CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PAKISTAN'S EDUCATION POLICY 2009

The present government of Pakistan is aiming at increasing the literacy rate of the country, and develops the education sector of the country; therefore, the government has announced the new education policy. As is the previous education policy, the government has used incremental approach in making the new education policy.

INCREMENTAL POLICY

The government has used incremental approach in designing the current education policy, this policy has not been made through proper research and surveys and is mere revised version of previous policy. The incremental approach may not be appropriate for the current scenario which Pakistan is facing now days.

UNIFORMITY IN EDUCATION SYSTEM

This is the very good and effective measure taken by the government, aiming at establishing uniform education system all over the country. There has been a great difference between the education system in big cities and small cities and villages; this also causes discrimination among the people residing in different regions, some having good quality education and other low quality education. The uniformity in education system is effective in providing opportunities of higher studies to the people residing in small cities. This will also help in achieving mutual cooperation among the four provinces.

GLOBALIZATION

The policy is aiming at make the education system which is common in many developed countries of the world. This is the positive step by the government in making competitive policy for the people of Pakistan. To make the comparison with different developing and developed countries is effective in making the sustainable education policy for the people of Pakistan.

SOCIAL COHESION

The government is aiming at making the public sector education institutions as the good quality education providers that will provide quality of education to the students as equivalent to that provided in private sector education institutions. The public sector institutions are accused of being in effective and in efficient which curtail the individuals in climbing up the ladder in society. To remove the ambiguity between the roles of federal and provincial governments, the consultancy board has been establishing which decides the roles of both the governments not only for school level but at higher education level as well.

BRIDGING PUBLIC PRIVATE GAP

The government in the education policy is aiming at bridging the gap between public sector institutions and private sector institutions; the government has encouraged the provincial government in facilitating private schools and encourages those people who can afford the private schools to take admission in these schools. The government is aiming at creating public private partnership in education sector including schools, colleges and universities this is a good step taken by the government and this will help the development of education sector of Pakistan. The public private partnership will also help in attracting more investment in education sector which is required in abundance to promote this sector. This policy or government is very effective and will help in sustainable development of education sector of Pakistan.

OVERCOMING STRUCTURAL DIVIDES

This has been very good step of the government, giving importance to the people residing in less developed regions of the countries especially villages and small cities. The government has announced that the equal opportunities would be granted to the people living in the less developed regions or the people having low social status. The government has, in its policy, has given a due importance to the English language study especially in the schools located in villages and small cities. This has been a very good effort of the government and will be useful in raising the living standards of the people of Pakistan. Giving importance to the people living in small cities and villages will reduce the social imbalance and increase the living standards.

MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING CAPACITY

To make the professional environment in the education sector, the government in its policy has announced that the education policies and plans would be made and implemented solely by the education experts and managers, the planning and implementation process of education polices would be transparent and the public representatives and civil servants will not intervene in the process and no policy would be made for any political gain. The politics will be excluded from education sector for making it more effective and efficient.

Establishing a National Standards and Certification Agency for Education Management and Information System EMIS for monitoring and evaluation will make the process more transparent and efficient.

INVOLVEMENT OF COMMUNITIES

Firs time, in the education policy, the government is taking inputs from the communities i.e., teachers, students and parents, this is very positive step towards the sustainable improvement in the quality of education, and development of this sector. The training of teachers and principals for mobilizing the inputs of communities is effective in obtaining the feedback which will help in improving the policy.

ISLAMIC EDUCATION

Just like previous policy, in this policy as well, the government has given due importance to the Islamic education in Pakistan. The policy regarding Islamic education is similar to that of previous education policy.

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

The government in its policy has given a due importance to the quality of education provided to the children at early stage of their education. Previous policy has to some extent ignored this. This step will be useful in improving the quality of education from grass root level this step will also help in improving the living standard and will help in raising living standard.

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

The government has set a target in its education policy to bring all children from 6 to 10 years in elementary schools by 2015. The government has set the target but no plan has been made to encourage the children to take admission in the schools. This target of government to bring all children to schools by 2015 is unrealistic. Because due to rising inflation the cost of living is increasing day by day and most of the population is living by hand to mouth. The poverty is increasing at a rapid rate therefore, the number of children going to school is decreasing, and the government cannot achieve this target unless the poverty is reduced to minimum. In the policy the government has not been able to justify that how it is going to achieve this target. To set this target is unrealistic and is not achievable with only five years time frame.

SECONDARY AND HIGHER EDUCATION

The government has aimed at providing the higher education for girls and the development of high schools and colleges in the localities where there are no or very low amount of higher education schools or colleges. This policy of government aims at development of underdeveloped regions of the country and promotes the higher education in these regions. The promotion of higher education is very critical for raising the living standard of the country.

This policy has included grade XI and XII in school system which is common in advanced countries as USA and UK. The policy is also aiming at developing skills of the students to train them to perform different task and earn their living through self employment and other vocational and technical education.

LITERACY AND FORMAL EDUCATION

The government in its policy has set the target to increase the literacy rate to 85% by 2015, this target set by the government is very ambitious and difficult to achieve. The government has set the target but has not been able to provide the implementation procedures to achieve this target. To achieve this target of 85% literacy rate within five years is unrealistic. To improve the literacy rate, the education of children as well as adult is required. And to make people go to school is very difficult in current scenario where inflation is at its peak and cost of living is very difficult to meet. Therefore, the target set is not properly planed and it seems that government has set the target without proper survey, research and planning. More over the steps described by the government are vague and unclear they do not provide a guide line how the government policy will work and how it will be implemented.

EMERGENCY EDUCATION

In the present situation which Pakistan is facing, the government has made a very effective step in providing education to the students regarding emergency situation. This education would be provided to the students of colleges and schools to train them so they will be able to cope with the emergency or crisis situation. This is a positive point in the education policy, and these types of measures are not present in the previous policy.

IMPROVING QUALITY OF EDUCATION

The government in its policy is determined in improving the quality of education in the country, for this purpose the government has described various steps in the policy including training of teachers so they would be able to provide quality education to the students. The government has announced that the curriculum would be revised and new and improved course would be taught to students so that they would be able to get the latest education and would be able to compete with the international students. The training of teachers would be helpful in providing latest education to the students in accordance with the latest trends.

Quality of Text Books and learning education will be improved to raise the living standards, in the policy the government has announced that new and improved text books would be provided to the students in elementary and higher schools. Improving the quality of education is an important step and will help in improving the living standard. The policy is also aiming at improving the assessment procedure of the exams to achieve fair and transparent system of assessment.

CONCLUSION

IMPLEMENTATION

The government has made a good education policy, and the aims and objectives of the government are at increasing the literacy rate of the country and development of education sector within five years. The government has made targets and defined the policy to be implemented. The major problem which the government faces is the implementation process. The government has made the good policy, the implementation of policies is not up to the mark and the main reason for poor implementation is the lack of institutions, the implementation process of the government is ineffective which makes the policies of the government ineffective and the desired results are not achieved.

The policy designed is good and will only be successful if there are implemented as is desired.