BALUCHISTAN POOR EDUCATION SYSTEM

STATE OF EDUCATION IN BALOCHISTANIslamabad, June 2, 2014

The 18th Amendment in the Constitution of Pakistan has devolved the matters of primary to higher secondary education to the provinces in terms of reforms and review of the current educational status. The Articles 25-A, 31 and 37 (subsection a, b and c) of the Constitution call for free education for all children between ages 5 to 16 years as education is considered a fundamental right of every citizen of Pakistan. But in reality and according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reports, around 5.5 million children are out of school, placing Pakistan at the second position on the global list with most children out of school. The report also places Pakistan among the 21 countries facing an “extensive” learning crisis.[[1]] 1. Education Emergency in Balochistan: According to Pakistan Social Living and Measurement Survey conducted by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, among all four provinces,  Balochistan lags behind in terms of the literacy rate, which is 46 % as compared to 59 % in Punjab, 56 % in Sindh, and 49 % in KP. In addition, the Gender Parity Index (GPI) score for Balochistan is 0.35 which is way lower than Punjab (0.69), Sindh (0.61) and KPK (0.49).[[2]]  The key challenges and the factors hampering the process of education in Balochistan include the access to the schools, poor quality of education, high dropout rate against enrollment and low gender parity score. 2. Access to Educational Facilities: Currently there are about 22,000 settlements in Balochistan but the availability of schools is only for 10,000 settlements.[[3]] Out of five children, one child has to travel more than 30 minutes to reach his or her school.[[4]] The same time in other provinces is measured at 10 minutes, or less, to travel to school.[[5]] The second major problem is non-availability of the middle school level education facilities. It is reported that there is only one middle school for 11 primary schools.[[6]] The overall school score in Balochistan is 26.61% which is the least among all the other provinces. [[7]] Public/Private Sector Schools in Balochistan School Type Number of Government Schools Boys Girls Total Primary 7819 2849 10668 Middle 592 369 961 High 487 176 663 Total 8898 3394 12292 Sources: BEMIS Census, 2010-2011[[8]] 3. Enrolment and Retention Ratios: National Plan of Action (2013-1016) compiled by the Ministry of Education, reports that about 1 million children are out of school in Balochistan, while a total of 1.09 million students are enrolled in 12,000 private and government schools with 83,000 students in Madrassa.[[9]]  According to Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, the net primary completion rate is at 56 % on overall basis with a higher completion rate in boys at 59.4 % than girls at 51.3 %, and also higher completion rate in urban students at 67.3 % than those from rural areas at 52.7 % while the overall dropout rate is 22 %. [[10]] The transition ratio comes down drastically as student progress to higher classes. For every 8 children in primary school, only three children reach up to secondary level.[[11]] The major reason behind the low enrolment and high dropout rates encompass financial grievances and the lack of awareness, resources and the non-availability of adequate schooling facility. 4. Gender Disparity: The Gender Parity Index (GPI) for primary school adjusted Net Attendance Ratio (NAR) of girls to boys has been reported at 0.83. The GPI ratio in urban areas of Balochistan is at 0.91 and in rural areas it is at 0.79, which also depicts the lowest participation of girls from rural areas. GPI ratio in secondary schools adjusted NAR of girls to boys has been reported at 0.60. At secondary level of education, urban and rural ratio is at 0.86 and 0.48 respectively, showing much lower participation rate of girls at secondary level than that at primary level particularly.  Over all gender parity index score for Balochistan is 0.35.[[12]] One of the prime reasons of low girl participation is the non-availability of local female teachers and the accessibility of school in the proximal areas.[[13]] Ratio of female teachers on overall primary to higher secondary level is only 36 % in Balochistan.[[14]] 5. Quality of Education: Unfortunately, it is not only the less number of schools which plagues the education sector; the missing facilities are yet another immense challenge for the government.  According to UNESCO, nearly 57% of the schools lack the facilities of drinking water, 46% have no boundary walls, 52% are without electricity, and 29% do not have toilets. In addition to these missing facilities, 9% are even without shelter.[[15]] Besides the infrastructure gap, government also has to deal with the challenge that shortage of teachers pose. In a list of countries that have the highest shortfall of teachers, Pakistan is the only non-African country enlisted by Education for All, Global Monitoring Report.[[16]] Over all, from primary to high school level, pupil-teacher ratio in Balochistan is 30.0 %.[[17]] In January 2014, Chief Minister Balochistan Dr. Abdul Malik Baloch declared education emergency in the province, yet no conclusive protocol has been put forth by the provincial government to provide support to the decaying education structure. [[18]]  Since the 18thamendment has minimized the federal role and devolved the powers to the provinces, provinces are now responsible to set their own curriculum and standards of education. The provincial government is also bound by the law of the constitution to ensure the implementation of the Article 25-A which guarantees the free education for all.  Still, 31.4 % of children aged between 6 and 16 are not enrolled in schools, from which girls account for 21% of this figure and boys account for 13% in Balochistan only.[[19]] The seriousness of the issue requires some diligent consideration from the provincial government to deal with the deteriorating state of education in the province.