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OP-ED: And now to private schools.... —Abbas Rashid

In the absence of institutional reform merely giving greater clout to the ministry or department of education over private schools will only open more channels of control and corruption

Amidst considerable uncertainty all round on the issue of textbooks being used in public-sector schools, the National Committee on Curriculum (NCC) has reportedly identified what appears to be in its view a major flaw in the system: the correspondence between the ministry’s curriculum wing and provincial textbook boards would be routed through their respective education secretaries. Given our penchant for bureaucratic solutions, this is not surprising. Another reported decision of the committee: ‘an author of a textbook, who is an employee of the textbook board, could not author the same book [a] second time.’ Those more familiar with the workings of the Textbook Boards, not to mention a few other institutions, would hopefully have no problems in working that one out.

What is more intriguing, however, is that all this has encouraged the government to focus on what the private schools are teaching. The NCC, we are told, has decided, in principle, that private schools will be required to obtain an NOC from the Ministry of Education (Curriculum Wing) to teach their courses. This, again, is not a particularly sudden development. The Education Sector Reforms (ESR) Action Plan, originally for the period 2001-2004 and subsequently extended to the year 2005, envisages regulatory bodies at the national and provincial levels for regulating privately managed schools in relation to key aspects such as the fee structure, syllabi, facilities, etc.

This comes with an incentives package for the private sector, particularly for projects in rural areas and urban slums. These include provision of land free of cost or at subsidized rates and exemption of 50 percent income tax to private-sector institutions for faculty, management and support staff. This is a step in the right direction, particularly if the incentives flow to these institutions on the basis of objective criteria of merit. But the problematic aspect of regulation is when it takes the form of ‘control’ as in the latest proposal of an NOC for courses taught at private institutions.

The thoroughgoing reform needed in education has little to do with laws and procedures for stricter control. What, for instance, has been achieved in terms of standards or quality through the Federal Supervision of Curricula, Textbooks and Maintenance of Standards, of Education Act, 1976? Or, for that matter, by the Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinance 2001 or the Punjab Private Educational Institutions (Promotion and Regulation), Ordinance No. II of 1984.

There is no denying the need for a regulatory framework. What is at issue is the nature of the framework and whether it works to help or hinder the task at hand. Given the mess that the government has made of its own school system, it is highly unlikely that expanding its scope of supervision to include private-sector institutions will yield positive outcomes in the absence of institutional reform and a change in approach.

According to the ‘Census of Private Educational Institutions in Pakistan 1999-2000’ carried out by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, there are 36,096 private institutions in Pakistan. Of these 66.4 percent are in Punjab, 17.9 percent in Sindh, 12.3 percent in the NWFP, 1.5 percent in Balochistan and 0.9 percent in FATA. Overall, 39 percent of the institutions are in the rural areas and 61 percent in the urban areas. Of the total number, 43.5 percent of the private-sector institutions are in the primary sector. The sector accounts for over 27 percent of all student enrolment. Allowing for expansion over the last few years, it would be safe to say that two-thirds of the children who go to school still attend public-sector schools. It is, therefore, reform of this sector that is of paramount importance.

One of the key concerns expressed in relation to private-sector schools is that they charge high fees and offer education of a poor standard. This stands in contrast to the situation in public-sector schools that charge a low fee, or no fee, and offer education of an even poorer standard. There are, of course, exceptions in both cases. There is little doubt that that the private-sector schools became the synonym for quality in Pakistan when the public sector began to falter. In 1972, the government decided to take over almost all the privately managed educational institutions including 18, 926 schools. Whatever else this may have accomplished, it did not help in the task of imparting education of a minimum standard in the face of growing social demand for education.

Equity certainly should be a priority concern. But, a matter of equal concern is that of maintaining minimum standards. Schools offering free education, for instance, are of not much use when they are virtually ‘education-free.’ The most effective response to private schools charging high fees is for the public sector schools to offer quality education at affordable rates. Private schools can also be bound, in return for concessions by the government, to provide financial assistance to a certain percentage of children who cannot afford the fee.

Additionally, there should be a system of accreditation or certification that serves as a guide for parents as to the performance and quality of the school, be it in the private or the public sector. It goes without saying that such a body must be competent for the task, fully autonomous and therefore credible. In the absence of such institutional reform merely giving greater clout to the ministry or department of education over private schools will only open more channels of control and corruption, further deepening the crisis in education.

It is interesting to consider that ‘quality’ in the eyes of many low- or middle-income families, who show a preference for private schools even though it means a real stretching of the budget, essentially means that the teacher turns up every day. Generally, private-school teachers are less qualified than those who teach in government schools but there is virtually no absenteeism, partly because there is no security of tenure. Further, private schools promise an emphasis on English, though few deliver. The important thing to note here is the low baseline for quality set by the public sector that allows private-sector schools, barring few exceptions, to get by with offering education of a low standard as well.

Abbas Rashid is a freelance journalist and political analyst whose career has included editorial positions in various Pakistani newspapers

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