Is Education really a Priority in KPK?

[Musafir117]

After the recent poor results in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations, yet another round of unsatisfactory results in the intermediate exams highlighted the poor performance of public-sector education in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). According to a news report, more than 72 per cent of students of government schools failed the intermediate exams conducted by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Mardan. Those who passed the exams secured low marks. As per a report published in this newspaper, a lack of teachers was cited as one of the reasons behind the poor results. I will highlight the crucial reasons that need urgent attention — neglect of primary education, lack of accountability and weak governance structures.

The primary education system in K-P is in dire straits. During my visits to middle and high schools, I was informed by the principals that the major issue they face is of the quality of students who get promoted from primary school (grade five) to middle school (grade six). These students can barely read and write and the middle school faculty has to work very hard to prepare them for SSC exams. The principals had a very important question to ask: how can these students compete in the final board exams with those who are studying in private schools? The assessment of these principals can be confirmed from the Annual Status of Education Report 2014 that states that in K-P just 42% grade five children were able to read a sentence in English, only 40% could do two-digit division and 38% could read a story in Urdu/Pashto.

Another reason for poor performance of students is the lack of accountability in the education system. In recent weeks, three issues came to limelight in the press and instead of devising concrete policies to resolve them permanently, these were hushed up as usual. The first incident was that of a school teacher punishing students in Chitral. This was caught on video. Then a female official from the education department, Azra Afridi, was forcibly posted from her position when she attempted to unmask corruption of officers and ghost employees, who were drawing salaries while sitting at home. The third news item relates to allowing ineligible candidates to appear for exams conducted by the Regional Institute of Teachers Education.

The third issue that needs attention is the state of governance structures. While various units have been constituted to bring reforms in the education system, they have lost their drive due to bureaucratic snags or lack of interest of staff. For example, the Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) was constituted to monitor school performance, to increase social accountability and to improve governance and service delivery outcomes, however, this unit is no more ‘independent’ as it submits monitoring reports to District Education Officers and head of department and it’s their discretion whether to take action on the reports or shelve them. Also, the main focus of the IMU is data collection on school indicators, but this data is not used for decision-making or policy planning purposes. This data set, as well as other data sets collected by the department known as Education Management Information System, is not of much use to the general public due to limited access. Similarly, the Education Sector Reforms Unit, which was established to formulate effective policies and implement them, conduct research, and monitor and evaluate programmes, also hasn’t achieved much. The claims of the provincial government to build a Naya K-P cannot materialise without concrete practical steps and across-the-board accountability. Translating the slogan of ‘Education First’ into reality requires a lot of work.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/1180777/education-really-priority-k-p/
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PTI need to fix the house first otherwise the Change slogan lost totaly.

 

[Nilgiri]

The primary education system in K-P is in dire straits. During my visits to middle and high schools, I was informed by the principals that the major issue they face is of the quality of students who get promoted from primary school (grade five) to middle school (grade six). These students can barely read and write and the middle school faculty has to work very hard to prepare them for SSC exams.

This is a big problem. It has been reported in UNESCO reports too (bad transfer rate and quality which leads to very bad enrolment and pass rate at secondary level especially among the poorest people):

https://defence.pk/threads/india-wi...g-education-goals-unesco.447868/#post-8658614

https://defence.pk/threads/india-wi...ation-goals-unesco.447868/page-3#post-8661455

The base level primary school quality has to be vastly improved. Not infra-side only....but the "software" (teacher training, teacher attendance, curriculum quality, accountability of standards etc) as mentioned by @anant_s here:

https://defence.pk/threads/india-wi...g-education-goals-unesco.447868/#post-8659007

Another reason for poor performance of students is the lack of accountability in the education system. In recent weeks, three issues came to limelight in the press and instead of devising concrete policies to resolve them permanently, these were hushed up as usual. The first incident was that of a school teacher punishing students in Chitral. This was caught on video. Then a female official from the education department, Azra Afridi, was forcibly posted from her position when she attempted to unmask corruption of officers and ghost employees, who were drawing salaries while sitting at home. The third news item relates to allowing ineligible candidates to appear for exams conducted by the Regional Institute of Teachers Education.

This is very disturbing to hear. Something must be done.

 

[Imad.Khan]

Another reason for poor performance of students is the lack of accountability in the education system. In recent weeks, three issues came to limelight in the press and instead of devising concrete policies to resolve them permanently, these were hushed up as usual. The first incident was that of a school teacher punishing students in Chitral. This was caught on video. Then a female official from the education department, Azra Afridi, was forcibly posted from her position when she attempted to unmask corruption of officers and ghost employees, who were drawing salaries while sitting at home. The third news item relates to allowing ineligible candidates to appear for exams conducted by the Regional Institute of Teachers Education.

PTI need to fix the house first otherwise the Change slogan lost totaly.

Hushed Up?

The teacher was arrested

http://arynews.tv/en/teacher-arrested-in-chitral-for-savagely-beating-kids/

As for Azra Afridi, she was a ghost teacher herself and was involved in embezzlement of parent-teachers council fund so a FIR was logged against her.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1176523/notification-issued-swabi-deo-dismissed-service-misconduct/

 

[anant_s]

@Musafir117
Sad to know brother about results.
I need to know 2-3 things and maybe compare with rural education scene in India.

1. One of the biggest problem for students in not their intellectual capacity, but the structure of education itself. there are problems like sudden change of language (i assume Urdu is medium) to English. Not many teachers are conversant with it and even fewer students are. Unfortunately as you go up in higher classes, most of the text is in English, that will cause problems not only students but also teachers. A similar problem exists in UP board in India, where we have some of the most rich content, but unfortunately English language becomes barrier for transfer of knowledge.
   
2. Teaching staff largely determines quality of education. In this context i have a larger question (we are facing this problem in India), Is younger generation taking up teaching as profession? If not, is there a problem with salary structure or lack of government support to basic education scene. Here the problem may not be of budgets, but corruption. So graduate and post graduate students, may find it better to take up industry jobs which pay well rather than go back to teaching.
3. Finally what is the status of physical infra-structure? From about class 7 onwards, hands on experience (like lab work) is an integral part of learning and we need trainers as well as labs for the same. However in rural areas this may be a bit too much to ask.

Unless above issues are looked into holistically, we will not be able to have a quality education system. I'm always of the view that a students formative years are usually in junior classes and if we neglect that part, there is no point pumping money in higher education.

 

[chauvunist]

There has been so strict check on govt schools that not a single teacher can get absent without prior application for leave..Every school on average gets two surprise inspections per week,both from education department and local council members...There is still alot to be done but things are going in the right direction..

 

[Spring Onion]

One of my first cousins is a teacher and I can tell you with conviction that the strict checks and balances/monitoring placed by PTI government in government run schools have fixed almost 99% those teachers who used to be absent or used to take their job for granted.

Now coming to bad results YES now PTI Needs to focus on hiring teachers with higher qualification for the primary level schools/students and we should do away with only PTC pass teachers, because teaching small kids is the toughest of all as compared to high school/college/ university students

 

[shah1398]

Now coming to bad results YES now PTI Needs to focus on hiring teachers with higher qualification for the primary level schools/students and we should do away with only PTC pass teachers, because teaching small kids is the toughest of all as compared to high school/college/ university students

Totally agreed with that and that should be done by all provinces if we really want that people should start sending their kids to Govt School than to costly Private ones.

 

[I M Sikander]

After the recent poor results in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations, yet another round of unsatisfactory results in the intermediate exams highlighted the poor performance of public-sector education in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P). According to a news report, more than 72 per cent of students of government schools failed the intermediate exams conducted by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Mardan. Those who passed the exams secured low marks. As per a report published in this newspaper, a lack of teachers was cited as one of the reasons behind the poor results. I will highlight the crucial reasons that need urgent attention — neglect of primary education, lack of accountability and weak governance structures.

The primary education system in K-P is in dire straits. During my visits to middle and high schools, I was informed by the principals that the major issue they face is of the quality of students who get promoted from primary school (grade five) to middle school (grade six). These students can barely read and write and the middle school faculty has to work very hard to prepare them for SSC exams. The principals had a very important question to ask: how can these students compete in the final board exams with those who are studying in private schools? The assessment of these principals can be confirmed from the Annual Status of Education Report 2014 that states that in K-P just 42% grade five children were able to read a sentence in English, only 40% could do two-digit division and 38% could read a story in Urdu/Pashto.

Another reason for poor performance of students is the lack of accountability in the education system. In recent weeks, three issues came to limelight in the press and instead of devising concrete policies to resolve them permanently, these were hushed up as usual. The first incident was that of a school teacher punishing students in Chitral. This was caught on video. Then a female official from the education department, Azra Afridi, was forcibly posted from her position when she attempted to unmask corruption of officers and ghost employees, who were drawing salaries while sitting at home. The third news item relates to allowing ineligible candidates to appear for exams conducted by the Regional Institute of Teachers Education.

The third issue that needs attention is the state of governance structures. While various units have been constituted to bring reforms in the education system, they have lost their drive due to bureaucratic snags or lack of interest of staff. For example, the Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) was constituted to monitor school performance, to increase social accountability and to improve governance and service delivery outcomes, however, this unit is no more ‘independent’ as it submits monitoring reports to District Education Officers and head of department and it’s their discretion whether to take action on the reports or shelve them. Also, the main focus of the IMU is data collection on school indicators, but this data is not used for decision-making or policy planning purposes. This data set, as well as other data sets collected by the department known as Education Management Information System, is not of much use to the general public due to limited access. Similarly, the Education Sector Reforms Unit, which was established to formulate effective policies and implement them, conduct research, and monitor and evaluate programmes, also hasn’t achieved much. The claims of the provincial government to build a Naya K-P cannot materialise without concrete practical steps and across-the-board accountability. Translating the slogan of ‘Education First’ into reality requires a lot of work.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/1180777/education-really-priority-k-p/
------------

PTI need to fix the house first otherwise the Change slogan lost totaly.

how dare to question the saints of kpk and bani galla.

They already have 100 plus world class universities in world top ranking.