.2 Middle school infrastructure score index

DER 2017 also include an index for middle school infrastructure using the availability of the same indicators in middle schools to calculate district scores. The table below ranks all districts of Balochistan in addition to providing a column for national ranks for each district for reference.

ProvincialRank


Territory


Score



1 89 Quetta Balochistan 62.92 39.58 48.96 81.25 91.67 53.13

2 90 Sibi Balochistan 62.67 70 60 90 76.67 16.67

3 101 Nushki Balochistan 56.74 62.79 53.49 81.4 67.44 18.64 103 Zhob Balochistan 56.25 46.88 56.25 68.75 90.63 18.755 105 Nasirabad Balochistan 56.22 56.76 81.08 45.95 78.38 18.926 106 Lasbela Balochistan 56 40 61.67 85 70 23.33

7 111 Panjgur Balochistan 54.22 40 55.56 71.11 91.11 13.33

8 113 Killa Abdullah Balochistan 53.85 43.59 51.28 74.36 82.05 17.95

9 115 Mastung Balochistan 53.47 22.45 42.86 71.43 93.88 36.73

10 116 Jaffarabad Balochistan 53.33 59.52 64.29 64.29 61.9 16.67

11 117 Musakhel Balochistan 53 5 55 70 100 35

12 119 Kech Balochistan 51.08 44.58 63.86 77.11 56.63 13.25

13 121 Chagai Balochistan 48.75 12.5 46.88 87.5 81.25 15.63

14 122 Pishin Balochistan 48.27 27.88 54.81 65.38 75 18.27

15 123 Harnai Balochistan 47.37 21.05 52.63 57.89 84.21 21.05

16 124 Gwadar Balochistan 47.33 33.33 46.67 76.67 66.67 13.33

17 125 Sohbatpur Balochistan 46.92 42.31 76.92 46.15 61.54 7.69

18 126 Kharan Balochistan 46.29 28.57 54.29 65.71 68.57 14.29

19 129 Kachhi Balochistan 45.14 45.71 54.29 45.71 68.57 11.43

20 133 Khuzdar Balochistan 42.19 23.44 43.75 50 79.69 14.06

21 134 Killa Saifullah Balochistan 42.17 28.26 54.35 52.17 63.04 13.04

22 136 Kalat Balochistan 42.04 10.2 57.14 61.22 61.22 20.41

23 137 Loralai Balochistan 41.13 28.3 43.4 45.28 67.92 20.75

24 139 Sherani Balochistan 40 33.33 25 75 58.33 8.33

25 141 Jhal Magsi Balochistan 39.31 20.69 58.62 48.28 68.97 0

26 143 Ziarat Balochistan 38.4 16 44 60 64 8

27 146 Barkhan Balochistan 35.63 9.38 37.5 40.63 71.88 18.75

28


ProvincialRank


Territory


Score



28 149 Kohlu Balochistan 33.91 17.39 43.48 30.43 65.22 13.04

29 150 Washuk Balochistan 31.11 5.56 61.11 22.22 55.56 11.11

30 151 Awaran Balochistan 30.77 3.85 53.85 38.46 46.15 11.54

31 153 Dera Bugti Balochistan 25.41 10.81 54.05 18.92 37.84 5.41

4.4.3 Education score index

The Education score index included in the district education rankings 2017 was comprised of measures for learning score, retention score and gender parity score. The learning score was calculated using findings from ASER 2016 report, whereas retention scores was calculated using the proportion of middle school enrolment as a proportion of primary school enrolment and high school enrolment as a proportion of middle school enrolment for each district. The gender parity score was calculated by taking out the proportion of girls and boys enrolment and retention between levels for girls and boys. The table below shows the scores and ranks for districts from Balochistan.

ProvincialRank

NationalRank District Province/Region Education

ScoreLearning

ScoreRetention

ScoreGender

Parity Score

1 45 Quetta Balochistan 64.7 50.98 45.52 97.61

2 56 Panjgur Balochistan 61.11 57.25 41.92 84.17

3 60 Sibi Balochistan 59.86 47.26 47.17 85.14

4 61 Gwadar Balochistan 59.47 62.65 42.08 73.67

5 66 Kalat Balochistan 58.35 67.02 32.88 75.13

6 68 Nushki Balochistan 57.53 56.2 39.41 76.98

7 72 Kech Balochistan 56.87 51.23 45.26 74.12

8 74 Mastung Balochistan 56.51 54.88 36.61 78.05

9 75 Zhob Balochistan 56.36 58.98 40.33 69.76

10 81 Musakhel Balochistan 53.83 55.48 43.75 62.27

11 91 Chagai Balochistan 52.06 55.58 40.49 60.11

12 97 Loralai Balochistan 50.92 53.45 36.28 63.03

13 100 Barkhan Balochistan 50.24 54.58 33.4 62.75

14 101 Lasbela Balochistan 50.14 59.95 28.76 61.7

15 102 Pishin Balochistan 50.06 55.18 29.78 65.22

29


ProvincialRank

NationalRank District Province/Region Education

ScoreLearning

ScoreRetention

ScoreGender

Parity Score

16 105 Ziarat Balochistan 49.53 50.3 38.48 59.81

17 108 Jhal Magsi Balochistan 48.3 56.23 27.62 61.04

18 109 Kachhi Balochistan 48.18 55.03 28.3 61.2

19 110 Kharan Balochistan 48.08 48.56 37.45 58.25

20 111 Killa Abdullah Balochistan 47.99 56.98 33.1 53.9

21 113 Jaffarabad Balochistan 47.55 44.33 33.2 65.13

22 116 Kohlu Balochistan 46.48 53.85 41.36 44.22

23 120 Nasirabad Balochistan 45.12 50.35 39.11 45.9

24 121 Harnai Balochistan 45.11 50.98 27.25 57.1

25 122 Khuzdar Balochistan 45.05 41.63 32.12 61.4

26 126 Sherani Balochistan 44.78 69.8 21.62 42.93

27 127 Killa Saifullah Balochistan 44.36 53.63 29 50.46

28 131 Washuk Balochistan 42 52.78 29 44.22

29 132 Sohbatpur Balochistan 41.49 51.38 35.43 37.64

30 136 Dera Bugti Balochistan 38.12 48.13 37.5 28.74

31 137 Awaran Balochistan 37.65 42.13 27.44 43.37

4.4.4 Beyond primary readiness score index

The beyond primary readiness index of the DER 2017 is meant to capture the imbalance between primary and above primary schools available to students as well as the infrastructural health of middle schools in each district.

ProvincialRank

NationalRank District Province/Region Beyond primary

readiness scoreAbove-primary to primary ratio


Score

1 74 Quetta Balochistan 52.39 41.87 62.92

2 77 Nushki Balochistan 50.86 44.97 56.74

3 83 Sibi Balochistan 44.99 27.31 62.67

4 95 Kech Balochistan 40.58 30.08 51.08

5 97 Mastung Balochistan 39.97 26.47 53.47

30


ProvincialRank

NationalRank District Province/Region Beyond primary

readiness scoreAbove-primary to primary ratio


Score

6 98 Panjgur Balochistan 39.77 25.31 54.22

7 105 Kharan Balochistan 37.66 29.03 46.29

8 107 Zhob Balochistan 37.5 18.75 56.25

9 108 Lasbela Balochistan 37.46 18.92 56

10 113 Gwadar Balochistan 36.28 25.23 47.33

11 116 Harnai Balochistan 36 24.64 47.37

12 120 Chagai Balochistan 35.06 21.36 48.75

13 122 Nasirabad Balochistan 34.91 13.61 56.22

14 124 Killa Abdullah Balochistan 34.46 15.08 53.85

15 126 Pishin Balochistan 33.68 19.09 48.27

16 127 Musakhel Balochistan 33.67 14.34 53

17 129 Jaffarabad Balochistan 32.89 12.45 53.33

18 132 Kalat Balochistan 31.32 20.61 42.04

19 134 Sohbatpur Balochistan 30.92 14.93 46.92

20 136 Kachhi Balochistan 30.55 15.96 45.14

21 140 Ziarat Balochistan 28.98 19.56 38.4

22 141 Jhal Magsi Balochistan 28.91 18.5 39.31

23 142 Khuzdar Balochistan 28.73 15.28 42.19

24 144 Killa Saifullah Balochistan 27.98 13.79 42.17

25 145 Washuk Balochistan 27.19 23.27 31.11

26 147 Loralai Balochistan 26.51 11.89 41.13

27 148 Awaran Balochistan 26.47 22.17 30.77

28 150 Sherani Balochistan 25.11 10.23 40

29 152 Dera Bugti Balochistan 22.87 20.33 25.41

30 153 Barkhan Balochistan 22.66 9.7 35.63

31 154 Kohlu Balochistan 21.84 9.77 33.91

31


The Government of Balochistan has invested time and resources in a number of structural and governance reforms since 2013. These reforms have largely been to address the challenges of providing improved infrastructure, devolving key responsibilities, and plugging the shortage of teachers through merit based recruitment.

Whilst there has been a substantial increase in the allocations for education by the government, the impact of these rising investments is less than clear. Enrolment, retention, learning outcomes, and school infrastructure all continue to pose substantial challenges to the provincial authorities.

In the short term, government needs to address the following issues so that the well-conceived BESP has life beyond the existing political set up. Only continued support for the reform agenda can offer any hope for real impact in the future.

1. The introduction of the real-time monitoring of schools is a good initiative, and the government needs to consolidate the gains made through the data collection by ensuring that the ownership of this data is with a specific entity within the Secondary Education Department.

2. In order to ensure that the monitoring data is useful for decision-making, the Department should initiate steps mirroring those of the School Education & Literacy Department, Sindh, and School Education Department, Punjab to either carry out an annual census of private schools, or include the private providers in the annual school census carried out in October each year. The passage of the pending amendment in the Private Educational Institute Registration and Regulation Authority should help pave the way to address the challenge of incomplete education data in Balochistan.

3. The recruitment, training and placement of competent and empowered headteachers has proven to be a direct correlate of better government schools and improved learning outcomes. The Secondary Education Department, under the ambit of the BESP, should expedite the approval of a policy that allows for headteachers to be recruited in government schools across the province.

4. Authorities must ensure a school-based reform agenda by identifying and implementing changes in a predefined number of government schools representing each tehsil and subdivision across the province. Teacher rationalisation, provision of missing facilities, and direct interventions to improve learning outcomes in the identified schools should immediately be put into place. The governance and structural reforms while important, will not be able to

Conclusion

32


create the momentum of successful schools in the short term; this momentum is key to ensure that the administrative and political will is incentivised to stay true to the reform agenda in the medium and long term.

The data being collected through the annual school census and the real time monitoring system clearly shows that Balochistan has clearly not been able to achieve the targets set out in the BESP. The short term measures identified above should help incentive further investment in the reform agenda, but will require substantial improvements in the education service provision to be at par with the rest of the country. Going forward, the following major challenges will be pivotal in creating the momentum for children in Balochistan to have access to quality education.

1. The number of primary schools in Balochistan vastly outnumbers middle, high and higher secondary schools in the province. This means that there are very limited channels available for students graduating from primary schools to continue their post primary education. Data tells us that this could be a critical reason for dismal retention rates between primary and beyond primary levels. The government needs to focus on immediate provision of middle and high schools across the province. More female high schools should be opened (and existing middle and primary schools upgraded), as there appears to be a clear correlation between increased number of female high schools and girls’ participation in BBISE examinations. There are several ways the imbalance between primary and post primary can be addressed. One, to address long distances and low population density, a much higher proportion of high schools must be residential for students and teachers. Second, all high schools should have middle school classes added to them. Third, existing primary schools (especially those with high enrolment numbers) can be expanded in an effort to secure vertical integration of school levels across the provinces.

2. The matriculation results clearly indicate that the performance of the Balochistan Residential Colleges (BRC) is dramatically better than other government high schools across the province. In order to cater to challenges pertaining to provision of schooling to communities with low population density, the BRC model may need to be expanded to cater to both boys and girls across Balochistan. This model has also shown to address the challenge of provision of competent and qualified teachers through the provision of accommodation. Finally, these BRCs should be brought under the ambit of free and compulsory education to provide an equitable and level playing field to all parents wishing to enroll their children.

3. Number of out of school children between the ages of 10-16 years is twice that of children between the ages of 5-9 years. This represents a major challenge since incorporating children from the former age group into the formal schooling system starting from primary levels is not a viable solution. The government needs to introduce accelerated learning programs that can ensure adequate means for these students to be situated in the formal schooling system.

4. The devolution of powers through the cluster management system, and the local and district education groups needs to implemented in a manner where timely decision making can be undertaken with the requisite fiscal powers.

33


5. The increase in education budget needs to be met with commensurate increase in the effectiveness of financial management system in order to ensure adequately absorb increased funding. This calls for a focus on not only year on year increases in education allocations, disbursements and utilisation, but also marked improvements in the efficiency with which funds are spent.

6. The Secondary Education Department must focus on improved teaching and learning capacity at all levels to ensure greater participation in the examinations as well as better performance of all students. Simple curbing of cheating without improvement in teaching will not be enough. There is also a need to focus on teacher training targeting improved teaching and learning of languages through ensuring that teachers and children are able to operate in a learning environment that is most conducive to learning—often times, this means that teachers must be encouraged to communicate effectively with children—in the language that children are most accustomed to at home. It also means that teachers need to be given the support they need so that their own grasp of the content is enhanced, in both pre-service and in-service teacher training programmes. This too will often mean that training programmes have the flexibility to be conducted in multiple languages to cater to the diverse backgrounds that teachers come from, across the province.

7. Districts consistently falling at the bottom of rankings developed using different metrics point towards the need for robust targeting to not only elevate access to quality education in these districts but also address sociopolitical concerns about inequitable progress in the province. A big part of solving this has to do with the administrative capacity to deal with the challenge of low population density across much of the province. Ordinary or traditional administrative mechanisms will continue to fail policymakers in those areas. A new, and targeted effort to address the most remote thinly populated areas is therefore an urgent priority for Balochistan.

8. Invest substantially more in new technologies to solve education challenges in Balochistan. Solar energy can address the absence of electricity across a wide swathe of government schools in Balochistan. Similarly, bespoke language-based digital content can be used to enable and empower teachers across the province. The teacher training institutions in Balochistan have to be as much a virtual presence, as they are brick and mortar, and increasingly, more so.

This eight point agenda represents a starting point for a serious conversation about education reform in Balochistan in 2018. A much more detailed set of assessments are required to determine plans of action required to address the various challenges that exist. Alif Ailaan and the authors hope that both the provincial governments and the political parties themselves will invest in those assessments so that the period from 2018 to 2023 will represent a period of more meaningful and impactful reforms in education than ever before.

BALOCHISTAN · · 2018-03-06election debates in Pakistan will establish the ... boys versus the...

Documents

Transcript of BALOCHISTAN · · 2018-03-06election debates in Pakistan will establish the ... boys versus the...