Pakistan education system ranked lowest in 14 Asian countries

Report on developing countries’ commitment to education: Pakistan education system ranked lowest in 14 Asian countries

* Pakistan receives F grade, India E, Nepal F, Sri Lanka B, Bangladesh E
* Level of adult illiteracy in Pakistan at 58.9 percent

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has been ranked last out of 14 Asian Pacific countries in a “School Report Card” investigating developing countries’ commitment to basic education.

The report “Must Do Better” is published by the Asian South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education, a network of 200 organisations and individuals involved in formal and non-formal adult education, and the global Campaign for Education, a coalition of development organisations and unions in more than 100 countries.

The Pakistan Coalition for Education launched the report on Tuesday. It was also released in many Asian Pacific countries in the first week of July as part of the July 1 White Arm Band Day Campaign of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP).

The report uses the format of a “School Report Card” to rank the leaders of these developing countries as “class leaders” or “poor performers”. Countries are graded and ranked based on their performance on: Complete Basic Education, State Action on Free Education, Quality Inputs, Gender Equality and Overall Equity to depict their commitment to basic education.

The “Teacher’s Remarks” section for President Pervez Musharraf reads, “Pervez spends less per pupil than most of his South Asian neighbours and charges user fees in full. Such low spending can only deliver pitiable results: two out of three Pakistani adults are illiterate, with the same proportion of secondary school age children out of school; four out of 10 children are missing primary school; and girls and women constitute a majority of those who are denied access to and an equal chance for complete basic education. In addition, Pakistan’s primary school teachers are overworked and under trained. In all aspects, there is clearly little quality and state action and commitment in the public education he offers given the spending and the charges. This puts him at the bottom of the class too.”

Pakistan scored 24/100 and received an ‘F’ grade. It is no consolation then that neighbours India (9th, 43/100, ‘E’: Needs a lot of improvement) and Nepal (11th, 35/100, ‘F’: Definitely needs remedial classes) have also fared poorly. Sri Lanka (3rd, 79/100, ‘B’, Classmates can learn more from her splendid work) and Bangladesh (7th, 50/100, ‘E’, You need to work harder Begum Khaleda!) fared better.

The report shows the scale of children missing out on access to basic education: 45.3 percent have no access to early childhood care and education: 40.3 percent to primary school, and 76.1 percent to secondary school. The level of adult illiteracy in Pakistan is one of the three highest in this report at 58.9 percent.

Pakistan’s favourable cost per pupil rating is offset by a poor trained teachers per pupil ration (51 pupils to every trained teacher) – perhaps indicating that investments in education should be spent more judiciously on quality learning inputs such as teachers training or in mobilising female teachers. On gender equality, Pakistan ranks 13th, with 20 percent marks. Malaysia and Sri Lanka tie for first place on this count. staff report

Linke to Source report.