The presence of the ghost schools is also another display of sheer state apathy and its weak control over the schools. The government has identified 25,000 ghost schools
Corruption of education is not much of a financial burden as it is more a matter of academic degeneration and its harmful impacts on the student population that are compelled to chose a system determining their future course of direction towards an idealistic nation. Never is there a serious remediable work to be seen to repair the damage that has crept into the minds of the student generation. In Pakistan, corruption in education sector is not merely taking place on individual level, it also surmounts to the systematic loopholes, institutional negligence and complete apathy by the government of ground grievances that is keeping the students at bay from school accessibility.
Here is a dismal picture of more than 5.6 million children never making it to primary school as reported by UNESCO, whereas The State of Pakistan’s Children reports an overall 25 million children to be out of school, bringing Pakistan to the second ranking in terms of out-of-school students. The children of school going age have been put away from education due to societal and economic needs compelling their parents, especially those belonging to lower income groups who use them as helping hands in their household incomes. In face of open exploitation of children whose fundamental rights to education is shamefully denied, the state cannot be disposed of the blame of letting it happen under its administration. The huge question mark arises when the national budget apportions less than or equal to a mere 2.5% (inclusive of health) whereas the minimum international standards require at least a minimum of 4% share of the total budget.
The affairs of the state schools are much in peril due to lack of accountability of those employed in the education field by the government. Resultantly, this has caused in poor efficiency of schools, quite the opposite reality to the vision of ‘nationalizing’ schools by the government under Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto back in the 1970’s. The consequence is further deterioration of schools that have failed to meet the minimum standard of academic and infrastructural quality. The lapses in the education system have caused the loss of trust in public schools. In response to this, madrassas have started gaining more popularity among parents. This has also propelled the mushrooming of private schools that is catering to the education needs of children coming from all income class levels, because of its education quality and better performance as compared to public schools. However, the private schools work on profit values, and often times, catering to its financial affordability the teachers working in low income schools are marginally paid, with salaries less than the minimum set by the government. There are no checks in place by the government to ensure that the rights of the teachers at private schools, and those of their students.
The presence of the ghost schools is also another display of sheer state apathy and its weak control over the schools. Recently, the Supreme Court of Pakistan has ordered a nation-wide investigation over this issue on petition of Sindh Rural Development Society that was filed last year, which claims that more than 60,000 enrolled students in rural Sindh province which have been deprived of education because of fake schools where the absent teachers are drawing regular salaries and their buildings have been used to keep cattle and other animals. The government has identified 25,000 ghost schools, but in reality, these figures are far more in number than official stats. However, there is no integrated database of different sources gathering such data and the presented figures are disputed at ground level. Most of these schools exist in rural and remote areas of Balochistan and Sindh, though FATA, KPK and Punjab have also their due share in terms of fake public schools. Every year, the Government has to bear billions of rupees in paying salaries to the teachers who hardly are there delivering at the schools.
Another disastrous internalized trend that has never been redressed is the availability of the textbooks and the qualified teachers. This is extremely detrimental to the students belonging to non-Muslim minority students. Though the education policy allows for the minority students to opt for Ethical Studies in place of the compulsory Islamic Studies, but in the absence of textbook supplies in the rural areas or absence of teachers, schools are compelled to instruct their minority students the required Islamic Studies so they do not fail their board exams. In my own personal experience at a Missionary School, I witnessed a Christian child learning the Kalma for Muslims in his class. Some students find this offensive, hence they discontinue their studies. This issue can further be exemplified by the fact that most indigenous tribes remain marginalized from mainstream education system because of the syllabus that is being taught there. In Kalash valleys in Chitral, many Kalasha parents refrain from sending their children to the public school because they feel their state syllabus does not respect and recognize their distinct cultural identity. However, the shortcomings in the public schooling there have been resolved by the presence of NGO run schools that the parents confide in more.
Syllabus reforms are much long awaited, yet, very little has been done to undo the radicalized injunctions of religion and faith-based bigotry introduced by Zia ul Haq’s administration in the textbooks against other minorities living in Pakistan. There have been many panels set up to address the harmful outcomes of these texts and historical misrepresentations, yet their pragmatic solutions had never been taken up by the state. The blame may be placed on the complete lack of interest of the state, or the blockades to such reforms by the clergy, the dire consequences of which have already started showing in the societal disharmony between different communities that do not religiously conform the orthodoxy perpetrated through these textbooks.
Nepotism and bribery have also taken roots into education sector, mainly on the individual level. The private schools applying for their registration with their district government have to face many problems getting the simple procedures done at a cost that many schools cannot afford to pay, thus leaving them without the privileges and regularization that registered schools are entitled to for the benefit of their students. Lack of proper transparency and accountability of the state testing mechanism has become a subject of suspicion for the international financiers that are assisting the schools here through government channels. The more mistrust the financiers have for the state of affairs at the schools here, more the children going to these schools get affected, whereas the middlemen, i.e the administrations take all the financial rewards for their own good.
In the dearth of financial appropriateness for the education sector in Pakistan, many vulnerabilities of the children stand exposed to their exploiters who have been robbing them of their childhood by keeping them away from their studies and forcing them either to dangerous work or into begging. With the lack of any education reforms, the students who go to public schools are becoming religiously judgmental towards minorities who are studying with them, which keeps the students at a loss of understanding the value of pluralism and diversity in their cultures. The faulty exam system that has become subject of controversy due to corruption there has sidelined those students who are genuinely talented and deserve more on their merit than those whose influential parents have managed to buy better scores for their privileged children. Corruption in the education sector in Pakistan has taken a serious toll on the intellectual growth of the children who have been deprived their fundamental right of their education enshrined in the constitution under Article 25 A. Moreover, the government’s commitment to MDGs to accomplish its goals by 2015 remains a far cry in the absence of true data and statistical reconciliation of educational accomplishments.
| Zeeba Hashmi is a human rights, education and cultural enthusiast based in Lahore. She can be reached at
Source: Viewpoint
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