Engaging With Basic Edu in PAkistan

SAHE Education Watch Report 2000

Engaging with Basic Education in Pakistan

Edited by Abbas Rashid

Engaging with Basic Education in Pakistan 1

The Society for the Advancement of Education(SAHE) was set up in 1982 by a group of concerned citizens and academics to respond to the deteriorating standards of education. SAHE is one of the first NGOs to focus on the cause of accessible quality education for the disadvantaged in Pakistan. Education is the key for realizing Pakistans abundant human resource potential. For nearly two decades SAHE has sought to develop and propagate innovative methods that facilitate access to education for the greatest number while ensuring minimum standards. It has been part of the effort many people are making throughout Pakistan to involve the citizen and the community in the struggle for better education. In the course of its work SAHE also undertakes research and consultative services for government and international agencies. SAHE's Education Watch Report 2000 `Engaging with Basic Education in Pakistan seeks to draw attention to some key aspects of Pakistan's current education scenario with a view to mobilizing opinion for change. Section I looks at the issue of enabling our children to secure access to quality basic education by reference to Public, Private and NGO schools. Recent surveys, on which the section is based, indicate the potential and limitations of all three models and point to the urgency of instituting reform. Section II investigates the role of the community in ensuring access and quality drawing on the experience of SAHE's community schools in Arifwala and Pakpattan. It also examines the efficacy of School Management Committees as a mechanism for securing community participation for better education, based on an inter-provincial study of SMCs. Section III deals with the Adopt-a-school program that has evoked considerable interest in official as well as non-government circles as a possible panacea for the ills of public sector schools.

Society for the Advancement of Education

90-A/3, Canal Park Lahore Tel: (042)-5763566, 5762209, 5764193

Fax: (042)-5763566 E-mail: sahe@ brain.net.pk

Web page: www.brain.net.pk/~sahe


Contents Preface 3 Acknowledgements 5 Acronyms 6

SECTION I Basic Education: The Struggle for Universal Primary Education Chasing Access and Quality Abbas Rashid 7 A Qualitative, Comparative Institutional Analysis Shahrukh Rafi Khan 19 Sajid Kazmi & Zainab Latif

SECTION II Basic Education: The Communitys Role School Management Committees as Community Fareeha Zafar & 35 Participation Mechanisms in Schooling Shahrukh Rafi Khan Partnering the Community for Education Mashallah 52

SECTION III Basic Education: The Adopt a School Strategy Adopt a School Programs in Punjab and Sindh Fawad Shams 65

Conclusion 79

Annexures 1. Contracts for the Adopt-a-School Program in Punjab 82 2. List of Schools adopted in Punjab & Sindh 85 3. Statistical Tables on Basic Education in the Provinces 105


Preface

Since its inception SAHE has been concerned with the issue of quality in education. It has been SAHEs endeavor to improve quality in its own schools and also to persuade government to adopt policies that are likely to ensure a similar outcome in the very large number of schools that still remain in the public sector. The Education Watch then is a dual-track effort. One, the putting together of diverse experience in order to arrive at best practices in the field of education and the other, advocacy within civil society as well as the government for the replication of such practices.

The methodology adopted so far includes interviews with teachers, parents, children, government officials, union representatives, community leaders and others concerned with education; holding focus group discussions around key issues; eliciting information through structured questionnaires and examining the results of other related surveys and studies to put SAHEs findings in a comparative perspective. While SAHE has learnt a lot from its own schools in Arifwala and Pakpattan the Education Watch Program strives for a much broader focus keeping in view the imperatives of effective advocacy. SAHEs modest resources render it very difficult to undertake extensive quantitative surveys. Currently, therefore, the work of the Education Watch is limited to using the information that it is able to gather in the field as well as the library to the best possible effect.

The Watch program works closely with SAHEs community based schools at Arifwala drawing upon the rich experience gained from the encounter with the community, charting the high and low points of SAHEs endeavor and extrapolating the lessons learnt. At the same time the program seeks to improve the working of the schools on the basis of insights gained from best practices, elsewhere. The Teacher Education program has become involved with the work of the Watch by administering questionnaires seeking basic information about perceptions and attitudes to teachers in different provinces. They also help in developing such questionnaires. The Watch program also collaborates with the Rights and Gender program especially with a view to encouraging content analysis of primary level textbooks and supplementary reading material. Not least, the program has regular meetings with the NGO forum to ensure active participation from a broad group of NGOs and CBOs.

An important aspect of such activity is the enhancement of ownership as well as lobbying capacity. A case in point is the consultation held in collaboration with an Islamabad-based NGO SPARC at a local hotel on 6 May 2000 on the issue of Education for All where work-in-progress for the Education Watch report was presented. The presentation was well received and given extensive coverage in the media including major newspapers like DAWN and The News. In order to deepen the involvement of other NGOs and CBOs that SAHE is already in touch with they were invited to a seminar scheduled in November 2000 for a detailed discussion of the findings and issues contained in the SAHE report before its finalization. While other education-related issues were extensively discussed the focus of the meeting was the Adopt-a School Program. The proceedings of this meeting were separately printed and shared by SAHE. It is clear to SAHE from its experience that apart from the many improvements that have to be effected in different areas a way has to be found to improve the quality of government schools which despite appearances in certain urban centers of the country continue to cater for the large


majority of the nations children. It is equally clear that interventions with the government at higher levels must be supported by active lobbying within civil society at the grass roots level and effective use of the media. SAHE will continue to investigate key issues in education and encourage informed debate for the purpose of advocacy and reform and among other things bring out a report annually to this end. It hopes in the meantime to acquire a capacity to conduct more intensive as well as encompassing surveys to better assess the situation, and in order to enhance its advocacy role.

Fareeha Zafar Director SAHE April 2001


Acknowledgements A number of people have provided invaluable support in completing this report on Basic Education. Two consultation seminars were organized by SAHE in Lahore in which more than 100 people participated from all the provinces and the federal capital. Formal consultations were also held with a number of education department functionaries in Punjab, with the Municipal Corporation Education Directorate in Lahore and with a number of NGO representatives whose organizations have schools in Punjab. Many thanks are due to all these people and the list of names appears in annexure 3 at the end of the report. We are also indebted to the school heads and teachers of adopted schools who cooperated a great deal with the research teams and allowed them to carry out the data collection in their schools. Special thanks are also due to the Sindh Education Foundation for sharing the Sindh Adopt-a-School experience with us by allowing our participation in the Adopters Annual Review held in Karachi in September 2000. SAHE is specially grateful to Ms. Seema Aziz, Ms. Yasmeen Khan, Ms. Samina Rahman, Ms. Shaista Pervez, Dr. Baela Jamil and Ms. Shahida Naeem whose organizations have adopted schools in Punjab and without whose support the school surveys would not have been possible and some very useful information could not be gathered. SAHE would particularly like to thank Mr. Sohail Raza Syed of the Education Department Punjab, Mr. Haji Rafiq of DPI Elementary Punjab, and Dr. Asif Iqbal Khan of Government College of Education Lahore all of whom were very cooperative and shared all the relevant information whenever approached by the SAHE team. SAHE would specially like to thank all the parents, community members and the SAHE schoolteachers in Arifwala and Pakpattan who provided very useful information for this report. Acknowledgements are also due to the SAHE staff members in Arifwala and Lahore including Mohammad Mustafa, Tayyaba Hassan, Shahzad Malik, Shahida Tanveer, Shabana Bhatti, Uzma Fareed, Asma Wasi, and Ghazala Nizami for providing assistance in data collection from the field and Sadiq Chaudhry for arranging logistics. Saleem Baig provided assistance in formatting the report and Najiba Ali helped with editing in one section of the report. Masood Sadiq helped a great deal in making schedules for interviews, conducting interviews and making observation visits to schools.

Dr. Hamid Kizilbash was kind enough to read preliminary as well as final drafts and provided useful comments and contributed a concluding section to the report. Zafar Daood from SAHE Sialkot provided valuable information on the UPE experience in Sialkot.

We are also grateful to the Asia Foundation and the World Bank in Islamabad for providing necessary financial support for carrying out research and publishing the report.


Acronyms AED Academy for Educational Development AKES Aga Khan Education Services AKRSP Aga Khan Rural Support Program AWARE Action for Welfare and Awakening in a Rural Environment B.A. Bachelor of Arts BCEW Bureau of Curriculum and Extension Work BPED Baluchistan Primary Education Directorate BPEP Baluchistan Primary Education Program BRAC Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee CARE Cooperation for Advancement, Rehabilitation, and Education CBO Community Based Organization CBSP Community Based School Program CRAMT Contract Reviewing Management Training CSP Community Support Process DC Deputy Commissioner DDEO Deputy District Education Officer DEO District Education Officer DFID Department For International Development DGKhan Dera Ghazi Khan DoE Department of Education DPE Directorate of Primary Education DPI Directorate of Public Instruction DSD Directorate of Staff Development EFA Education For All EMIS Education Management Information Systems FBS Federal Bureau of Statistics GBES Government Boys Elementary School GBHS Government Boys High School GBHSS Government Boys Higher Secondary School GBMS Government Boys Middle School GBPS Government Boys Primary School GCET Government College for Elementary Teachers GGES Government Girls Elementary School GGHS Government Girls High School GGHSS Government Girls Higher Secondary School GGMS Government Girls Middle School GGPS Government Girls Primary School GO Government GoB Government of Baluchistan GoP Government of Pakistan GTZ Gesellschaft For Technische ITA Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi LAFAM Loralai Awami Falahi Markaz LGS Lahore Grammar School


MCBHS Municipal Corporation Boys High School Middle School MCBPS Municipal Corporation Boys Primary School MCBMS Municipal Corporation Boys MCGHS Municipal Corporation Girls High School MCGMS Municipal Corporation Girls Middle School MCGPS Municipal Corporation Girls Primary School MCL Municipal Corporation Lahore MSU Multi-Donor Support Unit NGO Non-Government Organization NOC No Objection Certificate NWFP North West Frontier Province ODA Overseas Development Administration PA Parents Association PEP-ILE Primary Education Program Improving the Learning Environment PEP-MCO Primary Education Program Management and Coordination PEQIP Primary Education Quality Improvement Program PIHS Pakistan Integrated Household Survey PIO Public Interest Organization PITE Provincial Institute for Teacher Education PMSP Punjab Middle Schooling Project PTA Parent-Teacher Association PTC Parent-Teacher Committee PTSMC Parent-Teacher School Management Committee RCDC Rural Community Development Council SAHE Society for the Advancement of Education SAP Social Action Program SAPP Social Action Program Project SCOPE Society for Community Participation and Promotion of Education SCSPEB Society for Community Support for Primary Education in Baluchistan SDPI Sustainable Development Policy Institute SED Sindh Education Department SEF Sindh Education Foundation SERVE Socio-Economic Rehabilitation and Vocational Education SESWA Shewa Educational Society Workers Association SMC School Management Committee SPDC Social Policy Development Center SPO Strengthening Participatory Organizations TCF The Citizens Foundation TEC Teacher Education Center TM Tameer-i-Millat TRC Teachers Resource Center UN United Nations UNICEF United Nations Childrens Fund UPE Universal Primary Education VEC Village Education Committee WVEC Women Village Education Committee


Chasing Access and Quality Abbas Rashid

South Asia is a region with the worlds greatest concentration of illiterate human beings. It has nearly 400 million illiterate adults, which is almost half the worlds total. Within South Asia Pakistan is close to the very bottom of the ladder. While poverty is clearly an issue, it cannot be cited as the main factor determining very low literacy levels. Pakistan with a per capita income of over $400 has an adult literacy rate of 38%. Both Vietnam and India being poorer have a literacy rate of 94% and 52%, respectively1.

Education for All?

Around 8 million children of the 5-9 age group are never enrolled in schools. 50% of the 12 million children enrolled may drop out before completing primary education, so the number of out-of-school children may reach 14(8+6) million by the year 2002-3 (end of SAP 11). Survival rates to Grade-5 in 1997-98 were 49.7% (Academy of Educational Planning and Management & PIHS). Pupil-teacher ratio is 48. According to World Bank figures the average years of schooling for a child in Pakistan is 1.9 years. At the same time the government at times maintains that there is no shortage of qualified and trained teachers at the primary level and that almost 100% teachers are academically qualified and in addition, 80% are professionally trained2.

The Issues of Access and Quality In terms of very broad categories there are three types of schools (not including madrassas) currently providing primary education:

1. NGO schools: formal as well as non-formal

2. Private schools run for profit

3. Government schools

Approximately 80% of children in Pakistan going to primary school are estimated to go to government schools. According to a PIHS survey the cover of the non-government sector went up by 1.3 million from 1991-1992 to 1995-96. Non-government primary school enrolment increased from under 2 million students to about 3 million students while the government sector increased by 0.4 million and went up from 10.7 million to 11.1 million3. As a result the non-government share of the primary sector went from 14% to 22% in a four-year period. In rural Sindh 97% of the children go to government primary schools while only 50% do so in urban Punjab. Which is also to say that, nationally, around three fourths of all children attending primary schools still go to government schools and in large areas even today the government school is the only option.

There are approximately 150,000 schools in Pakistan. Of these, less than a quarter are estimated to be private schools. But estimates suggest that in the urban centers the number of children

1 The Education Challenge, Human Development Center Report, Islamabad 1998 2 Government EFA Brief, Recife, 2000 3 PIHS Education Sector Performance Report, p.22-23, FBS 1998


going to private schools is as high as 50%. Obviously, this includes children from middle-income as well as low-income households.

This indicates:

1. The high level of social demand for education

2. Private schooling equated with quality education

So, should this be made the basis by the government for abdication of its responsibility particularly for providing primary education to the large majority and the near-gleeful transfer of its task to the private sector?

A comparison between the state of private schools and government schools and NGO schools can be made by reference to some of the surveys conducted in Punjab and Sindh in recent years. By using specific performance indicators the surveys sought to gauge the internal efficiency of the schools. In the process, some key issues and areas of particular concern have been identified.

A survey of 302 schools in 5 districts of Punjab was conducted for ODA in 1996 by Systems (Pvt.) Ltd4. The districts were Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Bahwalpur and Multan. The schools catered to children from low and middle-income households

The overwhelming majority of private schools offered coeducation in primary grades. This would suggest that there is no social obstacle to the government primary schools at least in urban centers being mixed at this level. At the very least this should encourage the government to review its wasteful and highly inefficient policy of virtually bifurcating the education department along gender lines on the grounds that mixed schools even at this level are not socially acceptable.

Most private schools were charging fees of under Rs.100 a month. In other words private schools were also catering to the needs of lower-middle and low-income groups. This is still higher than the comparatively very low fees charged by government schools but it suggests that government schools, generally, are no longer an option that such groups willingly go for despite severe income constraints

A little over 50% of the children in the urban areas of the 5 districts were going to private schools.

This is an extremely high figure given the rising incidence of poverty over the last decade and points to the desperation of poor parents in the face of plummeting standards of education delivered by government schools

The average student ratio was 34 in government schools and 17 in private schools. A low student-teacher ratio, however, did not always indicate quality as in the case of the relatively more backward districts and in the more recently established schools. In some government schools the ratio has been observed to be low simply because parents have increasingly transferred their children to private schools.

Almost all private schools had electricity and fans in each classroom as well as toilets for students (though, often the toilets were in bad shape). Less than half of the government

4 Survey of schools in five districts of Punjab, Systems (Private) Limited, March 1997. This survey coordinated by Shahid

Kardar was preceded by an extensive household survey to assess the social demand for education.


schools had electricity, only about a third of the classrooms had fans, and only about half had toilets for students.

The iron-and-concrete structures of most government schools are dark and cold in winter as there is seldom provision for light let alone heat and far too hot in summer given the absence of fans in most cases.

Teachers in government schools had much more teaching experience than those in private schools. They had a clear edge over the latter in terms of professional qualifications though their level of general education was roughly equivalent.

Private schools usually opt for teachers with low qualifications and experience because they demand lower salaries. But, in the absence of security of tenure they are much more regular in their work.

On the average, the salary level of government-school teachers was over two and a half times that of teachers in private schools.

This is not an indicator of a good salary scale enjoyed by government school teachers but more a pointer to the abysmal salaries paid by most private schools to their teachers.

A very low percentage of teachers in both government and private schools had attended training courses.

There is very little premium placed on teacher training either in government schools or private schools. Private schools neither want to pay for the training nor do they care to spare teachers for the period required for training. For government school teachers training opportunities usually mean little more than a chance to get away and a chance to make some extra money by way of allowances.

With respect to teachers in private schools and government schools, then, a very interesting and complex picture emerges:

Teachers in government schools are usually better-qualified and more experienced than their counterparts in private schools. However, the latter perform better because retaining their jobs depends on performance unlike the government schoolteacher who once recruited is virtually assured tenure. The government schoolteacher is much better paid but salary is not linked to performance. Indeed, he/she works under a system geared to encourage inefficiency and indifference because it is marked by an absence of accountability as well as incentive. Private school teachers are subjected to accountability but have few incentives, which explains the high turnover rates among teachers in most private schools. It is indicative of a lack of serious concern with quality education that there is no real premium on in-service training for teachers in either government schools or private schools.

One key indicator that private school teachers performed better is provided by assessing student performance in tests conducted as part of the survey. Such an assessment cannot be called comprehensive but it is certainly indicative. In tests conducted for Grade-3 students in Mathematics and Urdu, students of private schools performed better than the children attending government schools. Overall, in 52% of the private schools 75% of the students passed both tests whereas only 21.5% of the government schools could manage the same. Girls did slightly better than boys in the tests in both urban as well as rural areas.

In 71% of private schools where teachers at least had a B.A degree three-quarters of the students passed both tests. In comparison only 47% of the schools where teachers had matriculations/intermediate qualifications showed similar results. The corresponding results in the case of government schools was 67% and 21% respectively.


A majority of teachers who were administered the test did not perform particularly well. Two-thirds of the males and three-fourths of the females failed the Mathematics test when the pass marks were raised to 90%.

The performance of the teachers was bad across the board, in case of government schools as well as private schools indicating yet again the hollowness of what is obviously the most important component of any system of education after the children themselves.

At the primary level of education the average annual recurrent expenditure per student in government schools was close to two and a half times that of private schools; the average annual recurrent cost per student at the primary level was around Rs.850 in private schools and Rs. 2070 in government schools essentially because of the higher salaries of teachers in government schools.

While this highlights the discrepancy between investment in the government school system and the output in comparison with the private school system the point to keep in mind here is also the acute need for subsidy in the poorest sections and the severe limitations of private schools as brought out by the survey.

A survey of over 30 government schools in the rural areas of Sargodha, Malir, Thatta and Khairpur was carried out in 19975.

Findings:

In schools where there are just one or two teachers, teacher absenteeism is a key problem. Otherwise, too, nearly a third of the teachers were absent.

While the home school model and schools run by NGOs often have one or two teachers, as well, the difference is the higher standards of accountability in the latter. Absenteeism is, therefore, not similarly problematic in that context.

Girls schools were less likely to be open. Out of the nine girls schools visited only three were found to be open.

While there is relatively less emphasis on girls education, generally this finding suggests that rural Sindh is probably one of the worst-off areas in this regard.

There was a great deal of multi-grade teaching both due to teachers shortage as well as shortage of space.

While multi-grade teaching has emerged as something of a panacea in recent years in the context of programs such as Universal Primary Education there is little to suggest that it can incorporate the quality factor in education.

There seems to be no shortage of buildings. One village in Khairpur with less then 50 families had four different type of school buildings of which two were in use. But the quality of construction was bad and maintenance was a problem.

If the foregoing two aspects are taken together what emerges is a somewhat paradoxical feature of the government school scene: there is no shortage of buildings but there is a shortage of `usable space. Not only do buildings suffer from poor maintenance but are usually dark, too hot (in summer) and too cold (in winter). Hence a relative abundance of buildings co-exists with lack of usable space.

5 Haris Gazdar, Universal Basic Education in Pakistan: A commentary on Strategy and Results of a Survey, SDPI, 1998


Most boys schools in those villages which did not have girls schools were enrolling girls or had done so in the recent past. While the girls were few in number the schools were, in effect, co-educational.

This detracts from the official argument that social mores are an obstacle to more efficient co-educational arrangements at the primary level, if not beyond.

Larger schools appear to work better than smaller ones, middle schools better than primary, schools near a metalled road better than more remote schools and boys schools better than girls schools.

Larger or high schools along with middle ones appear to work better largely because they are relatively well resourced particularly in terms of better qualified and more experienced teachers. Even if the latter are not teaching at the primary level their presence in the school and interaction with the other teachers apparently makes a difference. Schools near metalled roads invite a greater measure of scrutiny and boys schools are relatively better monitored by the community as well government officials compared to girls schools.

In 1997 the SPDC and SPO undertook a field survey of 244 communities across the country to obtain first hand information on the quality of rural social services...

The SPDC/SPO survey covered 597 primary government schools. More than 60% of these were found to be in need of major repairs. The quality of construction in 81% of the schools was considered to be just fair or poor. The classrooms lacked furniture and the floor mats were dirty and in poor condition. Perhaps, the most disturbing finding relates to school facilities. Only 37% of the schools had latrines, and many of these were non-functional. Only one-third of the schools had fans that worked6.

In 1998-99 SDPI conducted a national survey of 129 schools in a bid to compare government, private and NGO schools by reference to the quality of education7. A more detailed analysis based on this survey is provided in the accompanying article in this report. Some findings that also endorse those cited above are briefly examined here:

Private schools performed better than Government schools. However, the NGO schools performed best. It should be kept in mind, though that NGO schools form a very low percentage of the total, nation-wide as well as in any given province. Among the indicators used to gauge the quality of education was the performance of class 3 and class 5 students and class 5 teachers on Comprehension and Mathematics tests.

Children in NGO schools had the best mean performance in both subjects and both classes

Similarly, children in private schools performed better in both subjects and both classes compared to those in government schools

While teacher comprehension scores were higher for NGO teachers, teacher Mathematics scores were higher for private school teachers

The performance of government schoolteachers was the poorest but not by much in the case of Comprehension tests

6 SPDC, Annual Review 1998 7 Shahrukh Rafi Khan, Sajid Kazmi and Zainab Latif, The State of Basic Education in Pakistan: A Qualitative, Comparative, Institutional Analysis, SDPI, 1999


Teacher qualifications in all three types of schools were similar and while government school teachers had much more of pre-service training, NGOs invested the most in in-service training

Some of the findings regarding the better-performing private schools again endorsed those of the earlier survey:

The teachers were paid poorly, not trained and made to work hard Their aim was to move on to a government job with higher pay and much greater

security

Teacher turnover rate was high The incidence of cheating was found to be high in both government as well as private

schools. In fact private school teachers are under greater pressure to show good performance as their jobs are on the line

One of the main findings of the previous survey endorsed by this one is that children in private schools performed better despite the fact that government schools have faculty which has more pre-service training and more experience compared to their counterparts in private schools. That the latter performed better in Mathematics even compared to NGO school teachers suggests that better performance of the children in these schools may have something to do with better teaching methodology and techniques encouraged by NGO schools.

But, the two surveys taken together also indicate something else that is important: how far the best of the school types, private and NGO, are from being good enough by reference to the indicators of quality education.

Findings taken from a third survey reaffirm the edge that private schools have over government schools even as they highlight the limitations, yet again, of the former.

A study by the Population Council of Pakistan published in the 2000 based on a survey of 50 primary schools in the rural areas of NWFP and Punjab in 1997-98 reported its findings as follows8:

In Punjab the districts were Sialkot, DGKhan and Rahim Yar Khan and in NWFP the districts selected were Swat, Abbotabad and Karak. A little more than a quarter of the schools were private. Of the 14 private schools 10 were established within the last 5 years. By reference to a comparison of the government schools and private schools the survey indicates:

Teachers in private schools are punctual and more hardworking There are male as well as female teachers, which make for a better school environment

for young children

The majority view was that private schools were of a better quality than government schools

Private schools are more closely associated with the teaching of English The limitations of the NGO model and the private sector:

8 Zeba A. Sattar and Shahnaz Kazi, Womens Autonomy, Livelihood and Fertility, Population Council of Pakistan 1997


NGO/non-formal schools can serve to supplement but cannot replace the government schools. The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is the worlds largest non-formal education provider. It employs 34000 teachers. Even so it reaches fewer than 10% of primary school-age children9.

So should the private sector be encouraged at this level or higher levels of education; given the virtual collapse of public sector education? Do we have a choice? Are mainstream private sector schools in urban areas delivering quality? If not, what hope is there for rural and less developed areas under this model?

But again the study also points to the negative aspects: Low paid and under-qualified teachers: The average number of years of teaching

experience among private school teachers was considerably less compared to government school teachers (3.6 years as compared to 11.6 years on average)

Apparent concentration only on English with uncertain results in terms of language skills acquired by the children

Indiscriminate promotion of all children regardless of merit in order to give parents a false sense of security regarding the quality of education being delivered

Various studies repeatedly indicate the key role of the head teacher/manager in a school situation. How do we ensure a qualified and competent head? How can the community be empowered and aided to achieve this minimum requirement for quality education? Similarly these point to the need for raising the salaries of government schoolteachers to attract better teachers. The minimum qualification for a primary school teacher should be raised and those currently teaching with lesser qualifications should be given a time limit to improve these. How are we to replace a system, which neither rewards work nor imposes penalties for shirking. In other words, a system that has neither incentive nor accountability and is therefore geared to draw the worst out of the teacher. After a survey focussing on ghost schools the Department of Education had recommended the sacking of 5000 teachers. Apparently this has not happened and everyone has got a stay order.

9 The Education Challenge, Human Development Center Report, Islamabad 1998


Our conclusions, therefore, are as follows:

On the touchstone of quality NGO schools are in the lead, followed by private schools with government schools coming in third. But, minimum standards being defined by government schools, our contention is that barring exceptions, private and NGO schools are not delivering quality education that is significantly above the minimum.

In terms of numbers by far the highest percentage in the country comprises government schools with close to two-thirds and three-fourths of all school-going children going to government schools. This would suggest that regardless of the role of private schools and NGO schools, policies will have to be devised and implemented for improving the standard of government schools if children in significant numbers are to receive a reasonable education.

There is much that will need improvement and radical change in relevant areas including the examination system, curriculum, etc. But, the weakest link in the chain is the teacher. Unless teachers are properly trained, inducted on merit, given suitable incentive and made accountable to the community the system will remain flawed and incapable of delivering quality education.

SAP-I entailed nearly Rs. 145 billion of expenditure. Education was a priority area. Yet, there was an actual decline in the gross enrollment rate for primary education. While between 1991 and 1996/97 girls participation increased from 59% to 64%, boys participation rate went down from 86% to 80%10.

While there is an obvious need to focus on primary education, it should not be at the expense of higher education. For social development breadth of education has been construed as being more important than depth of education. In other words the number of people who have received basic education is more important than the number of years spent in school by those who have received education. However, this can also become a misleading argument by setting up a false dichotomy between basic education and higher education. It can lead to the ignoring of the essential linkages between the different levels. Not only does social development depend on basic education being widespread, it also depends on at least a certain percentage of the population having access to quality higher education on merit. Further, even as quality basic education provides the base for a good education system it is quality higher education that ultimately guarantees quality basic education by, providing, for instance, a relevant paradigm and policy for education as well as teachers and teaching material of a certain quality. The choice is not really between spending either on basic education or higher education as between deciding the quantum of our resources that we will continue to spend on defense, for instance, rather than on education and health. It is another matter that neither at the primary nor at the higher level is the allocated amount efficiently spent.

SAHEs ongoing investigations under the Watch program endorse some of these findings and also bring some other issues into focus. Questionnaires administered to teachers in Baluchistan, Sindh and Punjab combined with interviews and discussions indicate that:

10 FBS, PIHS Survey, Round 2, 1998


Teaching is usually not the first choice for men as a career. Training programs should, therefore, take cognizance of a general lack of interest in the work that teachers are doing especially in government schools and strive for a change in attitude before delivering professional training.

SAHEs investigations have also indicated that contrary to universally accepted principles primary school teachers seldom use local languages for the purpose of explaining things to children. The exception is the province of Sindh.

Maths and English are subjects that teachers find difficult to teach and these may well be key areas that the proposed teaching and resource centers need to focus on.

While low fees and providing free books are often cited as means of enhancing enrolment, most teachers lay stress on spreading awareness among parents as the most effective means of doing so.

Teachers experience in SAHEs Arifwala schools reveals that children start becoming interested in science-related stories after the age of nine. Across four age-groups between the ages of five and thirteen, they were found to be consistently uninterested in books that used the exhortation and preaching mode.

In Lahore, teachers responding to a questionnaire complained about the irrelevance of training provided as well as the fact that only those close to government officials got the necessary information about scheduled trainings.

In very poor communities from Baluchistan to Arifwala it is clear from interviews and unstructured discussions that without continuing outside support it is not possible for such communities to run schools on their own. However, there are heartening examples also in Arifwala of communities contributing land as well as modest structures for the school. What is most difficult for such communities is to assure the teacher of regular salary. The sustainability issue must therefore be reviewed in the light of such facts on the ground.


Sialkot Achieves Universal Primary Education: In December 2000, the district of Sialkot achieved the most cherished of targets, which has gone largely unnoticed by the media and everyone else. In Sialkot almost every child of primary school going age in all three tehsils is enrolled in school. Local organizations, the department of education and UNICEF deserve credit for this feat. I met some of the activists of a local NGO (SAHE, Sialkot) and discussed with them how this was achieved. Here is a brief report. It all began in August 1999 when UNICEF invited local organizations to join in a crash program to achieve Jomtien targets for universal primary education (UPE) in Pakistan by the year 2000. SAHE Sialkot was one of the first organizations that took up the challenge. A methodology was developed to ensure that every child in every village was reached. Given the many factors preventing full enrollment including child labor, lack of motivation of parents, poor quality of primary schooling, and the failure of past efforts of the education department, enormous credit goes to the people who worked to achieve UPE in Sialkot.

Perhaps the most important factor in their success was a creative approach responsive to local conditions and led by local people. A team of young SAHE activists along with some very open-minded and sensitive elders came up with fascinating activities to identify the children who were not in schools and then a strategy to get them enrolled. The story of how Sialkot did it is really inspiring.

The first step was what the SAHE people call the Raiki survey. The activist with the help of Imam Masjid/Teacher/Numberdar of the local village would establish how many children were not attending school in the village. Although sometimes viewed with suspicion, once the non-threatening nature of the reason for seeking information was established, people were more than willing to share information.

After the survey was completed, a broad based meeting of the village community was called. At this stage usually the young educated of the village were found to be most ready to do the organizing. They volunteered to inform and bring out the village community for the meeting. Activists also invited the same youth to understand the objectives of the UPE campaign and what needed to be done to ensure that every child was in school.

At this point, the village youth often carried out what the activists call an awareness walk, a feature that has become popular in Sialkot villages and which the children enjoy a great deal. Activity-hungry rural areas of Pakistan respond with great enthusiasm to these UPE activities.

Having got the village talking about the issue, more serious documentation work is undertaken. A volunteers meeting is called by the activist to explain how data should be collected on specified forms about every child and the family. This usually includes information like number of children, sex, age, parents names and address and occupation. A second volunteers meeting is called after the data has been collected to analyze it and to interpret the specific situation prevailing in the village from the point of view of enrollment. Many complex issues are involved in this work even establishing just the age of a child in the village setting can be a serious problem.

During this meeting, the volunteers present a report of the findings to the village. How many children out of the total child population are not enrolled and from which household. During this village meeting corrections can be made and the whole village can see the results of the


work that has been going on now for sometime. This is also the point, at which, responsibilities are distributed among the villagers for achieving the objective of universal enrollment.

The following weeks and months are devoted to approaching the parents, convincing them of the need to send their child to school, and to meeting unique situations specific to each family. This is painstaking work and sometimes takes all the energy and creativity of the team to succeed. Contrary to popular belief that the uneducated dont want their child educated, most rural parents want to send their children to school but many cannot afford even the low cost of books and school dues, or are discouraged by the reputation of the teacher and the school.

Eventually the day arrives when all hurdles have been overcome and every child has been enrolled in school. The volunteers (with the SAHE activists staying in the background) have checked and rechecked to see that no primary school age child is out of school. At this point SAHE Sialkot has come up with the most simple and yet evocative activity to underline the event. This is the flag hoisting ceremony, which is held with the entire village participating to acknowledge that UPE has been achieved. A blue flag (UN color) with UPE written on it is solemnly hoisted in the village recognizing it as a village of achievers. And on to the next village for the young activists until the whole district has been conquered for universal primary education.

But the happy story of struggle for UPE does not end here. In fact, a more severe test of the commitment of the activists and the parents of Sialkot awaits in the wings of success. This is the issue of retention of children in school after enrollment has been achieved. As the SAHE team has discovered, enrollment is only half the battle. The bigger battle is keeping the children in school. With nearly 54% dropouts after 2nd or 3rd grade, the problem is potentially catastrophic for the UPE effort.

SAHE Sialkot, village mothers and the parent-teacher committees are working to keep the children in school. Absences are noted and starting with the second absence a volunteer team goes to work to find the reasons and to seek help from village elders as well as the professional team to overcome the obstacles to the child continuing in school. We can all learn from the UPE work of Sialkot.

Hamid H. Kizilbash


A Qualitative, Comparative Institutional Analysis11 Shahrukh Rafi Khan, Sajid Kazmi and Zainab Latif

Introduction12

The objective of this research was to suggest ways to make government (by far the largest provider) rural primary schooling delivery more effective. We compared the institutional effectiveness of rural primary schooling delivery of the government with the NGO and private sectors. We identified processes pushing for improvements in the NGO and private sectors and those resulting in obvious failures in the government sectors. Our focus was on operational lessons derived from the NGO and private sector delivery that could make the government sector more effective.

It is often stated that NGOs are more effective in the delivery of services than the government and, indeed, our field observations show that this was the case in the delivery of basic education. A critical research issue is whether the community participation induced or harnessed by development NGOs produces a higher quality product and sustainable service delivery at a competitive price or are there other forces at play.

Not much is known about rural private sector schooling. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this is a rapidly growing sector. Some assert that such schools cheat gullible rural folk with a smattering of English on the syllabus and the status symbols represented by private sector uniforms. Others swear by the dedication of private sector teachers. Either way, it was also time to more systematically assess the contribution of such schools, their potential for growth, the lessons derived from their practice and the social implications of their presence.

Field Reports Evaluation Criteria in assessing success

The criterion for assessing success included the performance of class 3 and class 5 students and class 5 teachers on comprehension and math tests, the state of discipline and confidence of students, motivation, dedication, training and experience of teachers, whether students and/or teachers cheated in the tests, physical facilities of the school, availability of school supplies and the quality of school administration and management. Comparative overview of success

The table below indicates the evaluation of the field team concerning the 43 sets of government, private and NGO schools across the country13. NGO schools were selected first and the closest government and private schools subsequently selected for investigation. The table below indicates how many of the schools in the sample were viewed as successful or not successful by the field-teams based on the criteria described above.

11 This paper is derived from a more detailed study by the authors. 12 Thanks are due to The Asia Foundation, Pakistan for supporting this research. Thanks are also due to Haris Gazdar for useful

comments. 13 The fieldwork began on September 9, 1998 and continued until December 28, 1998.


A comparative tally of the success and failure of government, private, and NGO schools:

Type of School & Evaluation

Successful Not Successful

In Between

Government 5 32 6 Private 19 17 7 NGO 31 8 4

Source: Survey field-team evaluation

The table clearly indicates that the NGO schools are the most likely to be successful followed by private schools. That only 5 out of 43 government schools were viewed as successful confirms what is now well known i.e. that the state of government basic education is abysmal and urgently in need of reform. As mentioned earlier, one of the criteria of success was the performance of class 3 and class 5 students and class 5 teachers on comprehension and math tests. While we give more weight to the overall evaluation of the field-teams, it is nonetheless interesting to note that children in NGO schools had the best mean performance in both subjects and both classes. Second, while teacher comprehension scores were highest for NGO teachers, teacher math scores were highest for private school teachers. The performance of government teachers was the poorest in both subjects but not by much in the case of comprehension tests. However, this still remains a poor showing since government teachers have similar education qualifications to NGO and private school teachers and much higher pre-service training. NGOs invest the most in in-service training14. Third, on average, government school students had a much lower scale of academic achievement in class three and this remained true on an absolute level by class five. However, the relative gain in scores between class three and class five was much higher in government schools, which is suggestive of the potential for improvement. Fourth, the variation in scores among students for government schools was generally the highest or close to the highest and it was the lowest or close to the lowest for NGO schools. Finally, the incidence of cheating among students and teachers was highest in government schools and lowest in NGO schools and so government schoolteacher and student scores are inflated.

In the sections that follow, we indicate what accounted for success and failure of the three different kinds of schools and what reform lessons are evident.

Government Schools Government basic education is by far the most important schooling for us to focus on. This is partly because of its much larger scale but, more so, because, with the onset of private and NGO schooling, the clients of government schooling are now the most poor and deprived students. Any successful program of human development must address the needs and entitlements of this class. This sub-section contains a general discussion of government schooling followed by a discussion of issues based on specific observations.

14 The mean years of education for government, private and NGO teachers were 12.9, 12.3 and 12.9 years, mean pre-service

training 1.05, 0.4 and 0.5 years and mean in-service training was 0.54, 0.2 and 1.3 months respectively.


General Discussion

The high failure rate of government schools is a serious cause of concern if we view "evening the odds" in a class based society as a fundamental state responsibility. The clients of government schools are generally poor and illiterate15. The richer parents are abandoning government schools in droves. Between 1991 and 1996-97, the growth of enrollment in non-government schools was 61 percent for boys and 131 percent for girls16. The better off parents quite clearly indicated to us that government schools were incapable of providing a decent education. The poor parents were often aware of the poor standard of education being offered to their wards, but were unable to do much about this because of economic circumstances. Even then, we noticed that many relatively poor parents stretched themselves to provide a non-government education to their children either out of genuine concern for their children's education, and sometimes because non-government education has also become a mark of status in rural society17. Often, it was the bright children that parents removed from government schools.

This exodus of the richer children and the brighter poor children to non-government schools is accentuating the crisis of government education. The wealthier parents are the most likely to complain and play a principal's role to maintain standards. The brighter children are the most likely to raise the general level of the class. With these sources of countervailing pressure gone, rural public sector education will deteriorate further. Thus the children of poor parents often don't make it to school and, those that do, have little hope of getting very far in an increasingly competitive world18.

Concerned and interested parents of children in government schools were generally the exception rather than the rule. Thus teachers got away with educational murder. Not only did they wantonly neglect their duties, they also used the students to do their chores and bring gratuities. They also charged special illegal fees and run their own businesses on the side. Focus group meetings often showed illiterate and poor parents satisfied because they did not know any better. Often they seemed content that their children were in school and at other times they seemed to view the school as a convenient child sitting arrangement. However, even this service was not reliable, since many parents and communities complained that students came and went as they pleased and this was confirmed by field observation.

While government teachers were more highly paid than non-government teachers, some parents were under the impression that government teachers were very poorly paid and hence had no option but to run independent businesses on the side to supplement their meager income19. Here it is important to acknowledge that being paid more than private sector teachers does not constitute good pay20.

15 Eleven percent of the fathers and 27 percent of the mothers of government school students were illiterate compared to 5 percent

and 5 percent for NGO schools and 16 percent and 18 percent respectively for private schools respectively. 16 Government of Pakistan (1998, p. 23). 17Non-government refers to both private and NGO schooling. In this regard, NGO could probably be improved upon as an

acronym to suggest what they are rather than what they are not. Public Interest Organization (PIO) is gaining some currency in Pakistan.

18 Government of Pakistan (1998, p. 33). 19 The mean monthly salary of government teachers was Rs. 3,567 (Rs. 1537 standard deviation). The mean monthly salary of

private and NGO teachers was Rs. 1,800 (Rs. 2,379 sd) and Rs. 2,317 (Rs. 2,339 sd) respectively. 20 The mean salary of government school teachers of Rs. 3,567 is about equal to the mean monthly salary of unskilled workers

(using a straight average of the daily wage for the national and four provincial capitals and multiplying by 30) and less than


One issue that parents and the community dwelt on was whether or not the teachers were from the village. Teachers who did not reside in the village were often late and absent. However, they were less likely to be harsh to children of a particular beradari (clan) and more receptive to complaints from the parents about the schooling. Thus overall, they were viewed as more effective.

Currently, the surprise visitor to a government school is likely to confront very poor facilities, very high student and teacher absenteeism, gossiping and disinterested teachers and an unrestrained student body running wild. In one case, all the teachers were absent and class five students were managing the school. Teachers blame the parents for a lack of interest and the parents blame the teachers for a lack of interest. There are elements of truth to both allegations. However, reform needs to start in the school and filter out to the home. An angry and accusing household or a disinterested household is not likely to be a very receptive one.

The power of teachers, among other factors, undermines public sector schooling. They face a very poor and uneducated constituency of parents, which provides no threat or countervailing power. Thus, under the current circumstances, public sector teachers are unlikely to be good "agents."

Some notable specific practices or findings

I. Teachers and teacher practices In one school, the field-team left and returned an hour later for some follow-up questions. While the school should still have been in session, in fact it had been locked, and the teachers were playing cricket. Parents in other schools also complained of teachers being more interested in cricket than in the children. Some instances of the lack of teacher awareness include the inability of a teacher to recall either the number or names of students in his classes. While this forgetfulness could be forgiven, drawing a complete blank on a maths test is less forgivable. Similarly, it was shocking to discover that the headmistress of a school in the Punjab was unaware of the capital city of the Province. It is not surprising then that class three students in one school were even unable to write their names. However, the fact that political appointments took place was obvious from the hiring of a retarded person as a teacher in one of the school's visited.

Parents resented the wide practice of compelling students to take tuition at the same time as they wasted teaching time during school hours. Of course, only the relatively more prosperous parents could afford the tuition, so even within government schools, their was a social divide. Beatings were also observed to be a common practice, even in girls' schools, as was compelling students to do chores. In one school, even the district education officer (DEO) borrowed children for his errands.

Parents also complained of the teacher's being extractive. Students were pressured to bring gifts in kind and pay special fees. At other times, teachers demanded money for rent even if the government allocation covered rent. In one case, the parents pointed out that the teachers demanded Rs. 50 per annum as fee (without a receipt) while they knew the fee was only Rs. 27.

half the monthly salary of skilled workers like masons and carpenters [Government of Pakistan, Economic Survey 1998-99, Statistical Supplement, (1999, p. 143)]. However, government teachers are entitled to benefits like a provident fund, health facilities and pension that are not accessible to daily wage-workers.


II. School conditions and facilities

School facilities in general were abysmal. We note some observations here to reinforce the point. Children often sat on a mat and in one school they were found sitting on the wet floor while in many they were required to bring their own sack to sit on. In several cases, teachers' aids, kits and charts were available but locked away in the head's office. Stationary was chronically in short supply. The lack of electricity due to the non-payment of a bill was observed to be a problem in more than one school. Schools were crowded with student-teacher ratios of 50-60 per class and multi-grade teaching was quite common due to short staffing. Toilets were generally filthy and water often not in supply.

III. Absenteeism and teacher disinterest

Absenteeism and the lack of interest were serious problem among both teachers and students. Up to two-thirds to fifty percent of the students were found to be absent on the day of the field-visit21. In some schools, even though students were absent (forty percent in one case), teachers marked them present anyway. In other schools, teachers did not bother to mark the attendance register. In one school, fifty percent of the students did not bother to return after the recess. Even if the teachers were present, they were often found chatting while the students ran wild. In one school, only one out of the six teachers present was actually found teaching. In another school, a peon was found teaching classes and in another school, students were used to perform the duties of peons and chowkidars (guards). Many community interviews indicated that teachers never bothered giving homework.

IV. Quality

Perhaps there was no greater indictment of government schooling than the fact that the government teachers were enrolling their own children in private schools. Another perspective on this was often provided by parents who had actually attended a particular school themselves and hence felt very committed to it. Invariably, their recollections were a confirmation of declining standards and increasing teacher disinterest over time.

V. Management

There is little one could expect by way of good management given the disinterest of the head and other teachers. The head teacher in one case was running her own private school on the side and in another case ran a building material business. The head teachers routinely came late.

Some of the worst travesties included a school that was used as a gambling den where addicts hung out and another school in which the last DEO visit took place three years ago. In this regard, schools closer to district headquarters had better oversight. However, by the same token, the second shift in a double shift school went from bad to worse since they had less fear of being observed after regular hours.

21 Student absenteeism was the only statistic where the data did not confirm the impression formed by field observation. The

absentee rate, calculated as the total days absent as a percent of the total school days in the April to June 1999 period, was 9.9, 15.6 and 10.7 percent for NGO, private and government schools respectively. The higher absentee rate for private schools was a surprise.


Private Schools Private schools presented the greatest contrast in performance. The worst ones were often run as a family business with rented buildings that were completely inadequate for schooling. These buildings were crowded, poorly ventilated, poorly lit, hot, short of even poor quality furniture, had dirty bathrooms, no clean drinking water and no play area22. In one school, the children were found playing on the roof. Several of the schools practiced multi-grade teaching or otherwise had a distracting teaching environment. In one case, the teaching in the veranda was too close to the teaching in the courtyard and in another the converted warehouse produced too much echo. By contrast, some schools even had well stocked libraries that they encouraged students to use and computers that they utilized to provide instruction to the higher grades. One school even had a tuck-shop that operated on a self-service self-paying basis.

The teachers were often paid poorly, not trained and made to work hard23. Several teachers complained about their poor pay. The turnover rate was stated to be high. The higher paid, much more laid back and tenured government teaching positions were obviously very attractive. A year or two of teaching in private schools was viewed as enough to establish credentials for a more secure government job.

Yet despite this, teachers were very often industrious, disciplined and motivated. The threat of job loss no doubt had something to do with this. Students were also generally disciplined, confident and well turned out, even if the performance on the tests was not good. Homework was in general regularly assigned and corrected, something the parents noted and greatly appreciated. Teachers in one school stayed several hours after school to both grade homework and prepare the next day class plans.

Parent teacher contact was much higher and the school administration much more responsive to parental concerns. However, except for an innovative "mother's day" featuring student performances that was devised by one school to get the mother's more involved, parent teacher contact was generally not institutionalized24. But teachers in general made more effort to apprise parents of the child's performance. High absenteeism was the exception rather than the rule.

While fees were in general much higher than in government schools and too high for the poor, several schools ran scholarship programs for the able poor students and had concession based fee structures25. One school even had the rich parents contribute to the fees of the poor ones.

The curse of private tuition was still present with many of the richer parents buying this for their children, perhaps as a substitute to giving their own time, and many teachers supplemented their income with it.

22 We generated a physical quality index based on the availability of the following: boundary wall, desks, chairs, taats (mats),

indoor teaching, electricity, fans, drinking water, washrooms (both availability and quality) and library. Based on this, the quality score ranged from 0 to a maximum of 12. The mean score on this index for government, private and NGO schools was 5.2 (sd., 2.71), 9.0 (sd., 1.49) and 10.1(sd., 1.16) respectively.

23 See footnotes 3 & 8 24 Only 4 out of the 43 private schools had a PTA (parent teacher association) or SMC (school management committee) while this

was the case for 29 government schools (mandatory) and 22 NGO schools (optional). 25 The mean monthly fee was Rs. 3 (sd., Rs. 4) for government schools, Rs. 108 (sd., Rs. 49) for private schools and Rs. 121 (sd.,

Rs. 73) for NGO schools.


Private schools were often able to get away with poor performance because relatively uneducated parents had only abysmal government schooling to compare private schooling with. Indeed, much of the discussion of focus group meetings with parents whose children were in NGO and private schools centered on the disastrous state of government schooling. Many put their children in the private school as much from a vague sense of doing best by their child as for the status symbol this has come to represent. Parents took great pride in Oxford University Press books on the syllabus - referred to as an "Oxford Syllabus." More disturbing, poor parents sometimes judged quality by the fee they were paying. In a couple of community focus group meetings, parents suggested that government schooling should be abolished and subsidies provided to non-government schools to make them more affordable26.

The more educated parents were often more vocal, expected more and complained hard since they were paying what they perceived to be a high price. Thus they exercised their right as co-principals to demand standards. In some cases, even illiterate parents who were paying what they viewed as very high fees had high expectations and were vocal about what they perceived as an inadequate service27. SMCs were largely irrelevant for private schools. Parents felt they were paying a good price and that is where their responsibility ended. In turn, they expected the school to deliver the education. This was true across the board in a majority of schools surveyed, but not surprisingly, was more the case with private sector schools. Several educated and discerning parents who had removed they children from government schools claimed that there was a noticeable improvement in the level their children had attained and the progress the children were making.

The field team found cheating by students and even teachers (taking help from colleagues) much more prevalent in government and private schools. Private school teachers operating in a "for profit" environment probably felt under pressure to be able to show good results. The business motivation produced some positive results such as educational awareness campaigns. One school run by a group of friends started music classes, computer classes and street assemblies to attract parent attention and raise enrollments. This motivation could also induce negative behavior and one dissatisfied community alleged that the zero failure rate achieved by the school in grade exams resulted from the bribes given by the school administration. In another school where test results were poor, the field-team observed that teachers were giving very high marks to the students in a cynical attempt to impress uneducated parents.

The bottom line in good performance was good management and, more often than not, this hinged on an exceptional and dedicated principal or administrator who exercised oversight and led by example. Such individuals were often concerned with infusing a high moral character in the children, something the community focus group was highly appreciative of. Staff that taught in schools that they had themselves attended, whether in the private or government sectors, often developed an emotional attachment and worked hard. One school reinforced such efforts by giving bonuses to devoted teachers.

26 While it may be difficult to justify subsidizing a commercial activity, the government could ensure that tax authorities do not

harass private schools as seems to be happening according to press reports. 27 It was difficult to find a completely consistent pattern for parental involvement in schooling across the three types of schools.

Sometimes, very educated parents were complaisant about very poor private sector schooling as though they had done the best by their children and need not worry further. While the poor and illiterate were generally unaware and disinterested, they sometimes complained vociferously about the poor service delivery of government schools.


NGO Schools28 NGO schooling was easily the most successful. However, not all NGO schools visited were a success. We classified NGO schools in our sample based on whether they were one-off NGO schools or part of a multi-school program with a support system. The latter often resulted in better management. Within these categories, we found schools that had a secular or a religious or ideological orientation. The ideological orientation was important in understanding NGO motivation and this distinguished the prominent multi-school NGO programs from the for profit private school in most cases.

NGO schools were viewed as private schools in the public perception and educating a child in an NGO school also represented a "status symbol.29" However, while those NGOs that charged a fee had higher fees, 77 percent of the NGOs reported charging no fee. Thus there was a real distinction between schools run for profit and those operating on a non-profit basis.

In assessing success, the importance of the exceptional individual shines through. This could be a dedicated principal or motivated administrator. However, even more important was good overall management. The Citizen's Foundation (TCF) and the Aga Khan Educational Services (AKES) schools were outstanding in conditions where government and private schooling were disasters. The facilities and teacher training provided and the monitoring systems established delivered good schooling with great consistency.

TCF targeted the most deprived peri-urban and rural communities and hence the schools are built in very poor neighborhoods. One description of an imposing structure was that it was a "palace amidst huts" in an area that was "humming with flies and had people playing cards and board-games on the streets." The purpose built schools, costing up to Rs. 2.5 million, were fully equipped including art rooms for the junior section. The rooms were large and airy, had good furniture and all necessary charts and aids, including audio aids, were available and in use. Free milk and cookies were provided several times a week, the frequency determined by how poor the community was. In one neighborhood, parents could not afford to feed the children before sending them to school. The fees were tailored to the income of the parents such that five percent of household income was charged. The school maintained all the relevant data concerning the students and the parents. Uniforms were provided free and books provided on credit on very easy terms.

Both the teachers and students were in uniform. The teachers were confident and treated well including being given a "pick-up and drop" service. However, in return, they were expected to work hard and prepare monthly and annual work-plans. Teachers attended monthly meetings to present performance reports and problems were discussed with the NGO education specialist. They were provided three months of intensive teacher training and bi-annual refresher courses.

There was no formal PTA but a parent association (PA) was formed to contain high drop-out rates and to encourage enrollments. The school administration was very responsive to the parents and kept them posted on the child's progress, but the PA has no formal role in school 28 For an account of NGO schooling in general refer to Baqir (1998) and for a specific example of community based schooling

refer to Khan (1998) 29 The distinction between an NGO and private school is often nominal. The administrations of a number of private schools we

visited stated that the schools had been created by an NGO merely for registration with the education authorities. These NGOs had no say or involvement in the functioning of the school and, in fact, in many cases, they ceased to exist as soon as the registration had been completed.


affairs. A limit on the student-teacher ratio was strictly observed and excess demand resulted in plans for building a new school. This excess demand, which arose once the school was established, was particularly commendable given that TCF schools were normally built in communities where at least the fathers saw little value to schooling and would have preferred the child to help them with their own work or otherwise supplement household income.

Like TCF schools, the three AKES schools in our sample in the Northern Areas had good facilities, science labs, well-qualified and trained teachers, confident, hardworking and well behaved students. The school administration followed up the progress of the students with the parents, but also relied on very active VECs (village education committees). Thus students absent for more than six days were referred to the VECs, which also assessed individual fees and paid the teachers' salaries. The overall monitoring and evaluation was retained by the AKES.

AKES schools proved that VECs can work30. The communities had been mobilized to take an interest in their children's schooling, had contributed land and labor for the school building and for on-going improvements like boundary walls, a science lab or an examination hall. They took an active on-going interest in school affairs and had the power to replace poor teachers in consultation with the NGO. In one case, an SMC blocked admission because, due to excess demand, the classes were getting overcrowded. In turn, it began consultations with the NGO to build more classrooms. It also permitted the school to use the premise for evening classes for a girl's college, since none was available for miles. Thus in all aspects, the parents performed the role of effective co-principals.

Several lessons are evident from the successful NGO schooling for the reform of public sector delivery in basic education.

Reforming government basic education Not all government schools performed poorly. Later, we present a case study of a very successful government school. However, the case study also explains the special circumstances of this success. We feel that with appropriate school reform, this should become the norm. Our concern is mainly with government schooling, which is all that the poorest now have recourse to. NGO schools seem to be doing well for the most part and, in any case, addressing problems in the NGO and private sectors pertains to regulation.

Given the very low base delivery of government schools, it was relatively easy for the NGO schools and private schools to win support from households and communities for the service they delivered. Providing effective competition and hence raising overall standards is another reason why reforming public sector education is so essential. The impact will be felt across the board and not just in public schools, since the public sector is the base standard bearer given its lower fees.

Based on field observations, we feel that successful reform of basic education has to tackle teacher power and parent disinterest head on. We suggest the following:

a) Given the exodus of children away from government schools and the rapid pace of expansion of non-government schooling, the public sector should now focus on quality. Thus most new resources should to allocated to up-grading and providing adequate

30 For more details on AKES, see Karez and Mitchell (1999).


facilities to existing government schools. Government schools uniformly seemed to have the worst facilities. Sitting on the floor in a small multi-grade class, in the veranda or under a tree can be a deterrent to learning. Even when schools did have small classrooms, the space, lighting and ventilation were very inadequate.

b) Even though public sector teacher's pay is higher than NGO and private sector schools, we suggest that the pay should be raised to attract a better quality teacher.

c) The power of the teacher association should be confined to negotiating pay and perks. De facto tenure should be abolished and incompetent teachers weeded out by having them sit for qualifying tests.

d) Teachers need to be assessed by enrollment rates, retention rates and the performance of their students on board exams. Principals are required to maintain such data, and it should be put to good use. We found it instructive that parent groups in all four provinces mentioned the key role of monitoring and the lack of it in government schools as being instrumental in their poor performance.

e) Since enrollment and retention rates have much to do with the household and community, the teachers will have an incentive to work with households and communities. Instead of sabotaging the PTA, they will have an incentive to use it to mobilize the community and parents. The parents in turn should have a role in ensuring that the data collected is accurate.

f) The most challenging part of schooling reform will be to ensuring the state plays its part as an effective "co-principal." Obviously, this issue is part of overall public sector reforms31. Our view is that parents can work effectively with government officials as "co-principals" if the power balance of government officials are also altered relative to the parents. If school officials are well paid local (rather than provincial) government officials, whose evaluation is done partly by the PTA and who are accessible to the PTA, effective monitoring and supervision becomes a possibility.

We feel that the reforms suggested above are among the minimum essential steps that are required to improve public sector schooling. However, without such steps, public sector schooling will remain a dead loss.

Concluding remarks This study reported on the qualitative results of a comparative institutional analysis of government, private and NGO schools. Forty-three NGO schools engaging in formal primary schooling were first randomly selected and then the closest government and private schools were included in the sample. Three male / female field teams gathered information from the schools, teachers, households and the communities. In addition, tests were administered to class 3 and class 5 students and also to class 5 teachers. Based on field observation, the field-team wrote detailed field reports about the performance of the school. This report is based primarily on the field reports.

Our research showed that overall, the NGOs were the most successful in delivering good education. NGO schools had the best performance in math and comprehension tests. Also, the incidence of cheating in these schools was the lowest as were the absentee rates. NGO schools 31 World Bank (1999).


were rated the highest on our physical quality of school index and they also invested the most in in-service training for teachers. While those charging a fee had a higher average fee than government or private schools, 77 percent of NGOs reported charging none.

Our research also confirmed, what is now well known, that the state of public basic education is an unmitigated disaster. Only 5 out of the 43 government schools visited were successful. The schooling conditions were abysmal. There were poor facilities, lack of furniture, stationary, supplies and teacher's aids. Also, if usable rooms were available, they tended to be small, poorly lit, poorly ventilated and often without basic utilities. Poor teaching conditions and multi-grade teaching often proved to be a very distracting teaching environment. The student teacher ratio was very high and absenteeism among the students and teachers chronic. Teachers beat the students, exploited them via requiring gifts in kind and chores and sold tuition to the students after school while they wasted time gossiping in school. The fact that government schoolteachers sent their own children to private schools reveals the extent to which public education has deteriorated.

The government is and will continue to be the most important provider of basic education for a while yet. The reason for this is that they will increasingly cater to the poor majority that has neither "voice" nor "exit" options. As the relatively more prosperous rural households continue to transfer their children to NGO and private schools, the rural poor will be left at the mercy of sub-standard schools that will deteriorate further.

The growth of enrollments in non-government schools increased by 131 percent for girls and 61 percent for boys between 1991 and 1995-96. The brighter poor children and the richer children are indicated as most likely to leave. This deprives government schools of both standard setters and countervailing power to declining standards. The brighter children set the standards and the richer parents have influence with teachers and the school administration. Thus with the exodus currently underway, there is no check to the decline in the quality of public schooling. The big public policy challenge is to arrest this rot and provide the rural poor children with a fair opportunity to compete.

Since public sector schooling sets the base standard for private and NGO schooling, this decline in quality means that the private sector has little to compete with. This is important since private schools do not have the good oversight of solid multi-school NGO programs and so competition is the only reliable mechanism to make them deliver. About half the private schools in the sample were not successful and an important part of the reason is that they have to beat a very low standard to be doing better.

Our research shows that dealing with teacher power and good management and oversight are the keys to public sector schooling success. Teacher power is rooted in tenure, lack of oversight, political protection, poor parents with little countervailing power and the strength of the teacher associations. Removing de facto tenure is necessary but good pay for solid teaching is also necessary. Also, the parents need to be involved as a "co-principal" in oversight via school management committees (SMCs).

SMCs can play an important role as indicated by the Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) schools. Given the general perception of parents across the board that education is the school's responsibility, one wondered if such committees could work. We found illiterate mothers hard at work at home and outside the home and fathers returning late from work or working away


from the village. Thus it was understandable that we found such an attitude among parents. However, it is clear that the hard work put in by AKES in mobilization communities turned the latter into an interested force to improve basic education.

The role of notables is a complex one. In some cases, their presence on the SMC is merely form. There have no personal stake in the school or any deep interest in education. However, as prominent members of the community, they have to be represented in all community matters. In some cases,

Engaging With Basic Edu in PAkistan

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