The Hanging Gardens of Babylon continue to fascinate historians, engineers, architects and art aficionados alike despite being non-existent on the ground for millennia. The multiplicity of perspectives groomed over the past centuries on this subject has led to the enrichment of human minds through invaluable knowledge production. The unresolved questions of who built them, how they were built and where they were built instigate human curiosity, adding to our knowledge bank. Likewise, the education policies of the federal government in Pakistan have continued to fascinate us for seven decades with their breadth of respective frameworks and visionary perspectives. Yet, we do not find their desired results on the ground.

The process of policy development and the rationale for selecting areas of particular focus with stipulations concerning setting targets in Pakistan have a ‘baffling’ affinity with the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Within the policy discourse, the subject of free and universal school education has been resounding throughout the history of policy commitments at the national level. “Six-year free and compulsory education should be provided and should be gradually raised to eight years in future”; the statement came as one of the recommendations of The All Pakistan Education Conference 1947, organised by the federal government, as a recognition of the role of education in development of the country. It set the course of education policymaking in Pakistan with a national guiding instrument for the executive arm of the government. Four years later, the literacy rate of Pakistan was reported to be merely 16 percent. The first target-oriented policy guideline came from the 1959 Commission on National Education, commonly known as Sharif Commission, through its report of 1960. The commission “recommended achieving five-years compulsory schooling within a period of 10 years and eight-years compulsory schooling within a period of 15 years.” The third milestone was the National Education Policy 1972-80 (as the Education Policy of 1970 was lost to the secession of East Pakistan) that was presented to the nation by the then president in March 1972. It declared that up to Class X, education would be free and universal. “From October 1, 1972, it will be free for boys and girls till Class eight; from October 1, 1979, students of Classes IX and X will receive free education.” One may jest that recommendations of the 1959 commission need not be revisited after only 12 years.

Next came the 1978 policy that envisaged achieving universal enrolment of all boys of school age by 1986-87. For girls, the goal was to be attained by 1992. A short-term policy target was to achieve a 60 percent literacy rate by 1982-83. However, data available from the UNESCO indicates that in 1981 our literacy rate stood at 25.7 percent.

Our fifth milestone was the National Education Policy, 1992. It not only laid educational targets, i.e., to make primary education free and compulsory but also committed to provide the means to achieve those targets i.e., schools and trained teachers etc. However, the closure of the century made the federal government realise the need for another policy that could lead the country into the 21st Century. Therefore, The National Educational Policy 1998-2010 was introduced. It reiterated that elementary education was a fundamental right and identified some issues and constraints ailing basic education in Pakistan. The policy committed the government to achieving 90 percent enrolment in elementary schools by 2002-03.

The absolute increase in education budget is substantial. Yet, the policy formulation process chooses to turn a blind eye to sub-national fiscal space. 

We received another policy in 2009. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2009 went a step further than the previous policies and formulated policy actions as a) it required provincial and area governments to develop plans to achieve universal and free primary education by 2015, and b) all governments (federal, provincial, district, and area governments) to commit seven percent of GDP to education by 2015. The last of the policy instruments is The National Education Policy Framework, 2018, that encapsulates the ‘how’ component of addressing educational challenges.

Our 154/189 ranking on the Human Development Index, total enrolment of 52.5 million, declining net enrolment rate, a literacy rate stagnant for the past five years at 60 percent, and 32 percent of children aged 5-16 years remaining out of school is a grim reflection on the policy formulation and implementation processes. Federal laws and policies are binding for lower tiers of government, but one may question the availability of resources leading to the policy provision of making ‘catalytic funds available to support provincial governments’ (Removing Financial Barriers for Priority 1 of The National Education Policy Framework 2018) or demand from sub-national governments for committing seven percent of the GDP for education (NEP 2009)? Likewise for imparting of free and compulsory education? Apparently both the aspects, i.e., the mobilisation and allocation of resources and efficacy of governance systems at various tiers, have historically been treated as ‘quick fixes’ while making public pledges. They make allocating resources and ensuring universal school education appear to be mere Executive drawbacks. It simply needs to improve its performance? The expectation of carving a small pie of national and sub-national resources in a big favour to one sector is both unrealistic and impractical. The Punjab allocated Rs 349.4 billion for the development budget for school education last year, compared to Rs 322.5 billion for the previous year. Meanwhile, around Rs 38 billion was allocated for other sectors of education, compared to approximately Rs 34 billion for the preceding year. Within the social sector, education is second only to health as a percentage of provincial allocations. The absolute increase in education budget has been substantial. Yet, the policy formulation process chooses to turn a blind eye to sub-national fiscal space.

Similar and rather more complicated is the case of ensuring access to free school education. Availability of school infrastructure proportionate to the local demand in each part of the country, along with the presence of qualified teachers is a basic pre-requisite missing from our education delivery system. The past three decades have witnessed the role of the private sector as an important stakeholder in the education ecosystem of Pakistan expanding. The share of private sector schools is estimated at around 42 percent. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution has entrusted the provision of education to the provinces and the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act 2014 assigns this responsibility to the provincial government as well as local governments while also defining implementation measures for the private sector. However, seven years have elapsed since the enactment of the law, and yet there is no roadmap available to realise the right to free and compulsory education.

In my considered opinion, ensuring free and compulsory education requires holistic, bottom-up planning and its time-bound implementation mechanisms. For the Punjab, district-level plans with clear roadmaps for resource mobilisation and improving service delivery are needed with defined roles for district administration, district education authorities, local governments falling within the district, private sector entities and civil society organisations as proactive partners in improving access to and quality of education. The significance of private sector’s role needs greater recognition at the policy and regulatory level besides developing mechanisms for developing localised plans. In the absence of such plans, the policies will continue to be no more than the fascinating hanging gardens to the citizens.

The writer is the rector of Superior University