Education policy
EDUCATION plays an important role in the social economic development of a country and the human capital is completely dependent on sustainable economic development.
Pakistan’s educational progress has been insufficient over the past decades as the government is unable to provide a better education system and learning opportunities to the citizens.
A nation’s economic and social development depends on its educated citizens who responsibly play their role for the welfare of the society.
Unfortunately, the current literacy rate in Pakistan is only 5% which demands the provision of more quality education and more financial resources and budgets by the government.
Pakistan continues to face educational challenges in providing quality textbooks, a fair examination system, well-trained teachers and developing good English speaking skills among students. Moreover, students are unable to even achieve the basic competency levels.
The three basic types of schooling systems in Pakistan are a) public schools using Urdu as a medium of instruction, b) private schools that use English as a medium of instruction and have more job opportunities and c) madrassahs.
The government is taking measures to improve the teaching skills, quality and capacity. The National Vocational and Technical Commission (NAVTTC) and the Ministry of Federal Education have developed to increase teaching skills and opportunities.
The NAVTTC has also launched a Hunarmand Jawan- Prime Minister’s “Skill for All” scheme with the government’s aid to provide 150,000 skilled work forces in the system each year, training and developing skills 75,000 youth in the uncovered areas of the country.
The National Education Policy has also given special focus on the following four policies to solve the challenges faced by the education sector.
Since the access to Out Of School Children (OOSC) is limited at Secondary level and teaching faulty is not of good quality in various areas of the country, the National Education Policy will first decrease the number of out of school children (OOSC) and increase the number of children completing school at primary and secondary levels.
Secondly, educational professionals under the Education Ministry have and continue to determine means and ways of tackling the concerns regarding teaching quality.
The National Curriculum Council is made to revise the framework and uniformity in the educational standards is being achieved to increase the quality of education in public sector schools while putting more focus on English language learning.
Moreover, the learning quality and the outcomes of learning quality are directly dependent on low infrastructural quality by teachers and since teachers have less knowledge of subjects like English, science, mathematics, etc, they act as hurdles in the children’s way of gaining quality knowledge and education.
Hence, the National Education Policy will also look into the matter of political interference in the placement of teachers and their transfers in order to get rid of the imbalance in the system.
Lastly, as skill training and higher education in Pakistan are low, the National Education Policy will enhance access to and relevance of skills training to fulfill the shortage of qualified faculty members and insufficient learning and teaching materials.
Pakistan needs to provide better educational services to create economic and social opportunities for all children by improving the standard of education, textbooks, teaching and learning across public, private and madrassah systems and deal 22.5 million out of school children.
Since the Human Capital plays an important role in global completion, the government should invest more on Human Capital.
Furthermore, the federal and provincial governments should work together in order to achieve educational goals by providing equal opportunities so that students can receive high quality education.
Proper plans are also needed to gain ambitious targets of uniform education system by removing hurdles in financial budgets.
Teachers should be placed on merit and their management should be improved along with improving the environment in schools which will automatically improve the quality of education.
Lastly, national cohesion, effective use of information, improvement in government and financial efficiency, use of new technology and communication are necessary to improve standards in the education sector.
