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Walking through the unpaved path between the houses made up of bricks, leading to a village government school in Charsada, made me feel excited and filled with enthusiasm that I couldn’t wait to see the learners and the teachers. While walking, I recalled my field visit to a district training in Sawabi (KPK Province), where I was amazed to see 35 women volunteers with immense commitment, dedication and courage to overcome the societal barriers to conduct ASER Survey. One of the female volunteers told me, “Initially it was difficult to convince my brother to let me go and conduct this survey but my mother supported me and encouraged me to participate in this process”. Young mothers bringing their infants to the training facility, in such a vulnerable situation in order to make sure that they attend the training, clearly indicated their passion to contribute to a bigger purpose. These fond recollections made me feel that we had, at the least, started moving in the right direction.
While we were 100 meters away from the school, we were ushered by the waft of adorable voices. Children were reading, singing and talking. As soon as we arrived and stood in front of an ancient, brick-walled building with no windows or doors, which was named simply ‘SCHOOL’, we experienced pin-drop silence. Young children, sitting on the floor outside the school stared at us. The students’ passion for pursing education, in such conditions where schools do not have toilets, drinking water or even a boundary wall, had me overwhelmed with emotion. The simplicity of the situation and the well-behaved children was so beautiful!
Apart from feeling this purity, I was really disappointed by the fact that every commodity, including the latest brands of junk food, automobile models, and mobile phones with latest Internet packages, could reach this area, but NOT EDUCATION! Why isn’t education a priority? Is this situation going to improve with 4,000 Pakistani Rupees[1] annual fund (as informed by the head teacher) being allocated to this school? The situation had not improved much since 1939, when the school was established. And most important, were the children SAFE in this school without a boundary wall, which was located in a vulnerable area?
This primary school, located in the village of Charsada, was not accessible to ALL. There was no other primary school in the nearby areas so parents from other villages had to send their children to this school. The dedication of these parents clearly indicates their understanding of the importance of their children getting an education and WHAT EDUCATION REALLY MEANS for their children’s future. But unfortunately this school had only two teachers and learning levels were not up to the mark. Now the question is, how could the state take formative years (early school) education so lightly?
Leaving the facility of this school, I was drenched in discontent and grief. Then we visited a second government school, which was a high school, catering to 475 students out of which only 225 were present during the field survey. The school facility was better than the primary school but still not acceptable. Although classrooms were available the lack of furniture meant that learners were sitting on the floor. The school did not fit in to the high school model as it did not have laboratories. Contrary to this situation, and after such despair, I felt uplifted when we visited a private middle school in Charsada. I was delighted to see that students were able to understand both Urdu & English, apart from Pashto. When we entered in the school facility, pre-school children were involved in poem singing and activity-based learning. Compared to the government schools, where the last teachers’ training was conducted six years ago, this private school had a lot of emphasis on teachers’ training and development and therefore, conducted a training program once each year.
EDUCATION IS A PRIORITY. As Right to Education Act (25-A) states, “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law”. In KPK Province, bill has been passed but with the condition of implementation in only selected areas by the notification of government. Which means that education deprived areas will stay deprived!! WHY is the state not taking its constitution seriously? The situation which I have seen, during the monitoring field survey for ASER 2016, clearly indicates that Right to Education remains an elusive reality in spite of a high demand for education amidst a national /provincial commitment that is hugely lacking.
In Pakistan, ASER 2016, capturing academic year of 2016-17, started across 146 rural districts in March 2017. Surveys concluded towards the end of April and were conducted with the help of 22 partner organizations, across Pakistan, including National Commission for Human Development, Democratic Commission for Human Development, Human Development Foundation, HANDS etc. The data was collected by mobilizing 9000 volunteers after training them on ASER tools and Methodology. Apart from capturing information on learning assessment, enrollment, school facilities, teachers qualification etc. the survey also collected information on disability prevalence amongst children age 5-16 from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. ASER- Annual Status of Education report is the largest household based study conducted across Pakistan since 2008.
The data set will be available for public use in June, 2017. This cycle will also provide information on new indicators added to track Sustainable Development Goals such as mobile literacy, information on cash transfers, availability of solar panels and smart boards in schools etc. Besides that, ASER 2016 is definitely going to provide us the baseline data to advocate for our fundamental right i.e. Right to Education & its IMPLEMENTATION across Pakistan.
[1] 4,000 Pakistani Rupees is approximately equivalent to 38 U.S. Dollars
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