Teachers' Symposium

Happy Reunion with Ameena Saiyid, Baela Raza Jamil, Nasreen Iqbal, and Arfa Syeda Zehra at Teachers' Symposium organised by Oxford University Press in PC Muzaffarabad.

At Pearl Continental Muzaffarabad

Rethinking social sector

Rethinking social sector after the 18th Amendment

Roundtable on 17 March

Associated Press Service

ISLAMABAD: Participants of roundtable on ‘Rethinking social sector after the 18th Amendment’appreciating the Parliament for historic democratic engineering in the shape of 18th Constitutional Amendment exhorted the need for holding hand in transition phase besides creating effectiveoperational mechanisms. Members of political, civil and academic society from all over the country participated in day-long deliberations arranged by the Centre for Civic Education and Forum of Federations.Speakers said,the Parliament has made the Constitution pro-society and we need out of box solutions to make this devolution successful. “Social investments in Pakistan are already meager and the Implementation processes must clarify the cost of devolution and who is going to foot the bill for devolved ministries,” demanded the participants.Begum Shahnaz Wazir Ali, member National Assembly endorsed the need for nationwide constitutional literacy as the 18th Amendment has changed the centralist state to be a real federation. “Inclusion of Right to Education as judiciable fundamental right requires corresponding legal regime,policies and action plans,” she emphasized. Farahnaz Isphahani of Pakistan Peoples’ Party said we have to come out
of colonial mindset of retaining centralized powers and called for trusting the abilities of provinces to deliver social services. She acknowledged the challenges and described the way forward bit bumpy to retain power. Bushra Gohar of Awami National Party recalling the 18th Amendment lauded democratic consensus in a divided society where balkanization was being feared but the parliament has offered hope. “To make the devolution meaningful and provide better services, the provinces must take immediate steps to establish functional local governments,” demanded the participants saying we have to involve people in decision making. Pakistan had been a graveyard of federally planned and provincially executed non-functional projects and plans. “Even out of the low social investments most of the times the development budgets remained unutilized. Time has come to reform civil service with
futuristic vision so that their role in not reduced to ‘Fire-fighters.’ Allies of status quo will make the road to devolution bumpy and democratic handholding will be required in terms of sharing resources and enhancing capacities and competences,” many participants highlighted. As a nation we will require fiscal prudence and increased social spending as the provincial share in the National Finance Commission Award has increased, they have fifty percent control over natural resources, got General Sales Tax on services, duties in respect of succession of property, estate duty,capital gains and provincial powers to raise loans.The participant criticized ‘crowded parking’ of various institutions and mandates at the Cabinet division,Rethinking social sector after the 18th Amendment Economic Affairs Division, Inter Provincial Coordination Ministry and the Planning Division. Higher Education Commission (HEC) related controversies figured prominently as there were proponents of a federal level commission and devolutionists who presented their arguments. Vice chancellor of University of Gujrat, Dr. Nizamuddin stressed the need of clear operational and institutional
mechanisms to provide better services. Vice Chancellor of Quaid-i-Azam University, Dr.Masoom Yasinzai said the universities in the Federal capital must not be left at the mercy of newly created division to look after the issues and institutions in Islamabad. Pro-devolution Dr. Khadim Hussain and Dr. Ijaz Khan said, “Devolution after 18th Amendment is a reality and proposed that the future provincial arrangements shall neither be bureaucratic nor technocratic, rather democratic and academically independent.”Dr. Nasser Ali Khan, Farmanullah Anjum, Dr. Shahid Siddiqui, Dr. Rasul Bakash Rais,Prof. Shabir Shah,Zafar Ismail, Dr. Farzana Bari, Amjad Bhatti also shared their views on different aspects
of post 18th Amendment devolution and corresponding challenges in social sector. “Capacity does not grow in Islamabad alone,” said Dr. Fauzia Saeed. Dr. Syed Jaffar Ahmed said timeframe forimplementation shall be extended as there will be teething problems.The speakers complained about lack of information and ostensible communication gaps
between theImplementation Commission, devolved ministries and the relevant stakeholders. The Commission must arrange hearings with relevant stakeholders and involve experts as mentioned in its terms of reference,they demanded. The speakers also demanded to mainstream Federally AdministeredTribal Areas(FATA). To set the context, Zafarullah Khan, executive Director Centre for Civic Education made a presentation on Understanding the Constitution, Federalism and the 18th Amendment. “In order to make sense about
the 18th amendment we need to look at the set of policy recommendations and notes of reiterations as pending politics along with the actual amendment,” he said and urged to use experiences of 28 federations in the world.Associated Press Service

Equal opportunities to girl students stressed

“Empowerment through girls' education in contemporary Muslim societies” 
Conference organized by the Pakistan Coalition for Education (PCE), in collaboration with Dubai Cares and Oxfam GB,  12 mARCH, 2011.

 

The educational facilities provided to girls should be equal in all respects to those provided to boys with the objective to steer social and economic development and freedom of thought and expression – than mere transmission of knowledge.

For this purpose, curricula needed to be redesigned in a way that students begin to demand their basic right of freedom of expression and thought.  Lahore School of Economics` centre for humanities and social sciences director Dr Shahid Siddiqui said this while speaking at a conference on “Empowerment through girls` education in contemporary Muslim societies” organised by the Pakistan Coalition for Education (PCE), in collaboration with Dubai Cares and Oxfam GB, at a local hotel on Saturday.

He stressed that the medium of exchange of ideas should not be limited to a formal classroom alone. He said non-formal education had already been introduced in Pakistan but the country was not harvesting the indigenous knowledge or informal knowledge. The challenge of limited literacy is so vast, that it could not be resolved by a school alone.

Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) executive director Dr Baela Raza Jamil said the public sector performance was continuing to falter, while the private sector was rapidly expanding to provide respite to households often at affordable cost, offering them education opportunities at all levels with assured teachers` presence and relatively better students` learning outcomes.

Stating that the costs per student in the private sector are often much lower than that of the public sector, she said, Pakistan illustrated a powerful case study of a paradigm shift in education from state-owned and managed schooling system that reached at a high point in 1972 with nation-wide nationalisation of education, to one which was increasingly becoming `blended` across government and non-state partners. “The paradigm shift is not just about who owns, who finances and who manages but, about expanding partnerships,” she said.

Dr Jamil said the National Education Census 2005 (2006) commissioned by the ministry of education was the first comprehensive data exercise that revealed powerful shifts in education as the basis for re-examining education provision and delivery. Out of 227,791 institutions, almost 33 per cent were attributed to the private sector, managed and run by a kaleidoscope of non-state providers both secular and faith based. An Oxfam Education Report had also identified that the notion that private schools were servicing the needs of a small minority of wealthy parents was misplaced.

Explaining statistics, she said the non-state partners were active at all levels of education barring mosque schools, especially at post primary levels. Most schools operated by the private partners comprised Kindergarten to Class-X. She said the private sector expansion was mainly a response to the continuing problems of public sector service delivery.

Dr Jamil said a common thread running across public and private initiated education enterprise in Pakistan was that of `incremental` acknowledgement of multiple needs addressing, not merely access, but also quality and equity.

Now, she said, more and more households tend to withdraw their children from the perceived unaccountable government systems to the more accountable private schooling options. She said the public sector in Pakistan was definitely seeking a rethink on service delivery options through: public sector financed partnerships, affordable private schools as social enterprise, organised philanthropy and sensible contemporary regulatory regimes that do not injure enterprise and detract from the EFA and MDGs gains made in rugged territories where no government had dared to venture!

Punjab Education Foundation managing-director Ambreen Raza gave a presentation on foundation`s initiatives; Salaeya Butt from SAHE talked on the importance of governance reforms for achieving the desired results in educational initiatives; Pakistan Education Watch`s Abida Mahmood spoke on the challenged women`s face in the attainment of education.

Oxfam GB`s girls education programme coordinator Saeed-ul-Hasan and PCE national coordinator Zahra Arshad also spoke.