Primary Education

Improving primary education in Pakistan

1. Introduction

Primary education has always been an important concern for society and the government. Primary education is viewed as a service that must be provided to the populace, irrespective of affordability, and it is generally considered to be the responsibility of the state to deliver primary education. The public sector provision of primary education, like most other services delivered by the public sector, suffers from severe deficiencies in coverage, finance and outreach.

NGOs are playing a particular role in the field of primary education. Many NGOs provide primary education directly in areas neglected by both the public and for-profit private sectors. They also provide support to the public and private sectors in various areas such as teacher training, curriculum development and informal education. Some of these interventions have the potential to alter the landscape of primary education provision.

2. Importance of primary education

By primary education only the first five years or grades of education is meant, where the age of the child is between 5 to 9 years. In some countries there is a public examination at the end of the fifth grade when a completion certificate gives entry to higher level schools as well as an independent confirmation of the literacy of the child. The societies have focused on developing a network for primary education, on achieving hundred percent literacy for their populations, and on ensuring that a significant number of their populace goes beyond the primary level.

Broadly speaking, the reasons fall into two categories:

2.1 The right to primary education: Access to primary education is taken to be a basic right of every citizen. All citizens need to be literate to function productively. Almost all countries hold the welfare of their citizens as the prime objective for their existence. The citizen is taken to be the end for which the state functions. If citizens are to be treated as an end, their needs and prerequisites for a good life become part of the package of basic rights that are the foundation of a state or society.

2.2 Functional arguments for primary education: Other arguments from functional point of view may include: Human capital generates a significant percentage of growth in societies. Investments in human capital, in terms of education and skill acquisition increase the efficiency of production immediately. Provision of education and skills has positive externalities for the rest of society. Educated persons not only contribute to society by generating more income for themselves and their family, they also contribute to society by increasing the income of all. They provide higher levels of efficiency; increase innovation; and attract more investments in the productive sectors. This makes the case for free, universal primary education on functional terms. There are other public benefits to the spread of education, and especially of education for females. Education is one of the most powerful tools for poverty alleviation. It provides citizens with the ability to enter the productive sectors of society.

Education also has significant externalities for the political process and the social setup of the country. Pakistan has serious issues related to bonded labor, child labor, and forced labor in rural areas. Education can help to fight some of these societal evils. Education also has strong connections with other social indicators. Female education can improve population control, lower fertility, better health of children and mothers, better educational outcomes for children and improved habitat conditions.

3. Target population

The target population for these programs includes children in under-privileged areas, backward areas, far-flung areas and street children of Pakistan. These children lack any opportunity to have primary education. They cannot afford nor have any access to primary education due to many factors. These factors may include, among many others, poverty, no access to schools, no proper facilities, absence of infrastructure, difficulty in reaching out, scattered population, high education costs, high dropout rates, religious conservatism and lower value given to education by certain sections of society.

4. Programs

Many programs can be run to make sure that these segments of the society are not left behind in the race of progress. It is to be made sure that they too play their vital role in improving the condition of social indicators. Although numerous steps can be taken to achieve this purpose, following steps can prove helpful specifically;

1. Adopt a school: Through this initiative, a school can be adopted by a person or a group of persons, even more than one school can be adopted by one person. This program is a good opportunity for the expatriates and international philanthropists to help Pakistani children gain education. As the cost of education is lower in Pakistan as compared to many other nations, it is easy to help these children get their dreams.

2. Informal schools: Informal schools can prove to be very useful in far-flung and backward areas. These schools don’t have formal structure of education or a prescribed syllabus. They also have no set faculty. They can be adapted to meet the requirements of the community in anyway possible. They can also be timed to work for the ease of their students.

3. Parent Teacher Associations: Creation of Parent Teacher Associations will also help meet the objective of enhancing education at primary level.

4. Donations: Donations to libraries and other facilities at schools will help attract new students.

5. Incentives to teachers: Incentives to teachers will increase the chances of making this objective successfully achieved. They will also improve their working in order to show results and gain these incentives.

6. Proper facilities at schools: Proper facilities like classrooms, fans, boards, water, washrooms at school are must if improvement in the situation is sought after.

7. Improvement in infrastructure: Infrastructure like furniture, laboratories, playgrounds and staff rooms with adequate facilities to conduct daily business is also imperative.

8. Incentives to parents and students: Various incentives like mid-day meals, stipend to girl students, and compensation payment to the parents of the children will also contribute to the program.

9. Community participation: Participation of community is a must for the success of such programs. Community can participate in many ways like Parent Teacher Associations, arranging facilities to run non-formal schools, finding school faculty, by donations and in many other ways the community can also play its role as an umbrella to the individual in fulfilling his basic needs.

10. Education in easy reach: Making education in easy reach of a community can also prove vital for the success of such programs.

5. Objectives

Objectives to be achieved through these programs include;

· Increase in literacy rate

· Community involvement

· Human resource development

· Participation of girls in society building

· Resource pool development for future

· Better awareness

· Future better equipped workforce

· Proper management

6. Appeal to the public

Pakistan has a huge population. Literacy rate is not good enough. But this bleak picture can be turned into a beautiful scene with the help of donations, aid, and assistance. As Pakistan’s currency is weaker in comparison to US dollar, just one dollar could mean a student’s monthly school fee is paid, or the student can buy enough stationary to last a month. It is with this help that the dreams of thousands of children can become true and an entire generation can be saved from the horrors of illiteracy. They can become an asset for the country and for the humanity overall.