A report released by the United Kingdom’s High Commissioner to Pakistan, Jane Marriott, and Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal highlighted significant issues in Pakistan’s education system. The report, published on Friday, revealed that all 134 districts, excluding Islamabad, are falling short on various indicators, including learning outcomes and public financing.
The same report further stated that the Planning Commission’s District Education Performance Index Report 2023 underscored a severe human resource crisis in Pakistan, showing that many individuals are entering the job market with insufficient or inadequate educational qualifications. According to experts, this issue is viewed as even more critical than the economic crisis.
All districts in the country are categorized as either medium or low-performing, struggling to achieve effective results. The report attributes these challenges to poor governance, substandard learning outcomes, and inadequate budget allocations by the Pakistani administration.
The Express Tribune report also quoted the District Education Performance Index Report, stating that none of Pakistan’s 134 districts achieved a high-performing rating in the education sector. Instead, 133 districts were classified as having medium to low performance.
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The average score of 53.46 indicates that all districts are grappling with a dysfunctional education delivery system that requires urgent attention to address fundamental gaps in educational outcomes.
Districts with medium scores are facing notable deficiencies, leading to diminished educational outcomes and necessitating substantial improvements in service delivery. Additionally, parents have a strong perception of poor quality in public sector education.
The report also highlighted that the country’s most deficient areas are internet connectivity, numeracy and reading skills, the tenure of the education secretary, the proportion of the education budget within the development budget, and the availability of schools and related facilities.
The underperforming districts are primarily located in Balochistan and Sindh, with 33 in Balochistan and 22 in Sindh, highlighting significant inter-provincial disparities, the report stated. Additionally, all districts in Balochistan fall into the low-performance category, reflecting severe challenges throughout the province. Currently, Balochistan faces severe difficulties across nearly all areas, ranking lowest in most domains except learning, where it performed only marginally better than the worst-performing province.
(WITH INPUTS FROM ANI)
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