Presented by

KASHiF JAMiLM.Phil Education

Faculty of Education Hyderabad Sindh University Jamshoro

Planning and implementation of Education Policies

It particularly highlights the issues of unclear goals, political commitment, governance, centralization, resources and foreign aid. Generally, it is assumed that overcoming these conventional challenges will result in better policy outcomes.

Although this is partially true, direct our attention to the cognitive factors that play a critical role in policy implementation.

They argued that implementing agents try to make sense of policy provisions before acting on them

Why Does Policy Fail?

Principles of Educational Policies

The research noted that most of the management staff at district level had limited and distorted understanding of basic policies.

This lack of understanding is caused by poor channels through which policy is communicated and which severely compromises the reform initiative.

Why Does Policy planning Fail?

A further complexity in the policy context of countries like Pakistan is its dependence on donor agencies for its educational development.

The national and local newspapers should also be used to popularize the new policy demands

Dependent Policy

The failure of educational policy in developing countries is largely attributed to the issues of poor implementation; for example Singh and Rajakutty (1998) report the failure of a mass literacy program in India, which was seriously affected due to improper implementation. Pakistan is no exception to this;

there have been many occasions when educational programs failed to be properly implemented and to achieve desired objectives.

Failure of Polices developed countries

The problem related to politics and politicians sits at the root of the problems of implementation in Pakistan..Sri Lankan reform experience suggests that

successful implementation crucially depends on the consistent support of top political and bureaucratic leadership.

Pakistan there have been many instances where governments have failed to provide the political support needed for implementing and sustaining policy initiatives.

Each new government has discontinued most programs of its predecessors soon after assuming power, for example, a literacy project titled Nai Roshni (new light) was launched in 1987 and was discontinued in 1989 with the change of government Other mass literacy programs have also failed due to low political commitment both at federal and local levels.

Political Commitment

CentralizationOne of the recurring criticisms of educational

planning in Pakistan is its orientation towards centralization.

Usually the policies and plans are developed in the capital with little or controlled consultation with concerned stakeholders, particularly teachers and head teachers.

Due to this centralization, education policy often fails to capture the subtleties of educational initiatives at grassroots level,

No Research base Policy

Comparatively, the education budget of Pakistan in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is less than the regional countries.

The current education budget of Pakistanis just 2.5 % of GDP whilst Nepal 2.7%, Srilanka 3.2%, India 3.5% and Bangladesh is 3.5%. The low education budget shows the negligence of education. Remember, 95 per cent of education budget is incurred on salaries and maintenance.

Budget NEP

There are five education levels are operating in Pakistan, primary, middle, high schooling, intermediate and university education. Unfortunately, the policy maker of education has been determined and focused only on higher education.

Through such policy, an independent body of Higher Education Commission ( HEC) was established to look after overall universities education through code of conduct and various allocations of budgeting the universities including foreign scholarships in various programs.

Literacy rate is measured from the prevailing level of education in the country

Good governance is a first pre-requisite factor to embark on the every essence of policy to build up society through key education.

The Quaid-e- Azam rightly emphasized the acquirement of education on addressing in” All educational Conference at Karachi, Nov, 27,1947, said,” The importance of education and the right type of education can not be over emphasized.

If we are to make any real, speedy and substantial progress, we must earnestly tackle this question ad bring our educational policy and program on the lines suited to the genius of our people, consonant with our history and culture, and having regard to the modern conditions and vast developments that have taken place all over the World.”

Good Governance of Policy Planning and Implementation

What makes Education Policy 2009 different in its approach for a workable solution to achieving the impossible? For one, Chapter Three (3) Understanding System Deficiencies, of the policy document exhaustively defines and analyses the deficiencies that have plagued the education sector in the past. It identifies two major reasons and I quote:

"There are two fundamental causes for the weak performance of the education sector:

(i) a lack of commitment to education - a commitment gap - and

(ii) an implementation gap that has thwarted the application of policies".

2009 Policy some features highlight

The Planning Commission's Vision 2030 document says that "We cannot spend only 2.7 per cent of GDP on education and expect to become a vibrant knowledge economy."

The commitment to educating the whole country for a viable economic base is reflected totally in the kind of budgetary allocation the education sector has received over the last three decades.

The result has been a low literacy rate and a poorly educated service and tertiary sector that have made Pakistan lag behind India in its bid for markets abroad and at home.

The elitist education managed to produce top doctors, engineers, pilots, Chartered Accountants, initial bureaucrats and military personnel but failed to provide an exemplary secondary support group of nurses, technicians, cabin staff, district officers who were mostly educated in the public schools.

Commitment Gap

Conclusion

Best Wishes

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