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This report is published by the Sindh Education Foundation, Karachi, Pakistan with support from the Commonwealth Education

Fund, UK. The primary purpose of this report is to generate a debate on promoting and streamlining education in the public, private and civil society. Opinions and views shared in the report, either by the author or by the respondents do not necessarily reflect the views of Sindh Education Foundation or other concerned organizations involved in the study. Any part of this report may be reproduced freely with appropriate acknowledgement. For further information please contact: Sindh Education Foundation Plot 9, Block 7, Kehkashan, Clifton 5, Karachi-75600 Pakistan. UAN: (021) 111-424-111. Fax: (021) 9251652 Email: info@sef.org.pk Website: www.sef.org Research Website: www.sef.org.pk/iie.asp Research Planning and Coordination Professor Anita Ghulam Ali Syed Mashhood Rizvi Aziz Kabani Abdullah Abbassi Technical Support Noman-ul-Haq Siddiqui Principal Author Moizza Binat Sarwar Editorial and Research Coordination Mohammad Ali Raza Tatheer Zehra Hamdani Mohammad Ali Nosheen Khashkheli Sindhu Baloch Designing and Website Management Abdul Munim Khan Fawwad Hamid Somaiya Ayoob Tooba Fatima Youshey Zakiuddin Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi Communication & Correspondence Umme Salma Hamdani Tehreem Husain Photos SEF Picture Databank Year of Publication 2006
(Sitara-e-Imtiaz)

99

contents
Acknowledgements Preface Acronyms Executive Summary

i. ii

introduction15 17 Background
Public sector education Private sector education Civil society provision of education

iii iv

21 Research methodology

25 Marginalized children: research findings & discussion


Push factors for out-of-school children Civil society response Establishment of schools

31 Documenting innovative practices


Sustainability and Financing Access Retention Relevance

vi vii

45 The dilemma of civil society 49 Policy avenues


Sustainability/Financing Access Retention Relevance

viii ix x

61 Conclusion 63 Citations 65 Appendices

99

acronyms
AASP: ADB: ADO: AFED: ANCE: BELA: BES: CARE: CBSP: CEF: CEO: CRSP: CSO: CSP: DCO: EDO: EDO-E: EFA: EMIS: ESR: FLAME: GDP: GoP: ICG: ILO: IRC: Adopt-A-School Program Asian Development Bank Assistant District Officer Alliance For Education Development Association of Networks of Community Empowerment Basic Education Literacy Authority Behbud Education Society Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere Community Based School Program Commonwealth Education Fund Chief Executive Officer Community Support Rural Schools Program Civil Society Organization Community Schools Program District Coordinating Officer Executive District Officer Executive District Officer- Education Education For All Education Management Information System Education Sector Reforms Friends of Literacy And Mass Education Gross Domestic Product Government of Pakistan International Crisis Group International Labor Organization Indus Resource Center ITA: MDG: MoU: NCHD: NFBES: NFE: NGO: NSM: OUP: PILER: PMSP: PPP: SAHE: SEF: SINP: SMC: SPDC: SSSS: TAC: TCF: UNESCO: UNICEF: UPE: VEC: Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi Millennium Development Goals Memorandum of Understanding National Commission on Human Development Non-Formal Basic Education Schools Non Formal Education Non-Governmental Organization New Social Movements Oxford University Press Pakistan Institute for Labor, Education and Research Punjab Middle Schooling Project Public-Private Partnership Society for the Advancement of Education Sindh Education Foundation School Improvement Network Pakistan School Management Committee Social Policy and Development Centre Social Sector Support Service Teach-A-Child School System The Citizens Foundation United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization United Nations International Children Educational Fund Universal Primary Education Village Education Committee

05

Our public education system has been at the crossroads for well over half a century. A more precise comparison would be with a crazy pavement. Bits and pieces of all sizes and shapes put in and taken out as required at the spur of moment.

preface O

There is no reason why we must have a system that gives the wealthy and powerful high-quality information and education so they may rule the world while the rest of the population is fed a diet of schlock Robert McChesney

ur public education system has been at the crossroads for well over half a century. A more precise comparison would be with a crazy pavement. Bits and pieces of all sizes and shapes put in and taken out as required at the spur of moment. The result - rambling infrastructure and innumerable trained professionals exist without much purpose and direction and the deterioration is occurring exponentially throughout the education system. The effects of the mushrooming private education sector with no real sense of quality and accountability has added insult to injury. At this point in time, we have no choice but to radically transform our education system, both public and private, if we are honest and serious about saving our future generations from complete social breakdown. On a positive note, Pakistan has a strong tradition of public education on which to build this new education system for the 21st century. Right now, however, public education system, as compared to the private industry, is particularly vulnerable. Continued neglect of public education system could ultimately lead to its near collapse. The process of creating an education system that is appropriate for the diverse people of Pakistan, with the right mix of local, national and international elements by forming meaningful partnerships with the civil society, is a process that will take both time and the willingness to experiment and try new approaches and ideas to learning and education. The essence of it lies in the creation of a learning system based on an open spirit of sharing practices between the civil society and public education system. True as it is that critical junctures are discomforting, it as true that they also provide an exciting time for those who venture to change mindsets and explore the possibility of having government look at the more human side of education, rather then be overawed by grandiose plans. While many problems exist, a unique window of opportunity that is created by the present government in the shape of policy revisions and education sector reforms seems to be at hand. The clear lessons from the past have created the opportunity to develop a new way of looking at educational development and establishing strong foundations for sharing practices for educational change. Everything - rules, relationships, and systems - that have existed in the past are being thrown into question. Such openness to discuss issues is unprecedented and serves as a significant shift towards real partnerships between the civil society, private and the public sector. The window of opportunity is currently open but history has demonstrated that such windows are not only extremely rare but also that they do not last for long. What remains to be seen is whether the education planners of our country are able to seize this opportunity with renewed energy, initiative, commitment and innovation. They have no choice but to face up to this awesome challenge - for the future of the country and for the future of our children. This study, at best, should be seen as a humble effort to contribute to the process of rebuilding by creating an opportunity of sharing best practices within some select civil society organizations for the enrichment of the public sector.

Professor Anita Ghulam Ali,


Managing Director, Sindh Education Foundation

Sitara-e-Imtiaz

07

Undeniably, our efforts to regenerate education and development will serve as a tool for societal justice, and not simply as an act of charity for the general public.

his report could not have been possible without the generous support of the Commonwealth Education Fund, in particular, the support of a number of people and organizations both governmental and nongovernmental who have helped us record and analyze data from all parts of the country. Weve had endless hours of discussion with most of these people and their insightful comments and comprehensive feedback has helped us immensely. Indeed, the right technical advice at the exact time that we needed it helped made this report achieve what we feel is its full and complete shape. The people whose names are mentioned have generously provided their valuable advice for this report. The quality of material is witness to their knowledgeable commitment and labor. These people have had the judgment and wisdom to consider a range of issues and problems and also to outline needs and possibilities for future action. Apologies are extended to anyone whose name has been inadvertently omitted. We hope that the people who have worked on this report and have helped us complete it will continue on expanding the level of partnership between the civil society and the public sector with more energy and more dedication than ever. Undeniably, our efforts to regenerate education and development will serve as a tool for societal justice, and not simply as an act of charity for the general public.

acknowledgements T

We thank the generous support of:


Chairperson Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

Dr. Baela Reza Jamil

Ms. Fakher Karim Siddiqui


EDO-Schools, Karachi

Cluster Coordinator Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

Ms. Huma Sikander

Ms. Maria Rahat


Executive Coordinator The Indus Entrepreneurs, Lahore Acting Coordinator Commonwealth Education Fund

Ms. Rabia Nusrat

Ms. Sadaf Zulfiqar Ali

Manager WSIP Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi Program development officer Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi

Mr. Saeed Shah

Ms. Saima Hasrat

Ms. Shagufta Dada


Country Coordinator, Pakistan Commonwealth Education Foundation

Mr. Shahjahan Baloch

ANCE, Behbud Association, Bunyad Foundation, CARE, Catco Kids International, FLAME, Godh, Idara-e-Taleem-e-Agahi, Indus Resource Center, Insan Foundation, Pahchaan, PILER, SAHE, Sanjan Nagar, Shirkat Gah, SSSS, Sudhaar, Teach-A-Child School System, The Citizens Foundation and The Zindagi Trust

The teachers and field staff:

09

Constitutionally the provision of education is viewed as the responsibility of the state1, and institutionally the actual provision is the responsibility of each province while the execution of the matter rests with the local government.

executive summary P
akistan is among the signatories of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as the Dakar World Education Forum 2000. Policy initiatives aimed at the achievement of these goals have ranged from the National Plan of Action for Education for All (EFA); the Education Reform Action Plan derived from the National Education Policy 1998-2010 to the National Commission on Human Development (NCHD) in Pakistan Universal Primary Education (UPE) program. The objectives of these programs focus on three goals, namely universal access to primary education by increasing the net enrolment and higher rate of survival of children till grade 5, increase in the adult literacy rate and to attain gender equality at all levels.(GoP, 2006: pg 159)

parents see education as a dead end, particularly parents of girl children. The role of the private sector tends to be streamlined towards filling the gaps noted in the public sector. 39% of the private institutions are in rural areas and 61% in the urban reflecting an inversion of supply and demand brought about by the entrance of education into the market sector. Accountability to market forces alone is one facet of the private schooling system; another is the quality of the curriculum which, although of a better standard (particularly in English) than the public sector is relevant and accessible to only a small segment of the population. One quality indicator is the low teacher: student ratio with an estimated range of 1:20 to 1:40 (Baqir, 2001) as compared to that of government schools which can be as high as 1:65. The nature of provision of education by this sector generates widespread discrimination in access and opportunity limiting it to a small subpopulation of the urban populace which can afford to send children to private schools. The third tier to rise in response to the gaps in service delivery sustained by the public sector and private sector comprises the community schools set up mainly by NonGovernmental Organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). In the current scenario, the pressure on public-private partnerships from international donors and the need for a more intensive grassroots approach (particularly in the context of decentralization) has led the government to mobilize CSOs. While mainstream educational functions remain shrouded in vicious cycles of access, enrollment, retention and quality2, there has been a parallel emergence of many innovative models within public and private education sectors 3 . To explore the different innovations currently underway in education at the national, provincial and grassroots

Constitutionally the provision of education is viewed as the responsibility of the state1, and institutionally the actual provision is the responsibility of each province while the execution of the matter rests with the local government. The indicators emerging from practices at the public sector level present a multitude of concerns in state provision of education. The budget for education in Pakistan is comparatively low as compared to other South Asian countries and stands at a meager 2.1% of the GDP. Enrolment rates are low while drop out rates are considerably high reaching almost 50% in some districts (Nayyar-Stone et. al., 2006). Although the government has made primary education free, compulsory and in some cases also provided stipends, scholarships, subsidized textbooks; such measures have met with only fractional success. The vast majority of state schools are felt to be lacking in teaching and curriculum quality thus failing to provide meaning or relevance to contemporary circumstances. Field coordinators interviewed in the course of the study claimed that community surveys indicate that poor
1 2 3

Article 37 As success in achieving one indicator results in the failure of another, e.g. increase in enrollment is inextricably entwined with the decline of the quality of education Not necessarily profit oriented entities but outside the sphere of public education

11

Documenting Educational Innovation

levels, this research study focuses on the translation of innovative ideas into educational practices. Innovative models will include both indigenous as well as adaptable/replicable models that have been customized according to local needs. However, preference has been given to those models which have been developed, p r i m a r i l y, t o c a t e r t o t h e n e e d s o f t h e marginalized/excluded children and youth (focusing on girls and working children). The innovation may be in the model itself or in a component of the model such as the curriculum, assessment methods or teaching methods.

Developments in Literacy, Unicef, Agha Khan University Institute of Educational Development, Unilever, Right to Play (Canada), US Dol. Financial sustainability of projects is a chief area of concern as most donor driven projects are handed down with timelines and renewal of funding is uncertain. It is felt, that at best, donor money and the circumscribed project period suffices for experimentation in models of education as opposed to their creation and maintenance. With the exception of The Citizen Foundation and partly ITA, the remaining organizations operate non-formal schools, minimally till the primary level. The curriculum in some schools is infused with CSO material or supplementary activities concentrating on educating children on civic sense, health, workers rights and often to facilitate the regular activities. However during the field visits, the implementation of the techniques imparted at teacher training workshops was seen to be irregular at best, if, applied at all. Clearly, there is an emphasis on indicators of quality as input materials as opposed to processes or outcomes. CSOs either waived any charge of fee for their program or charged minimally up to Rs. 20. Books and materials in some cases were provided for free and in others for half price. Responses concerning the civil society initiatives relationship with the formal sector are ambiguous even from school to school within the same organization. At the grassroots level, the experience is usually mixed but most actors acknowledge that initially mainstreamed children are discriminated against by public sector schoolteachers. Anecdotal evidence collected in the course of this study makes it clear that while most CSOs are aware and declare their primary responsibility to be that of advocacy, in the course of their interaction with the government a number of factors coerce them into focusing energies on to service delivery, which admittedly should only form a fraction of their mandate. The focus of this study has been principally to examine the models of education practiced in non-governmental/civil society setups for the marginalized/excluded children

Findings

Civil Society Organizations

Push factors driving the identified groups of marginalized children away from schooling range from the households poverty status; inflexibility in curriculum and school timings; lack of relevance of education to the daily routine and the future of the child; the direct cost of education (loss of child earnings, fee, books, papers, uniforms, clothing); the indirect cost of education (loss of assistance to parents, household and extended family) and the geographical inaccessibility of schools. Progressively, CSOs have provided innovations that are being captured in mainstream education often through the vehicle of public-private partnerships. CSOs in the education sector share some common features in their expressed vision; funding mechanism, type of schooling, curriculum and school establishment which are delineated in the following discussion. While the expressed vision and mission statements of most CSOs center on the empowerment of poor children/working children/girl child through education, the strategies of how to implement that vision vary from institution to institution (from setting up home schools to adopting public sector schools). On the theme of education most of the surveyed organizations had a few common funding agencies, notably, Save the Children UK, Save the Children Sweden, ILO and ActionAid. In addition to these donors, organizations also received funding from sources such as Oxfam, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, Gender Equality Project,

12

Sharing Practices for Educational Change

with the intention of distinguishing innovative practices that can be replicated at the national level in the public schooling system. The CSO component of the private sector has moved for innovation and adaptation along 4 dimensions- i.e. sustainability/financing, access, retention and relevance -cognizant of a heterogeneous composition of the student population along socio-economic backgrounds. Sustainability/Financing: Public private partnerships are generally considered to be an advance made towards sustainability of privately initiated projects. After initial trials, PPP is now regarded with mixed views mostly because although it draws a considerable greater space for CSOs to work with the state on service delivery, the contracts drawn between the state and the CSOs are ambiguous at best without delineating the specific role of each party and how it is to be made sustainable. CSOs have made a move towards ensuring that strategies and programs be devised through a public-private partnership based on clearly defined areas of jurisdiction and rules of conduct through legal processes such as MoUs. Admittedly CSOs in isolation cannot sustain projects without linking up with the public sector that can learn and build on innovations made through CSO pilot programs. Access: Issues of access have multiple definitions ranging from physical remoteness of school; timing inflexibility to high direct and indirect costs of schooling. The main thrust of CSOs working towards improvement of education service delivery for girls and working children is the establishment of a physical infrastructure that meets the particular needs of the community in which the children live (in terms of adaptable timings and physical structure that is geared to suit community needs of safety or migration) and a substantially self-sustainable delivery mechanism through better coordination between the direct providers of education and outside school stakeholders ensuring both school administrators and community members share equal responsibility in the sustainability of the system

Typically the pressure on the public sector is to move away from generic models of schoolings towards systems that cater to the demand of the heterogeneous population of school going children. Retention: Schools for marginalized groups of children need to move away from the generic pattern of schooling along a number of dimensions including timing; curriculum feasibility. Most importantly CSO experience shows that public sector needs to move from concentrating on brick and mortar operations alone to not only people-centered but also people-intensive measures e.g. counseling and interacting with employers and parents of working and female children. Relevance: For working children and girl children, from a disadvantaged economic background, the question of quality does not revolve around conventional interventions of textbooks, teacher training, or classroom materials. The matter of concern lies in the consequence of the material taught at school to the life of the child at home, at work and to his/her future economic perspectives. There needs to be a recognition of the immunity characterizing formal schooling in adapting to the needs of marginalized children and corresponding movement towa rd s i n t ro d u c t i o n o f vo c a t i o n a l t r a i n i n g centers/technical studies in accompaniment with traditional schooling.

13

A historical overview of the governments major education plans since 1947 reflect appropriate targets without much substantial attention to the operational and administrative facet of the policies.

akistan is among the signatories of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as the Dakar Framework of Action (2000). Policy initiatives aimed at the achievement of these goals have ranged from the National Plan of Action for Education for All (EFA); the Education Reform Action Plan derived from the National Education Policy 1998-2010 to the National Commission of Human Developments (NCHD) Universal Primary Education (UPE) program. The objectives of these programs focus on three goals, namely the universal access to primary education by increasing the net enrolment and higher rate of survival of children till grade 5, increase in the adult literacy rate and to attain gender equality at all levels.(GoP, 2006: pg 159) The target goals of the programs are indicative of the deficiencies afflicting the public sector provision of education which quality to efficiency. Constitutionally the provision of education is viewed as the responsibility of the state4, and institutionally the actual provision is the responsibility of each province while the execution of the matter rests with the local government. A historical overview of the governments major education plans since 1947 reflect appropriate targets without much substantial attention to the operational and administrative facet of the policies. At one end, the public sector system is mindful of the need for re-invention while at the other end of the spectrum the civil sector and private sector are experiencing explosive growth in promulgation of educational models. However there is little or not attention paid to the bridges that can be built across sectors to transfer learnings and innovations. The strategic focus of this report is to promote mechanisms and practices that can be shared across the spectrum of public, private and civil society systems of education provision. The purpose of this report is to identify practices in the civil society that improve the supply of education to marginalized groups of children in Pakistan, particularly, working children and the girl child. The report highlights the major practices in education in the civil society sphere with the aim of showcasing them for adoption in the public sector. The first section of the report presents a brief indicator profile of the education provision emerging from three tiers in Pakistan, namely, the state, the private sector and the civil society with an acknowledgement of the need to examine the deepening role of NGOs/civil society in education in the contemporary focus on decentralization and publicprivate partnership in service delivery. The second section centers on the research component of the study, outlining the research questions and research methodology. The third section presents and discusses the universal research findings of the study. The fourth section outlines case studies showcasing best practices that counter the factors distancing disadvantaged children from education. Following that, the fifth section of the report critically examines the role of civil society in general and in Pakistan. The sixth section of the report outlines policy action points extracted from best practices emerging from this study with the understanding that their application is extendable beyond the focus group of this study to the larger public schooling system. Finally, the seventh section of report presents the conclusion to the study. Innovation in the framework of this study carries a more liberal interpretation that the advantageous introduction of practices previously untested in the public sector. While a distinction has been drawn in the introduction between the private sector (referring strictly to the profit making sector) and CSOs (the non-profit making sector); the policy component of the paper uses the two terms interchangeable to mean non-profit making, CSOs. More specifically here, CSOs refer to a narrow group of actors i.e. non governmental organizations working in the field of education. While all organizations included in the final sample showed innovation in the contexts studied, the size of this report necessarily limited the number of case studies that could be included. However briefs, documenting the innovation in the work of each individual organization, are available separately on request.
4 Article 37

introduction P

15

Accessibility is not only a geographical issue but also one of discrepancy between the numbers of primary and secondary schools available...

background
Public Sector Education
Indicators emerging from practices at the public sector level present a multitude of concerns in public sector education. The budget for education in Pakistan is comparatively low as compared to other South Asian countries and stands at a meager 2.1% of the GDP. Enrolment rates are low while drop out rates are considerably high, reaching 50% in some districts at the elementary level (Nayyar-Stone et. al., 2006). The low public expenditure on education reflects the poor quality of education, poor coverage of the nation (as a result of poor planning based on unreliable statistics emerging from badly organized surveys) and weak schooling infrastructure. Given that almost 33% of the Pakistani population lies below the poverty line, the low expenditure pinpoints to a failure on part of the state to subsidize the education of the poor thus leading to an abysmal national performance. rate standing at 53% (without accounting for gender variation) according to the Economic Survey of Pakistan (2005-2006).

ii) Gender disparity

i) Enrolment and Drop out rates

In all indicators, gender disparity is a cross-cutting theme. Gender disparity in literacy in urban areas stand at 1416% while rural areas register a rate of 23-30% in the period 2005-2006. Conventionally cultural reservations, lack of economic power with females and social restrictions on movement are considered to hinder female access to schools particularly in the rural areas. The gap persists mostly due to issues of access ranging from the distance from school to the physical costs of attending school thus impacting their enrolment and retention. Only 46% of villages sampled in Sindh and Punjab had a girls elementary school within the village, while 87% had a boys elementary school within the village. (World Bank, 2005) Appendix 1 presents the gender gap in over all literacy and enrolment statistics.

As of 2005, the GoP has estimated the net enrolment at the primary level to be 52%. Enrollment at the primary level increased from 19.92 million in 2001-02 to 21.33 million in 2004-05, 4.28 million to 4.55 million at the middle level and 1.79 million to 1.88 million at the secondary level during 2001-02 to 2004-05. (GoP, 2006: pg 162). Appendix 1 presents a comprehensive look at enrolment statistics for 2004-05. The drop out rate is estimated at a high 45% at the primary level and attributed to inaccessibility of schools and the poor infrastructure of the government schools. (Ministry of Education, 2006) Accessibility is not only a geographical issue but also one of discrepancy between the numbers of primary and secondary schools available e.g. Sindh has 41, 215 primary schools and 1568 secondary schools while Punjab has 44, 176 primary schools and 4482 secondary schools. (Ministry of Education, 2004-05) Combined with a low net participation rate of 57%(Ministry of Education, 2006) at the primary level, drop outs have formed the basis of a low national literacy

iii) Teacher Absenteeism

Teacher absenteeism plays a large role in contributing to a low retention and a high drop out rate as it directly affects the quality and participation in education. The fact that government teachers are accountable to only the provincial departments and cannot be hired or fired by local authorities or parents of students allows absenteeism to grow largely unchecked. The teacher to student ratio is highly disproportionate with an estimated 40.6 students per primary school teacher in 2001. The highest student-teacher ratios are for Balochistan where there were 62 students per teacher. (Shah et.al., 2005)

iv) Infrastructure

A study by the SPDC in 2002-2003 states that a review of the physical conditions of public schools shows that 16% of them are without a building, 55% without a boundary wall, 79% without electricity, 44% without water and 60% without a latrine. (SPDC, 2003: pg 16) The Punjab EMIS database reports that 1 in 40 government

17

Documenting Educational Innovation

schools have no building, 1 in 5 has no electricity or water, 1 in 4 has no furniture and 1 in 7 has no toilet. (GoP, 2006) Although the government has made primary education free, compulsory and in some cases also provided stipends, scholarships, subsidized textbooks; such measures have met with only fractional success. The vast majority of state schools are felt to be lacking in teaching and curriculum quality thus failing to provide meaning or relevance to contemporary circumstances. Field coordinators interviewed in the course of the study claimed that community surveys indicate that poor parents see education as a dead end, particularly parents of girl children. The quality of education is poorer in rural than urban areas. Comparatively, public sector students perform poorly in standardized tests even in state conducted examinations. Judging by standard test performance even non-elite private school students tend to perform better than public sector students. (Shah et.al., 2005)

although, of a better standard (particularly in English) than the public sector is relevant and accessible to a small segment of the population. Variability in quality remains a leitmotif in both mediums given the lack of monitoring, however a better examination result as compared to government schoolchildren is often seen as a quality indicator (a touchstone that is controversial in its emphasis on the quantitative element alone). A more definitive indicator is the low teacher: student ratio with an estimated range of 1:20 to 1:40 (Baqir, 2001) as compared to that of government schools (statistics provided above). The nature of provision of education by this sector generates a widespread discrimination in access and opportunity limiting it to a small subpopulation of the urban populace which can afford to send their children to private schools. Though the curriculum and environment of private schools generally has lesser gender bias than the public education system, the fee structure limits access for girls even at middle income levels.

Private Sector Education

The role of the private sector tends to be streamlined towards filling the gaps in education provision noted in the public sector. After partition the government assumed the largest role in the provision of education particularly in primary and middle education. Nationalization of all institutions -barring missionary schools-in 1972 buttressed state role, however by the time the policy petered out; the private sector had emerged as a strong stakeholder in the education sector. Andrabi, Das and Khawaja (2002) note that there are more than 36,000 private institutions in Pakistan catering to the education needs of 6.3 million children. Of the total number of private institutions, 66.4% lie in the Punjab, 17.9% in Sindh, 12.3% in NWFP, 1.5% in Balochistan, 0.9% in FATA and 1% in Islamabad capital. (Federal Bureau of Statistics, 2005) 39% of the private institutions are in rural areas and 61% in the urban (Federal Bureau of Statistics, 2005) reflecting an inversion of supply and demand brought about by the entrance of education into the market sector. Accountability to market forces alone is one facet of the private schooling system; another is the quality of the curriculum which,

Civil Society Provision of Education

The third tier to rise in response to the gaps in service delivery sustained by the public sector and private sector comprises the community schools set up by Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). In the current scenario the pressure on public-private partnership from international donors such as the World Bank and the need for a more intensive grassroots approach particularly in the context of decentralization has led the government to mobilize CSO in the financing, management and delivery of education services in Pakistan. (GoP, 2005: pg 167) The National Education Foundation was created in 1994 to supervise public-private partnerships in education all across the country, particularly those catering to disadvantaged groups. One of its major interventions is the Community Support Rural Schools Program (CRSP) that encourages pilot innovation in rural areas particularly for working children. (GoP, 2005)

18

Sharing Practices for Educational Change

The assumption is that public-private partnerships would be better attuned to handling issues of access, equity and relevance because they possess resources at the grassroots level that the government lacks. While mainstream educational functions remain shrouded in vicious cycles of access, enrollment, retention and quality5 , there has been a parallel emergence of many innovative models within public and private education sectors6. To explore the different innovations currently underway in education at the national, provincial and grassroots levels, this research study focuses on the translation of innovative ideas into educational practices. Innovative models have included both indigenous as well as adaptable/replicable models that have been customized to suit local needs. Within the parameter of this sturdy, innovative models have been defined to constitute the following features: Models that cater to that part of the population which has been marginalized or excluded from the mainstream education system . Those models which respond to the particular needs or circumstances of marginalized/excluded communities.
5 6 7 As success in achieving one indicator results in the failure of another, e.g. increase in enrollment is inextricably entwined with the decline of the quality of education Not necessarily profit oriented entities but outside the sphere of public education This includes the ownership of the school, relevance of education with community and the lives of the learners, policies, content, methodology and assessment of learnings, institutional norms and practices, administration etc.

Moreover, innovation at any level of educational context7 have been considered in the scope of this study. However, preference has been given to those models which have been developed primarily to cater to the needs of the marginalized/excluded children and youth (e.g. girls and working children). The innovation may be in the model itself or in a component of the model such as the curriculum, assessment methods or teaching methods. This study is one such attempt to note and document how gaps of service delivery evinced in educational indicators are addressed by one of the sectors above, namely, the civil society sector. The intention is not to posit one specific civil society model as the universal remedy to problems seen in the education sector. The objective, instead, is to identify practical dimensions of practice along which the different sectors can collaborate and move forward along.

19

The study focused on exploring... innovative models of education being practiced (in non-governmental/civil society setups) for marginalized/excluded children?

research methodology
Research Questions
Main Research Question
The study focused on exploring the following research questions and sub-questions: template. Since the report essentially aimed at collating data from case studies the first task was the identification of CSOs concentrating on providing education to working children and the girl child. The criteria centered notably on compiling an inventory of organizations whose outreach encompassed both rural and urban areas in the provinces identified and organizations that had been plying the education sector for a considerable period of time. However, organizations with a shorter functioning time span were not automatically excluded; the methods they employed in terms of model establishment, teacher training of curriculum development were whetted before their inclusion/exclusion was confirmed. Identification of organizations in the provinces of Sindh and the Punjab were carried out by the Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) through a desktop mapping activity following a desktop information research activity. Table 1 below presents the initial sample while Table 2 shows details of the final sample. A list of the key personnel interviewed are presented in Appendix 2. The sample was finalized in accordance with the key features of the sample population set out in the research proposal, notably; the organization caters to the education of working children and the girl child and that What innovative models of education were being practiced (in non-governmental/civil society setups) for marginalized/excluded children?

Subsidiary Questions

Did these models reflect innovation ensuring relevance and meaning for the beneficiaries? Were these models linked with formal education? What were the learning innovations that have been introduced into the models? Were these models more effective in terms of quality, equality, relevance and manageability as compared to mainstream educational system?

Project research was carried out in 4 phases: documentation research; interviews with 1-2 key organization personnel (depending on the CSO); field trips to schools operated by the organization and the collection of quantitative information followed by a discriminating data analysis adhering to the research Table 1. Initial Sample

SINDH
Behbud Association Indus Resource Center Pakistan Institute for Labor Education and Research Zindagi Trust Catco Kids International Shirkat Gah The Citizens Foundation Friends of Literacy and Mass Education Social Sector Support Service

PUNJAB
Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi Sanjan Nagar-Public Education Trust Sudhaar Pahchaan Insan Foundation Godh Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere Association of Networks for Community Empowerment Society for the Advancement of Education Bunyad Foundation Teach-A-Child School System

21

Documenting Educational Innovation

Table 2. Final Research Sample

Organization
IDARA-E-TALEEM-O-AAGAHI SUDHAAR SANJAN NAGAR PAHCHAAN ASSOCIATION OF NETWORKS FOR COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT INSAN FOUNDATION SOCIETY FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION GODH

Area[s] of Focus
Girl child and working children (girls and boys) Working children (girls and boys) Girl child Street children Working children (girls and boys)

Geographical Area
Islamabad, Sheikhupura, Lahore: Dharum Pura and the Walled City Sheikhupura, Kasur, Sialkot Lahore: Ferozepur Road Lahore: Gulshan-e-Ravi Lahore: Saddar, Kot Lakpat, Baghban Pura, Gulshan-e-Ravi Lahore: Johar Town Pakpattan, Lodhran, Vehari Lahore (7): Abhad colony, Chaco wali, Ferozepur Road, Johar Town, Sabzazar, Shayran Kot, babusabu Punjab Karachi (9): mostly located in Kachi Abadis. Khairpur, Dadu, Mithi Karachi (17): South Region Karachi: Banaras, Baloch Colony, Khadda, Lyaari 311 school units in Karachi and interior Sindh Karachi (71): Bhains Colony, Landhi, Baldia Town, Neelum Colony. 30 in interior Sindh.

Working children (boys) Girl child (particularly in areas without schools) Working gypsy children (usually rag pickers) Working children and girl child Girl child Girl children Working children (girls and boys) Working children (girls and boys) Girl and Boy children Working children (girls and boys) & areas without schools

BUNYAD FOUNDATION BEHBUD ASSOCIATION INDUS RESOURCE CENTER ZINDAGI TRUST SOCIAL SECTOR SUPPORT SERVICE THE CITIZENS FOUNDATION FRIENDS OF LITERACY AND MASS EDUCATION

it must rely on donors other than the state. As such, after the first two phases the Pakistan Institute for Labor, Education and Research (PILER), Shirkat Gah and Catco Kids International were dropped from the Sindh sample while Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) and Teach-A-Child School (TAC) systems were excluded from the Punjab sample. Since the report essentially aimed at collating data from case studies the first task was the identification of CSOs concentrating on providing education to working children and the girl child. The criteria centered notably on compiling an inventory of organizations whose outreach encompassed both rural and urban areas in the provinces identified and organizations that had been plying the education sector

for a considerable period of time. However, organizations with a shorter functioning time span were not automatically excluded; the methods they employed in terms of model establishment, teacher training of curriculum development were whetted before their inclusion/exclusion was confirmed.

i) Documentation review & key personnel interview

In most cases the documentation review occurred simultaneously with the interviews. The documents under perusal nominally included organizational promotional material with reference to education and in some cases annual reports, curriculum material, teacher training material and school development plans/outlines. The

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Sharing Practices for Educational Change

interview format was semi-structured and flexible in allowing the interviewee to build on the focal point of their organization. The interviews were conducted with either the CEO of the organizations and/or key education/field coordinators and aimed to flesh out the process of initiation and establishment of alternative education systems.

areas include: Religious Education (31%), Vocational/Technical Education (37%), and Community and Neighborhood Improvement (33%). (Pasha et al., 2002: pg 14)A few work in both urban and rural areas while in some instances although the head office may be located in an urban center, the outreach is exclusively rural.

ii) Field visits

The field visits occurred over the period from August 2006September 2006. The conduction of field visits was hampered by the timing of the study which extended over the vacation period in most schools thus slowing down data collection. Additionally the high incidence of rainfall made a number of schools inaccessible either due to direct damage to the school infrastructure (thus closing the school down) and also by blocking access due to flooding in certain sample areas. Minimally the field team visited one school operated by the organization in question and at the most up to 3 schools per organization. A field tool was developed for observation and outlined the key areas in school infrastructure and teaching methods to be noted. All organization schools, with the exception of one where entry was disallowed, received the field team for a period ranging from 2- 5 hours during which the team observed the school infrastructure and carried out class observations in classes being conducted at the time. Often the field coordinator of the organization in the area would accompany the field team. Normatively the field visits should have included extended interviews with the social actors in the education process such as the school children, the teachers and the parents, the school committees and the surrounding community. However the expanse of the study limited the depth it could delve into particularly in light of the time constraint. Therefore the study is constrained to examine the innovative models from the light of brick and mortar alone and bars anything beyond a superficial analysis of implementation and outcomes. The sample leans towards an urban bias as an outcome of an overweening concentration of NGO centers in urban areas; Organizations with relatively higher shares of rural

iii) Quantitative data

The quantitative form essentially seeks to elicit quantitative indicators relevant to the educational initiatives regarding school beneficiaries (ranging from the gender ratio of the student population to the teacher: student ratio and teacher qualifications). While the proforma does not form an intrinsic part of the study, it provides an overview of the outcomes achieved by the specific models set up. The form was left with the organization to be completed and returned. While some organizations have returned the completed form, the full sample has not been returned.

iv) Interviews with field coordinators and community members

Field coordinators were interviewed formally with additional informal discussions occurring during field visits and community interviews. The field coordinators were the key people who gathered a community sample for the field team at one point to gather their feedback on the education system. The biases natural to such a selection will obviously form one limitation to this study.

Limitations of the study

Pakistan carries a strong tradition of indigenous and community education (SAHE, 2003) with a widespread outreach. This report recognizes the immense work carried out by non-formal CSOs that operate on the true spirit of volunteerism but have not been captured in the profile of this study. The time constraints surrounding the study limited sampling to institutionalized CSOs working in the education sector thus leaving out other effective initiatives by definition or circumstance. In the light of the nature of sampling in the report, it is important to certify that the findings of this study cannot be generalized to the entire spectrum of CSOs working in the education sector.

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The households poverty status is one of the main determinants of child labor and child schooling. A poor household is more likely to be dependent on the income of a child earner and hence perceive a trade off between educating a child and receiving his/her earnings.

marginalized children I
n replicating the blueprint of the education system conceived under British rule (ICG, 2005), Pakistan has sustained an institutional heritage that continues to be largely geared towards the education of an urban skilled workforce excluding, through distribution and curriculum, rural and sub-urban children (especially the girl child) and working children in both urban and rural areas. Interaction with the beneficiaries of CSO initiatives have shown that efforts to transform the education system in order to make it accessible and relevant to the majority of Pakistans children have been limited at the state level, particularly in terms of outcome. One of the measures made for providing education to marginalized children was the formulation by the Prime Ministers Literacy Commission of a project that was titled Establishment of 82000 Non-formal Basic Education Schools (NFBES) with particular focus in those areas where separate schools for girls did not exist. The project commenced in 1995 under Benazir Bhuttos government and was based on the concept of the home-school to be run through NGOs and CSOs. To date only 10, 825 of the schools have been established and in September 2006 the government considered shelving the project due to the Education Ministrys inability to execute the proposal. Resistance on part of the Education Ministry staked itself on the claim that Pakistans commitment to international forums demands a 100% literacy rate by 2015 and hence entailed a continuation of the plan. As of late, it was decided that an autonomous body, called the Basic Education Literacy Authority (BELA), would be set up to implement the NFBES project. (Ghauri, 2006) Donor funded projects in the area have ranged from the World Food Program intervention that was based on food incentives; Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded Punjab Middle Schooling Project (PMSP); the ADBs Girls Primary education project to Tawnana Pakistan (the school nutrition programs initiated by the government of Pakistan). Commentators and articles pinpoint financial constraints and management issues as the main

research findings & discussion


hampering factor in the food-for-school project. A diverging school of thought localizes the failure to the governments inability to permeate conceptually and practically at the grassroots level for such micro initiatives despite the decentralization reforms. (Cheema et. al., 2004) In the case of Kenya, the limitations noted by Oketch (1995) can be considered applicable to Pakistan as well in that strategies in education policy have been limited by an inadequate assessment of resources and the differing requirements of the target group. To that end it becomes imperative to examine the push factors that pave the exit route for working children and the girl children from schooling systems.

Push Factors for Out-ofSchool Children


i) Push factors operating upon working children
The concept of an informal sector has gained currency in development literature recently, due to growing cognizance of the vast amounts of unskilled and unregulated labor that is absorbed by this sector. In Pakistan the informal sector extracts up to 3.3 million children from 40 million children in the age group of 514 years. (Child Labor Survey in Pakistan, 1996) The households poverty status is one of the main determinants of child labor and child schooling. A poor household is more likely to be dependent on the income of a child earner and hence perceive a trade off between educating a child and receiving his/her earnings. Public sector schools are typically inflexible in curriculum, and typically school timings clash with the timings of availability and the needs of a working child. The decision to send a child to school also gives tremendous weightage to the quality of education which is balanced against the direct cost (loss of child earnings, fee, books, papers, uniforms, clothing) and indirect costs (loss of assistance to parents, household and extended family) which particularly apply to girls working at home. Issues

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Documenting Educational Innovation

regarding the quality of schooling are based on the relevance of the curriculum to the childs future employment skills and/or to a working child who by dint of early exposure to a vocational environment possesses different skills and mental capacity as compared to a regular school going child. Moreover the location of the school plays a significant role in determining the attendance of working children, the farther it is from home or place of employment and the more inflexible the timing, the less likely the attendance. The case particularly holds for children who work on agricultural lands, and need to be taken away from school during planting and harvesting seasons.

number of dimensions (Carr et. al., 1991) namely Aims and objectives Target clientele Organizing agency Relationship with the formal education system The selection determinant for these organizations was kept as the clientele CSOs serve i.e. working children and the girl child; however along the residual two dimensions the o rg a n i z a t i o n s s h ow co n s i d e r a b l e va r i a b i l i t y.

i) Vision

ii) Push factors for the girl child

Cross-cutting themes such as the urban/rural discrimination (in education access and relevance) and poverty determined education status contribute to the constriction of education for the girl child. In addition to the direct cost and indirect costs (domestic household labor and unpaid help at home respectively) girls face in entering the education system, a major prohibitive factor tends to be the distance of the school from the house and the availability of female teachers. The distance is directly proportional to the safety of sending a girl child to school. In Pakistan the distribution of secondary schools (numerically far below the provision of primary schools) in particular has severe implications for the girl child. As an investment, parental attitude favor male over female children in the arena of education and in areas where poor quality of education is a cause for concern, girls are more likely to be withdrawn from school than boys. (Brock et. al., 1997) The peripheral nature of the curriculum to the life of a girl child in such socioeconomic settings plays a large role in the decision to send a girl child to school.

While the expressed vision and mission statements of most organizations center on the empowerment of poor children/working children/girl child (depending on the organizations focus) through education, the strategies to that end vary from institution to institution subject to the following factors the resources (personnel and financial) that the organization can garner the political space the organization can maneuver in with relation to grants of funds, buildings and schools for implementation of programs the space available for organization based innovation within donor agency mandates organizational relationship with the government The leitmotif governing the actual direction on these frontiers is the founding agency of the organization, which can be a single person or a group of people. The strategies thus are colored by a personalized paradigm that is the expected natural outcome of an institution whose establishment owes itself to a voluntary mechanism. Some organizations have evolved over time to produce streamlined processes of functioning such as Behbud Association, which provides one rare case of a CSO where the governing body is democratically elected and regularly rotated. However Behbud Association presents a model case in the study sample and the contrast it provides has implications of organizational sustainability that reach beyond mere funding concerns.

Civil Society Response

Progressively, CSOs have provided innovations that are being captured in mainstream education often through the vehicle of public-private partnerships. For children existing at the periphery of mainstream schooling the experience of education is intrinsically linked with nonformal systems of education. Non-formal programs of education are divorced from formal programs along a

ii) Funding

On the theme of education most of the surveyed

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Sharing Practices for Educational Change

organizations had a few common funding agencies notably, Save the Children UK, Save the Children Sweden, ILO and ActionAid. In addition to these donors, organizations also received funding from sources such as Oxfam, Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, Gender Equality Project, Developments in Literacy, UNICEF, Agha Khan University Institute of Educational Development, Unilever, Right to Play (Canada), US Dol. Organizations such as FLAME and Behbud Association rely extensively on philanthropic contributions for maintenance while Zindagi Trust raises funds through concerts held by the President of the organization at home and abroad. Financial sustainability of projects is a chief area of concern as most donor driven projects are handed with timelines (maximum 2-4 years) and renewal of funding is uncertain. Donor fatigue, in both organizations and individuals, is also a common phenomenon. Respondents from organizations felt that though donor funding came with limitations, it could still be functionally employed to test out new ideas, an area in which government funding was felt to be scant. It is felt that at best, donor money and the circumscribed project period suffices for experimentation in models of education, as opposed to their creation and maintenance. The formation of an endowment fund is a recent concept some organizations have taken up or are in the process of considering (ITA and Zindagi Trust) but in its incipient stage it is difficult to remark on its viability.

Sudhaar, ANCE) to impart functional literacy. Pahchaan and Insan Foundation have developed their own material, which is used in customized programs targeting street children and working children respectively. The non-formal schools are often run concurrently with vocational centers for the children (SSSS, Sudhaar, ANCE, Behbud Association and Zindagi Trust) and operate regular summer camps with a particular concentration on ICT (Sudhaar and ITA). Mainstreaming as a process is implemented in ITA, Sudhaar, ANCE, FLAME and Godh. The switch to the public system of education is usually made at the end of class 5, however if children are deemed to be ready before that they are allowed the option of making an earlier switch to formal schooling. An annual/quarterly assessment program tests the academic aptitude considered necessary for the switch, and in some rare cases the potential government school itself conducts an entrance test. Above class 5, representatives of CSOs indicated that mainstreaming is rare, as older children (13-17 years) enrolled in the nonformal education system have often passed the age of entrance to a higher class. An equal, if not of more concern is the tradeoff made of the earning potential of an older child with the time spent in school, (if he/she is enrolled in a regular public school). The schools that operate for working children in nearly all organizations are extremely flexible with their timings, customarily operating in the second half of the day for 2-4 hours. The object is to allow the working child or the girl child to finish their tasks at the place of work and then come to school. Curriculum The curriculum in some schools is infused with CSO material or supplementary activities concentrating on educating children on civic sense, health, workers rights and often to facilitate the regular activities. However during the field visits, the implementation of the techniques imparted at teacher training workshops (as reported by the training staff at the head offices of the CSOs) was seen to be irregular at best, if, applied at all. The substitution of depth for expanse in this study unfortunately precluded a deeper examination of outcomes of education, however is almost all cases the community members response was enthusiastic about the improvement in the quality of education as compared to previous efforts (state schools).

iii)Operation of formal/non-formal schools

With the exception of The Citizen Foundation and partly ITA, the remaining organizations operate non-formal schools, minimally till the primary level. While some follow the state curriculum throughout their program (Zindagi Trust, ANCE, Godh, TCF, SSSS, FLAME) others innovate on the syllabus at the primary level. Textbooks are drawn from the Oxford University Press (Sajanagar) or internally developed material is applied in class (SAHE, IRC and Sanjan Nagar). In such cases, adherence to the government curriculum begins around grade 5 where mainstreaming becomes an option. Literacy centers operated by the organizations typically employ the Jugnu curriculum (SSSS,

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Documenting Educational Innovation

iv) Fee and stipend

CSOs either waived any charge of fee for their program or charged minimally up to Rs. 20/month. Books and materials in some cases were provided for free and in others for half their original price. Some schools did not require uniforms to be worn; most children interviewed across the spectrum said that they identified more with the school if it had a uniform and felt it was an imperative gauge of the equivalence of their school with a state or private school. On an average the cost per child was estimated to be Rs. 1500/month for elementary classes and Rs. 2500/month for higher classes.

The tenor of the conversations held with community members emphasized the fact that CSOs take a relatively top down approach to community participation. Initially, often the community role is limited to consent either by choice or by default. Instilling a sense of ownership and mobilizing the community enough to sustain the project is a hurdle that CSOs inevitably have to face in order to phase out their involvement in the project.

vi) CSO-formal sector relationship

v) Community

The horizontal expanse of the study was covered at the expense of any depth in any one case study thus excluding analyses of long-term effects apart from those in terms of statistics stated in each CSOs organizational profile in the case studies below. One of the segments studied only peripherally is the nature and development of the community end of the CSO relationship. Most CSOs examined, worked in varying districts with varying community support and practices, the only uniformity in a CSO was the sector of children it chose to cater to. The time horizon of the study necessitated that data collectors met with stakeholders from the community at the school itself. Largely the responses were positive and people clearly enunciated their lack of faith in an education system run by the state. While some often did not know the name of the organization running the school (which they referred in generic terms as the falahi idara) most could pin point the time at which they felt the management and content of the school became better. In some cases community knowledge extended to the degree to which local officials, such as the Nazim, helped the CSO in upgrading and facilitating school operations. Parents of children in one school confessed that though the teachers asked them to participate in regular meetings, family members did not always attend such meetings unless it was urgent and specific. Most parents actively supported the idea of upgrading CSO based schools to the secondary and higher levels, particularly parents of girls.

Responses concerning the civil society initiatives relationship with the formal sector are ambiguous even from school to school within the same organization. At the grassroots level, the experience is usually mixed but most actors acknowledge that initially mainstreamed children are discriminated against by public sector schoolteachers. However, a session with the school head teacher on part of the facilitators from CSOs usually smoothes the situation but most teachers of non-formal schools note that mainstreamed children face difficulty in adapting to the public sector way of teaching mostly because their needs are no longer recognized as individual and special from the other student body. At the administrative level, the relationship of organizations with the Department of Education in the concerned province was characteristically distant except in the case of ITA, which entered into a MoU with the Department as its technical partner. At the level of the local government, the study discovered variegated responses that not only fluctuated from school to school but also from regime to regime of political parties/contesters. The school is usually directly in touch with the Nazim. Official support usually ranges from rhetorical (SSSS) and material support to the utility of political influence in facilitating school functioning (ANCE).

Establishment of Civil Society Schools

Typically organizations follow a uniform pattern for the establishment of schools, which revolves around the role of the field coordinator in both the setting up and

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maintenance of the institution. Field coordinators can either be specifically hired or trained for their position (e.g. ITA), or they can be identified within the geographical area in which they are trained to work (e.g. IRC). The first step is to identify the geographical area of work, which is indicated either by the administration of the CSO or emerges from a field coordinators recommendation and by necessity has to rank low on education development indicators. The communities selected are verified by the field coordinator to be largely poor, illiterate, with a burgeoning population of children who lack access to public/private sector schooling. At the most basic level the entire education project tacks on to a foundation of community mobilization. Once the location is marked out as relevant, the role of the field coordinator extends beyond surveying and moves into social mobilization which is achieved either through directly contacting the perceived head of the community i.e. numberdar or by moving from house to house to call a general body meeting of interested parents and community members. If the locus of the effort is an extant school, the consent and cooperation of the head teacher is sought before making inroads to the surrounding community members. The meetings are held and conducted by the field coordinator and his/her team. The period over which these meetings are held can range from 1 week to 2 months depending on the willingness of the community members and the degree of dissent within the attendant population. Persuasion takes considerable time and counseling on topics dealing with the importance of education and the sincerity of the CSO in the project. CSOs do not have the luxury of imposing interventions upon communities, in that they lack the authority of the state to promulgate and enforce practices. The lack of this crucial political resource is the central reason why communities have to rely heavily upon community mobilization. Once consent is obtained either directly (through MoU) or indirectly (by word of mouth), commitment is expressed on part of the community members by identifying a location for a new school and identifying community female members as teachers. The field coordinator, before the initiation of the

project, has usually scoped the availability of the latters services. The formation of school councils and Village Education Committees (VECs) is a product of the meetings and membership occurs on a voluntary basis. The committees are bound to meet for a stipulated period over the year which can range from once a month to once every 2-3 months. Subsequently, the field coordinator carries out a needs assessment survey (formally or informally) noting the basic infrastructure and quality needs of the community with regards to education. The field coordinator then mediates between the CSO and the community in getting the school off the ground. It is emphasized, throughout that the field coordinators role is merely that of an assistant in establishment and monitoring as opposed to a supervisor since the latter notion detracts from community ownership of the school. The field coordinator visits the schools under his/her jurisdiction regularly and is often installed in an administrative position at one of the schools. Feedback to the head office is constant and teacher training, teacher absenteeism, assessment tests etcetera are kept under his/her observation. As opposed to the monitoring and linkages system in public schools, whose execution is problematic because of the supervisors inability to reach schools particularly in far flung areas, the CSOs have succeeded in establishing a viable and efficient communication system with the field staff and hence have developed a strong interface with the community. Friction along the community-CSO; field coordinator-CSO nexus is expected with regards to school needs and requirements, however the field coordinator on average successfully negotiates on both fronts. Conflict along the field coordinator- community nexus is characteristic of the initial process however it is rare for a falling out to occur once establishment is underway as the CSO regards the field coordinator as their spokesman to higher authorities ranging from the local Nazim to the head of the CSO operating in the area.

29

An intensity of focus, a grassroots presence and skilled personnel have combined to make CSOs the ideal vehicles of social experimentation in models that can be replicated at a national level for a successful overhauling of the system.

documenting innovative practices S


tate policies towards education for disadvantaged children are significantly impoverished due to the lack of structural or political will to innovate, essentially miring the process of social transformation for marginalized children in a catch-22 situation. An intensity of focus, a grassroots presence and skilled personnel have combined to make CSOs the ideal vehicles of social experimentation in models that can be replicated at a national level for a successful overhauling of the system. practice sustainability, spatial distribution of schools, the drop out phenomenon and curriculum development.

1.Sustainability and Financing

If issues of logistics are kept aside, CSO experience in education shows that the largest condition for success that cuts across all case studies of best practices is social mobilization. CSO personnel note that some form of community involvement is crucial to ensure sustainability of the effort and is indispensable in attaching credibility to the CSOs name and work. In cases where CSOs have tried to hand over functioning schools to the state, at times it has been the unwillingness of the community members that has forced a retreat from an exit strategy. The process of outreach, more than the content of schooling is a large determinant of ensuring accessibility and quality of education at the grassroots level. CSO initiatives in education have sought to circumvent the most prevalent setbacks faced by public sector education systems (i.e. spatial disparity, high drop out rate and an ossified curriculum), through grassroots initiatives in conjunction with the community. Issues of quality and irrelevance often plague such initiatives themselves, a situation that is exacerbated by the general CSO environment that fails to be conducive to extensive networking for the sharing of knowledge systems. This report draws out case studies that examine some of the techniques that have been used to avoid and overcome issues that impede quality education availability for working children and the girl child. The case studies address practices that have been employed to remedy areas of concern in public sector education, underlined by all key personnel interviewed i.e. financial and good

The shift in emphasis from advocacy to service delivery on part of CSOs has been noted severely in development literature where the critique underscores CSO role in absolving the state of its responsibility in service delivery. However, most of the CSOs included in the sample of this study acknowledged that the role of CSOs, merely from the resource point of view, should be limited to experimental models that the state can then replicate. Nevertheless, practically, in terms of effort, barter is often made between a pressure group status and a service delivery status. The practice necessarily carries implications for the financial sustainability of a project. The Insan Foundation took over a ghost school in Badian a venture that was successful in the short term but had to be terminated due to lack of funds for project maintenance, even though the area they were catering to did not possess a school. Appeals were made to the state and although the project was lauded, funds were not forthcoming. The administration of the CSO felt that petitioning the government for funds required presence and contacts in the political and bureaucracy circles beyond the presence of a successful pilot project. External donors typically fund a project for a period of 2-3 years while donor fatigue in philanthropic projects is also a common phenomenon. Public private partnerships are generally considered to be an advance made towards sustainability of privately initiated projects. The popularity of PPP in CSO sphere has comes from the recognition that CSOs in isolation do not possess the resources to sustain any program initiated, regardless of the level of innovation. To link up with the public sector, thus is a feasible method of ensuring sustainability of good practices, however the

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nuances of how the link should be achieved, have not been outlined clearly. After the initial trials, PPP is now regarded with mixed views mostly because although it draws a considerable greater space for CSOs to work with the state on service delivery, the contracts drawn between the state and the CSOs are ambiguous at best without delineating the specific role of each party and how it is to be made sustainable. There is a clear absence of a standardized legal framework that demarcates roles in such partnerships. In this scenario ITA has managed to strike a balance between advocacy and service in the education sector. The focus in this study is on ITAs administrative management of girls

schools with reference to the crucial issue of funding sustainability in girls schools; an issue identified in literature and interviews as the main hindrance to any long term impact of a practice in education.

Case Study: Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi


ITA was formed in 2000 and registered in 2001. ITAs core programs include the School Improvement Program; School Enrichment Program; School Improvement Network Pakistan (SINP); Child Labor Initiatives; Alliance Formation for Scaled Up & Inclusive Action: Forming alliances such as Alliance For Education Development (AFED) and Rethinking Education Systems.

ITA in public-private partnership

ITA presents a rare case of an organization that is formally engaged with the public sector in the strict capacity of a technical partner as defined in the Memorandum of Understanding drawn up by ITA and signed by the Department of Education, Punjab. Head teachers, Associate District Officers (ADOs) and Executive District Officers (EDOs) are the key stakeholders in formulating the MoU (Annexure 5). DCOs of some districts critically scrutinize the document once it has been developed. As such ITA views its role as a transient catalyst that transforms poorly performing government schools through trainings, exercises and infrastructure improvements. There is a clear understanding that the role of ITA is to transfer knowledge and skill systems to the government employees working in the adopted institutions and disqualifies any substitution of the latters role thus creating possibilities of empowerment through raising capabilities of teachers and students. Each school is handed over with a specific budget for the CSO to maneuver improvements within. ITAs human resource intensive improvements, as opposed to capital intensive development, have meant that the budget does not play a limiting role in school enrichment. As part of its initial needs assessment of the school and its specific budget, ITA noted the hindrance posed by assigning budgets under compartmentalized heads such as the tuck

The Adopt-A-School-Program (AASP)

The organization has taken over several public schools under the AASP scheme which is a step in public-private partnerships whereby the government seeks to hand over under utilized/ failed schools to CSOs for operation. ITA adopted schools are registered with the Education Directorate, Government of Punjab and provide free education to the enrolled students. The medium of instruction is primarily Urdu but there is special focus on spoken English. In curriculum ITAs true innovation is held to be its precedent in introducing computer skills as a necessary part of the curriculum in public sector schools. ITA formulates a school council as part of its needs assessment program, which is then held responsible for the direct monitoring and upkeep of the school facilities.

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shop fund. A policy initiative was launched to have the budget allocated as one holistic fund so that each school could utilize it according to need rather than according to a blueprint. Once the change to allocate the budget in one single portion under the title of Farogh-e-Taleem (i.e. Promotion of Education) was made at the policy level, ITA started budget management seminars and tutorials for the head teachers, teachers and school councils in the adopted schools. At the end of the first year, an exit strategy (over 2-3 years) is defined collaboratively with the SMC and the Directorate focusing on enhanced resource mobilization from regular Directorate budgets, regularization of teachers from adopter to Directorate on contract basis and an evaluation of the income generation capability at the school. ITA put forward the vehicle of a school tuck shop and community computer classes in the school building an avenue for income generation in schools. The financial sustainability of the public-private partnership model is intrinsically linked with the role social actors play in the management of the school. The most significant conflict to date noted in CSO practices with adopted schools has been the removal of teachers and head teachers resulting in recurring discords between permanent staff

and contracted staff. ITA has attempted to bypass the issue by ensuring as part of its policy, that no teacher or head teacher is changed, transferred or dismissed post-adoption. Additionally no ITA staff is appointed permanently or over the school management. In practice the process is carried out through the signing of an MoU between the school head teacher, teachers and the ITA field coordinator in his/her capacity as ITA representative. To date ITA has only encountered one voluntary resignation by a teacher. Community members and school committees have made requests for ITA selected teachers to be appointed to the school at times when enrollment exceeds teacher capacity. ITA has complied at times but removed the teachers once government appointed employees take up the position.

POLICY BOX
Case Study in Public Private Partnership: Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi
Characteristically, CSOs have run parallel systems of service delivery in the private sector without any direct partnership with the government thus often resulting in been a clear clash of organizational norms and cultures between them a clash that lead to adversarial relationships and government intimidation and regulation. It is therefore imperative that strategies and programs be devised through a public-private partnership that is based on clearly defined areas of jurisdiction and rules of conduct. ITA is one such pioneering agency that has drawn its relationship with the government as a PPP in strictly contractual terms with a clear exit strategy in place so as to ensure state resumption of what CSOs essentially view as the state responsibility to support and supply education. The brass tacks outline of the MoU can thus be used to flesh out the Public-Private Partnership component of the Education Sector Reforms beyond the acknowledgement of the greater role envisaged for the private sector in the future of the education sector in Pakistan. The nuances of the PPP drawn out are presented in the MoU (located in Appendix 3 of the report). One significant outcome of partnership or this particular form of temporary adoption is the provision to the school of access to the government budgeting and funding channels.

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Documenting Educational Innovation

2. Access

Physical access to schools is a notable concern that hinders willing communities from availing education opportunities and has the largest impact on two sections of poor communities, namely, the girl child and working children. While transport costs are obviously a major consideration, the decision to attend school chiefly factors in questions safety and time management. Problems of access in education overlap with the onus of traditional duties on girls to negatively influence their enrolment and attendance at schools. Spatial disparity in the provision of schools in rural areas for girls (when viewed in combination with the overarching urban/rural discrimination in education provision) becomes a substantial issue of concern. As noted before, safety hazards (perceived in terms of vulnerability to kidnapping and molestation) in traveling long distances to reach schools are considerable for girls, more so in rural areas than in urban areas, and access as such becomes more limited the higher the class. Infrastructure limitations such as unavailability of toilets, boundary walls and the provision of drinking water and the presence of female teachers are also factored into safety considerations and in judging the quality of education. In rural areas, particularly interior Sindh, the law and order situation figured large in

deliberation over allowing girls to walk to school as the level of inter-tribal warfare renders kidnapping an acute danger. The requirement of a familiar, female teacher -given the dismal level of female education generally prevalentforms a comment on the vicious cycle blocking education access in rural areas. The curriculum used at school is noted for its poor quality and gender insensitive content and hence deemed irrelevant to the lives and livelihood of girl students. To that end, SAHEs Community Based Schools for Girls in Punjab, have created an alternative opportunity for education in those areas where indicators present a bleak undervaluing of female education. In the case of working children, the distance has to be manageable not only from their homes to school but more often from their workplace to the institution. Public sector schools follow a generic pattern of operation, which finds no space for children from poor communities in terms of flexibility of timings. Moreover there is no space in standard school policy for dealing with children who have to constantly migrate in search for work. The Godh organization focuses on the education needs of gypsy community children (mostly employed in the rag picking trade) who are not only marginalized by poverty but also by the constant threat of eviction from their settlements.

Case Study 1: Society for the Advancement of Education (SAHE)


SAHE was established in 1982 and is registered under the Societies Act 1860 and was one of the pioneering organizations to focus on issues of access, equality and quality in education. SAHEs programs include teacher education; teacher support centers; community based schools; gender and rights; citizenship, democracy & peace; Education Watchresearch & evaluation; outreaching & networking and academic publications.

Community Based School Program (CBSP) for Girls

The program was launched in 1996 and in 1998 SAHE set up the first 20 schools under the umbrella of this program in the district of Pakpattan, Punjab. The district was selected on the basis of indicators such as its low female literacy level and the absence of schooling facilities for girls. At present the program comprises 220 schools and teachers with an enrolment of 6340 girls in the 3 districts of Pakpattan, Lodhran (2003) and Vehari (2004). The Regional Office of the CBSP is now located in Vehari as it lies at a midpoint between other districts. The program runs for 6 years (5.5 for regular schooling and a 6 month pre-primary class that has been shown to be

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effective in improving retention) and uses OUP textbooks for class 1 and 2 and the government syllabus for higher classes. Attempts are being made to introduce the OUP syllabus till class 4 and utilize the government syllabus only in class 5. Additionally SAHE has developed internal material (particularly in the social sciences) that localizes the subject of geography to the district concerned to increase curriculum relevance for students. Project based learning is emphasized and the children have to maintain individual portfolios (e.g. scrapbooks) for work.

SAHEs role in facilitating female schooling

SAHEs CBSP model draws on the insights gained from the CSOs experience with the Pakistan governments NonFormal Education (NFE) multi-grade program and from the NFE model of BRAC in Bangladesh. The physical process in the identification and consent of the community is similar to the one described in section IV. SAHE employs local people for the purposes of surveying the area for the initiation of the program. However, the CBSP program follow strict criteria in the selection of disadvantaged districts, namely; communities are selected on the basis of their distance from the district/tehsil office restricted to a radius of 30 km; there being no school for girls; the number of households being at least 50 with 2 girls of school going age in each household who were not going to school; availability of a local female matriculate (10 years of schooling) as a potential teacher; interest on part of the community to have a girls school and to provide space for the school; and readiness on the part of the majority of parents to pay a small amount as school fund, buy stationary and exercise books for their children and ensure their attendance. (Zafar, 2005: pg 16). Additionally children are admitted to the school according to the principle of one child per household. The intensity of the locale selection is geared to avoid duplication of efforts. The consideration is made in light of the fact that SAHE operates in an arena of education supply where over provision necessarily implies a cost for underprovided areas. The rigorous criteria in choosing the location of schools

stems from the need for sustainability of the program in an area where there is no alternative for girls in education. The approach is community intensive on all school management fronts ranging from selection of school building, selection of young men and women as education motivators, selection of teachers and funding resources. The personnel are either drawn from the community itself or are allowed to work once community approval is ceded. Community ownership of the school premises is perceived as the main deterrent to the safety hazard that may concern parents. The community is given unambiguous responsibility for the safety of teachers and girls and protecting school property and materials from theft. Additionally, the community bears the responsibility for any supplementary construction the community feels the school requires. In some cases where the CBSP has been housed in a non-functional government school, attempts at an exit strategy failed as the community doubted the quality of state provided education. School expansion follows an evolutionary process whereby a teacher starts a class with around 30 students and takes the same class up to grade 5. Although mainstreaming is currently not a SAHE goal, the CSO is making efforts to provide transportation for girls who are desirous of further studies in schools that tend to lie in far flung areas. SAHE case studies on the CBSP have noted that the retention of girls in the schooling system is highly dependent on a number of factors including: high quality inputs into education (particularly in view of the fact that most of the parents are illiterate themselves); on appointing community members in key administrative positions as opposed to involvement in pedagogical issues and finally on regularly conducting capacity building workshops at all levels. SAHEs learning through the years is concomitant with the expressions made by other CSOs on the fundamental requirement of community mobilization and participation in the operation and sustenance of any good education practice. SAHEs internal indicators of success are based on a comparatively low drop out rate of 10%, and an increase in demand for education for girls from surrounding areas.

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Case Study 2: Godh


Godh started functioning in 1998 and was initially funded from the founders personal reserves, however once the community projects were launched, the CSO became a recipient of ActionAid funds.

Community Schools for Gypsy Children

Godh started work with the gypsy community in 2000, focusing on education provision for children in the age group of 4-18 years. The state curriculum is imposed in Godh schools only in class 5. In preceding classes, the system utilizes internally developed material that caters to the requirements of older illiterate children. The schools generally operate on the principle of multi-grade teaching with one classroom and one teacher. The number of students in the class ranges from 25-35. The program aims to mainstream children in government schools and if location factors enforce admission into a private school, Godh intervenes to negotiate on the fee scale. The Godh schools charge a fee ranging from Rs. 5 to Rs. 40 depending on the resources of the student and the level of class he/she is attending.

process since in this particular target group apart from the time consumed in the standard surveying undertaken by the field coordinator; extensive involvement is additionally required to convince the community of the importance of educating their children. The resistance to education as a process is extremely high initially and stems from the belief that it is a dead end for people like us, we are not going to become judges and ministers and hence is a waste of time. The field coordinators spend extensive time with the community trying to persuade communities of the utility of education, not only for purposes of professional mobility but for more functional issues of literacy, hygiene, cleanliness and safety. Such awareness is communicated through theatre and puppet performances. Once the community agrees to the establishment of a school unit, a school committee is formed of 5 community members including the numberdar. Such efforts, where communities are approached at their doorsteps, exist mainly in the civil society while no such efforts exist in the public sector. The school building is made of the same structure as utilized by the occupants of the given community and can range from tent material, to mud bricks and straw constructions. In the summer period, schools operate in a clearing in middle of house structures on a floor mat. The schools operate from 3-6 pm in the summer and 2-5 pm in winter. Timings are kept for the second half of the day so that children can work in the first half at the traditional occupation of rag picking. For younger children (nursery/prep level) morning timings are also maintained. The teachers are hired from the same community if available, however limitations on qualification entail hiring a teacher from outside the community. The latter practice is problematic, as outsiders generally express discomfort working with gypsy children and tend to leave after short stints at teaching. All teachers employed are female as the community disapproves of outsider males entering their premises. Regular health assessments are conducted in collaboration with the Pahchaan (an organization that provides health and education services to street children) organization that

Facilitating education for working children in a marginalized community

As an area of focus working children in the gypsy community fall beyond the reach of CSO effort due to the transient nature of their settlements which are temporary and subject to state/private reclamation of the land they have built their temporary settlements on. Migration was touted as the principal cause of drop outs in most interviews with CSO personnel and from that perspective, the sustainability of an education program in these communities is comparatively more vulnerable compared to programs in stationary communities. Godhs school program fills the gap through a practice that is essentially based on the concept of a mobile school that moves with the community. Screening a community for the beginning of the initiative is a prolonged 6 month

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Sharing Practices for Educational Change

travels from community to community to provide vaccination and medical check ups. Godh also provides textbooks and basic teaching material such as blackboards and chalk. To date, the Ghod schooling program runs for 3 years, however starting next year it will be streamlined to a 1-year program. The reduction has been made in the context of the communitys perception of the relevance of the entire length of mainstream education. The focus now will be on functional literacy in line with UNICEFs definition

of literacy and after that children will be mainstreamed if they desire it so. Since the primary motivation of Ghod is to bring awareness to the community about education it is extensively involved in activities such as theatre (conducted by the community children); songs; drama production and puppet shows that are used to mobilize and attract the attention of community members.

POLICY BOX
Case Studies in Access: Godh and SAHE
The main thrust of CSOs working towards improvement of education service delivery for girls and working children is the establishment of a physical infrastructure that meets the particular needs of the community in which the children live and a substantially self-sustainable delivery mechanism through better coordination between the direct providers of education and outside school stakeholders Godh presents an example in innovation in modulating the physical infrastructure of the school after the communitys set up. The advantages in the adoption of such a modus operandi lie in the low cost of establishing a non-formal school that can be made of materials ranging from mud bricks to thatched straw, thus removing the need for investing heavily in a brick and mortar operation that is likely to be abandoned once the nomadic community moves. Tracking the settlement of such a move would require district level intervention whereby a field coordinator is assigned to each community per Godh practice thus keeping tabs on its movement and the scale of attendance amongst the school age children of the community. Moreover, monitoring (which can occur through a third party under a PPP agreement), would enable the health status of the children to be tracked, ensuring they are regularly vaccinated. In practice, Godh employed the services of the CSO Pahchaan is regular visits to each of its nomadic community. The SAHE case study assists in the identifying a measure of operation that can counter unsustainable increases in enrollment for girls at newly built public schools through shoring community ownership. Instead of making communities passive recipients of responsibilities imposed through a top down approach, the SAHE model involves consensus building at all levels through a step-by-step approach including approaching parents door-to-door to inquire about their willingness to send their girl child to school community responsibility in the identification and approval of a teacher from the community community responsibility in identifying the venue of teaching and in its maintenance Thus parental security concerns about the physical safety of their girl child are addressed through making the community the locus of responsibility for the delivery of education. The operational tier for the implementation of such a practice would again be the district level where the agency for cumulating a community response would be a School Management Committee (SMC) that has a legal presence in mediating the service delivery in education between the education providers and the district level.

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Documenting Educational Innovation

3. Retention

implies a penalty for a child who by necessity works to support his/her family by foregoing his/her earning in favor of an education. There exists no space for a balance to be maintained between the necessity of education and a realization that termination of child labor is improbable until an alternative support system is provided to his/her family. In this regard, the Zindagi Trusts Paid to learn program provides a case in point in that the program is founded on the notion of compensating working children for education. Additionally schools for working children need to move away from the generic pattern of schooling not only in timing and curriculum flexibility but also in recognizing the need to mediate the employer-child worker relationship that is necessary to ensure retention and enrolment in school programs. Noticeably the development of such a relationship is to be geared towards rewarding a child for the dual commitment he/she makes to work and schooling. The case of ANCE schools for working children, particularly the Saddar Cantt campus serves as an example on the implications of such a relationship. are 13 years of age. The latter age is above the age of entry into grade 6. Additionally at this point the tradeoff between earning potential and time spent at studies is high.

While lack of quality of education, and geographical distance are responsible for most dropouts in public sector schools, most CSOs also face the drop out syndrome particularly when working with the marginalized groups of children identified for the purposes of this report. In the case of girl students, the rate of drop out (beyond the issues of access and quality) increases dramatically from elementary to secondary school due to the lack of secondary school options in physical proximity. Characteristically CSOs are capable of providing education only till the primary level and very few incorporate a vision that encapsulates strategies to achieve a tertiary level of schooling for the students. The causes for a high drop out rate in schools for working children are multifaceted and go beyond infrastructural limitations to incorporate the effect of social actors in their lives. Within CSOs, organizations catering to working children still espouse mission statements averring the elimination of child labor. Conceptually, such an attitude

Case Study 2: Zindagi Trust The Paid to learn Program


The Trust focuses on functional literacy hence emphasizing subjects such as English, Urdu and Math, (which the schooling system considers to be directly relevant to the working childs needs in routine communication and calculation) during a program that runs for 3 years. The premises are usually rented and are housed in extant school building particularly government schools. The first school was established in the Manzoor Colony, Karachi and to date the Trust runs a total number of 46 schools. The total current enrolment stands at 3000 children. 2006 witnessed the passing out of the first batch that underwent the program. Mainstreaming is not part of the Trusts goals since the average age of the child who enters the program is 9 years and by the time they complete the program they

Rewarding the choice to learn

The Trust focuses on making educational opportunities available to working children through its Paid to learn program. The program is premised on the fact that working children cannot afford to go to school even if their fee is waived as they are critical earners for their families. Any attempt at inducting them into schools therefore needs to compensate for the income they will be expected to forgo during class time. At places apprenticeship connotes that they are not being paid at all, it is all the more difficult to require them to take time off from work. The Zindagi Trust schools operate through a process whereby a field officer of the Trust interacts with the employer of a child desirous of admission and negotiates a financial pact. It is usually agreed that a stipulated

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Sharing Practices for Educational Change

amount of the childs pay is curtailed on part of the employer in exchange for school hours; the amount excised is then paid by the Trust to the child directly (as opposed to the parents) with often an additional minimal stipend. Hence the child makes more by going to a school that usually runs for 3 hours from 2-5 in the afternoon after peak working hours. The curriculum was designed with the perspective that a working child is fundamentally different from the average school going child not only because of the extremities of the conditions (physical/emotional) in which he/she works, but also because of his exposure to the adult world at an early age which makes for a very rapid learning curve. The school makes no allowance for corporal punishment; instead shaving off a couple of rupees for a transgression imposes a penalty for deviant behavior. Field observations showed that the standard of English taught in the schools parallels the standard of English in government institutions.

Civic sense and a sense of personal hygiene are emphasized and money is awarded for behavior that complies with the two notions. The Trust has opened computer labs in almost all schools which are also open to the community after school hours. There is no formal system of tracking the children once they have left; however the computer labs provide a focal point for these children to gravitate at and hence keeping track of them so far is fairly straightforward. The drop out rate is a low 4% and is mainly attributed to work/family related migrations. At times however, the Trust is forced to drop a child from its program if it feels its curriculum is not designed to cater to his/her needs. The sustainability of the practice of education itself is achieved with help from three tiers i.e. the child, the employer and the parents. According to one Zindagi Trust official respondent, mothers are undoubtedly the champion of the cause of education..

Case Study 3: Association of Networks for Community Empowerment (ANCE)


ANCE was formed in 1996 and essentially works to provide basic education to children in communities where working children abound. ANCE has 4 centers in Lahore, working for children involved in domestic and external labor who work in trades ranging from shoemaking, automobile, glass making to brick kilns. The centers are located in areas that ply these trades such as Kot Lakput; Saddar; Awanpura and Baghbanput. All centers cater to classes 1-5 and are nonformal schools. After class 5 the children are encouraged to mainstream however it is largely a matter of the parents will. The establishment of a center is preceded by a need assessment review which encompasses the needs expressed by working children and their parents.

children and their siblings. The timings of the school are from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Although the teachers try to keep the children present throughout the school day some children can only come for restricted periods due to work commitments; however they are allowed the flexibility to walk in and join the lesson when they are able to. Homework for these children is limited. The school charges a fee of Rs. 5/10 per student and requires them to bear half the cost of the books. Children enrolling in the center typically belong to the age bracket of 4.5 18 years. The subjects taught are English; Math; Urdu; Islamiat and Social Studies. Saturday is observed as a half-day from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and utilized in co-curricular team activities that can range from field trips to different games.

Managing the employer-child nexus

ANCE schools

The school caters to disabled children apart from working

The teachers running ANCE schools also function as the social organizers in the community. Although the initial work in community mobilization is typically problematic, (the head teacher of one school had to don a burka for some time to gain entrance to homes, particularly in Pathan households) after a certain period of time has elapsed, the community becomes extremely supportive and contributes

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Documenting Educational Innovation

not only financially but also provides houses and schools for ANCE center events. On the employment front if a child complains of an employers behavior the school team visits the concerned workstation. The employers, as expected, are antagonistic towards any form of intervention. ANCE teachers (though the approach and its success varies from school to school) proceed in 3 steps in dealing with such cases. Originally counseling and discussion is attempted. If that does not work, the employers are pressurized by means of information that their commerce with the children is illegal. If the latter stratagem fails, the local Nazim is called in to support the childs cause. Relations with the employers have to be constantly managed so that children are allowed time off for school and extra curricular activities without any penalty. A conciliatory approach is attempted in the form of organizing the employers into a labor union that is encouraged to register itself with the Labor Department.

The school has formed a separate council for a) mainstreamed children; b) school children and c) children who have largely stopped attending school for work. This has created an immense network of children in the community who constantly update the school about each others status, thus taking on the function of following up on the centers students. Additionally these children help to identify vulnerable children in the community who can use the schools help. The head teacher of the Saddar, Cantt school notes that retention and enrolment are a direct function of the personal interest the school staff takes in the welfare of each child, which can be observed from visits to their homes and workplaces. The records of attendance have to be meticulously maintained so that no prolonged absence goes unnoticed. Moreover equal attention is required to ensure a fair treatment in government schools for children who have been mainstreamed.

POLICY BOX
Case Studies in Retention: Zindagi Trust and Ance
Questions of access, conceptualized in terms of a) the amount of earnings forgone in order to attend school and b) the relevance and adaptation of the school curriculum and operations to their needs are critical to the provision of education for working children. Zindagi Trust deviates from the tradition of exclusively coercing the child into either work or schooling by recognizing the specific socio-economic circumstance of their lifestyle and incorporating it into a schooling philosophy of Paid to Learn. The retention rate of the program is thus high as it compensates the child for the time spent away from work as opposed to penalizing him/her for working and studying. At the public level such a practice would require a separate shift run for working children in schools (in view of their timing constraints) and an education outlay specifically apportioned for working children through legislative means. ANCE highlights the need to progress from a capital-intensive development budget in education to a budget geared towards training teaching personnel in dealing with the special requirements of working children not only in terms of the accelerated nature of curriculum they require but also in the arena of maintaining parental and employer consent in the schooling of the child. Typically such an involvement would involve local officials such as the Nazim to ensure state pressure is maintained in the employer circles to send the child to school for a stipulated period.

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4. Relevance

Normatively, the curriculum used in school systems should be clearly linked with what that education seeks to achieve as a goal. While the ideological content in Pakistani curriculum is immense, it is notably sterile on contextual knowledge particularly with regards to gender sensitive lessons and schooling that is cognizant of the natural environment of a working child. A curriculum that is removed from the relevance of the life of its students and at the expense of the diversity of needs of the differing groups availing education, is ossified into a stagnant body of knowledge that carries no influence outside classrooms thereby limiting the scale of social mobility that it can grant students. In this regard Pahchaan and Insan Foundation deserve a mention with regards to the content and medium of communication. Pahchaan is an organization that has recently set up a drop in center for working and street children, that operates till the evening. The children are given personal items of utility (such as toothbrushes and soaps), which are linked with hygienic practices which are

taught to the children through a module program that has been developed by the organization. The modules use games, charts and construction paper to impart knowledge about basic diseases and how they are caught, the hygienic way to use toilet facilities and information dental health. The Insan Foundation uses theatre as the main vehicle of instruction whereby the children act out stories related to workers rights. CSO initiated innovation in the sphere of curriculum development have been piecemeal, ranging from using multiple curricula (e,g. OUP curriculum, internally developed reading packages and teaching material etcetera) through the grades to restricting it to the brass tack needs of the target group (i.e. functional literacy typically utilizing the Jugnu curriculum).Behbud Association provides a case in point where the emphasis on quality of education has led to a concentration on the quality of teaching that can be observed in the classroom environment. SSSS affords a look at a case study where the simultaneous emphasis on vocational skills has lead to an increase in enrolment of girls. average size of each class varies between 25-35 children and the number of teachers ranges between 15-18 per shift.

Case Study 1: Behbud Association


Behbud Association started off in Pindi/Isalmabad in 1965 as a need based response to the wives of the injured or dead soldiers of the 1965 war. The organization was registered with the government in 1967. The organizations work in each center has been mostly need based i.e. catering to the needs of the women coming to the center expanded into educating the children they brought along and then to looking into the health requirement of children and women.

Improving quality through teacher training

Behbud Education System (BES)

The schools are housed in Behbud Association centers for women hence ensuring a proper infrastructure that is secure and maintained regularly. Although the school operates a morning shift for girls from nursery till primary that runs from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. there is a provision for an evening shift for boys from nursery to middle school. The

Behbud Association avails the Sindh Textbook Board syllabus while additional books published by the Oxford University Press are provided for Nursery and Kindergarten students. Teachers are trained, mainly in June and December and the training occurs during the process of curriculum setting for the year and is conducted by the Learning Resource Centre. The schools use a unit plan system whereby the entire syllabus in divided into 6 thematic units of which 3 are introduced in the first term and 3 in the second. Each term the teachers choose themes for every month depending on any special event that may be incident in that month, nationally or internationally e.g. citizenship during August in honor of Independence Day and caring for others during Ramzan. The subject teachers of the

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Documenting Educational Innovation

morning and afternoon shift converge to decide which lesson from the curriculum can be used to highlight the theme most effectively, and hence employ a selective process in teaching. Apart from individual monthly planning there is also a forty minutes daily lesson plan. Some part of the day is dedicated to activities relating to the theme for each class in which skits are made, presentations and mobiles are also constructed. At the time of the field visit, the theme of citizenship was evident in the newspaper clippings, drawings, charts and posters tacked on to soft boards lining the courtyard of the Clifton school. Each theme also found a place in the classroom hangings in the primary school though not so much in the pre-primary classes. The classrooms were additionally decorated by childrens drawings of basic personal and civic concerns of health, cleanliness, hygiene, conservation and road safety.

The Learning Resource Center is the major driver behind dynamic school environments. It seeks to create meaningful linkages between academic knowledge and the childrens practical set of knowledge and skills in order to develop childrens resources so that they may function as agents of change in their families. It works through the development of low cost teaching aids to incorporate new approaches in teaching and resources such as libraries in each Behbud Association schools. A number of the graduates from BESs education program in turn become teachers or are provided a stipend through the Distress and Rehabilitation program for further education/professional training. The Students Club is composed of the alumni of BESs education programs who then meet to service the volunteer needs of the Association.

Case Study 2: Social Sector Support Service


SSSS has been running schools since 2000 functioning on the principle based on the understanding that employment is not a choice for children in a certain income bracket but a necessity and the education system should not punish them for working. Any approach taken towards working children therefore needs to appreciate the working environment of the child.

Social Sector Support Service Schools

The establishment of the school is based around three aspects of the schooling structure i.e. 1) a time model which requires scheduling school timings that are suitable for working children 2) employing teachers from the community to facilitate community trust and bypass any transport costs and 3) a community provided building or even just rooms in the same vicinity so that the structure is exempt from rent and hence the budget can be geared towards the production of school material. SSSS proceeds with school establishment through sending out field workers who carry out a needs assessment survey of a locality within Karachi where child employment and

homes of working children are in abundance. The field workers look at the cultural dynamic and the family set up of working children and gauge the number of interested children. While initially the surveys were carried out by SSSS staff, they are now also carried out by children who have passed the 8th/9th grade level in the program and are paid the same amount as an SSSS worker would be. The program makes extensive use of the Jugnu literacy material and SSSS does not mainstream children in the public education sector as it feels that the system does not operate in line with the needs of working children. The timings of the school are decided upon with the input of the children who join the classes and usually vary from 24 hours daily. The school does not charge any fee and provides children with books, uniforms and text materials.

Adapting to vocational needs

The curriculum focus of the school stresses vocational education and practical education over a compressed period, instead of rigorous intellectual development which bears fruit at a delayed stage only. The curriculum at the school follows the textbook board and aims to enable a child pass the 8th grade level in 3-4 years after which a number of children have gone on to the Allama Iqbal Open University. Currently the organization is funding the

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education expenses for these children but it was noted by the respondent, that such a practice cannot be sustained for a long period of time due to funding constraints. The school runs vocational classes for girls simultaneously with regular classes. The time table is designed in such a way that classes alternate from vocational instruction to regular instruction from one day to the next. Girls are taught sewing, stitching and embroidery and their products are put up for sale at Sunday bazaars. After the completion of the program SSSS administration endeavors to set up entrepreneurship avenues for them or attain placements for them in regulated businesses such as factories, automobile repair garages, hotel management, motor bike factories, and hospitals. Girls usually find easy placement in hospitals in the community and some have been successfully working in hotel management. The biggest hurdle is to obtain permission for girls who want

to work outside the home. To that end, house to house visits are organized and the mother is counseled to be the attitude transforming agent in her family. The barrier to sustained employment for boys in factories is a lack of professional attitude that forms a serious threat to their employment status. While boys tend to work in entrepreneurship projects with delight, particularly in the repair trade, the respondents stated that the response from consumers is discouraging and they shun workshops run by mere teenagers. However the attachment of the vocational component to the school curriculum has resulted in a higher demand from the community for education for both boys and girls with the result that provision is being made to increase the number of shifts in most SSSS schools.

POLICY BOX
Case Studies in Relevance: Behbud Association and SSSS
For working children and girl children, from a disadvantaged economic background, the question of quality does not revolve around conventional interventions of textbooks, teacher training, or classroom materials. The matter of concern lies in the consequence of the material taught at school to the life of the child at home, at work and to his/her future economic perspectives. Recognizing the immunity characterizing formal schooling in adapting to the needs of marginalized children both the Behbud Association and SSSS schools run vocational training centers in accompaniment with traditional schooling. Behbud Association recognizes the limited opportunities available for girls in vocational training and hence has not only set up safe arenas for their craft but also takes the initiative of lending them micro-credit and/or marketing their products for sale. SSSS runs separate vocational training schools for boys and girls; the former focusing on electrical and mechanical skills while the latter focuses on service industry. SSSS administers a placement program that after assisting a student in receiving appointments at working institutions follow it up with both employers and employees. In the legal framework under decentralization, it becomes thus necessary not only to include a technical stream of education at the schooling level but to also mandate the creation of a unit operating at the provincial level that caters specifically to ensuring placement of graduates emerging from the training stream in satisfactory and appropriate working locations and provides micro-credit, specifically for females, to set up working units inside their houses and communities where possible

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...in the current discourses, the primary role of civil society is envisioned as the accountability of government to deliver the basic services to the citizen and mobilizing the political will to such a commitment through activism.

the dilemma of civil society T


he previous section, documenting the interventions of civil society, seems to suggest CSOs have brought forth models of innovation in education that can transform the system of education in Pakistan. However, any discussion on the implications of such practices in the larger context of the education sector has to take a critical look at the agency of the CSOs in question to determine the complete sphere of their influence. The practices documented above have highlighted community mobilization and volunteerism to be the hallmark of the CSOs operating in the education sector in Pakistan. Pakistan supports a strong tradition of indigenous education provision (ICG, 2004). The growing role of NGOs and CSOs in the education sector has received recognition in the public and policy sector, as evident in the Education Sector Reforms (2002). More precisely, in the current discourses, the primary role of civil society is envisioned as the accountability of government to deliver the basic services to the citizen and mobilizing the political will to such a commitment through activism. The rationale covering such a definition of CSO role is based on the fact that CSOs are unable to match the resource level of state in service provision. The following section of the report observes the theoretical underpinnings of the role conceived for civil society and contextualizes the findings of the study within that framework because it is felt that a report focusing on CSO initiatives will remain incomplete if the role of civil society is not discussed holistically. The appearance of civil society as a distinct entity from the state, seeds itself in the middle of the 18th century in the Lockean concern over the extent to which a government could be considered a well-intentioned agent of good.(Qutb, 2005)The notion of civil society in early political discourse emerged from a realization that the state can overreach itself in the maintenance of the social contract to encroach upon the rights and liberties of the very public it is constituted to safeguard. The concept of civil society received a significant formulation

by Hegel in the beginning of the 19th century who saw civil society as the site of universal egoism working according to the logic of the economy. The Hegelian view then subscribes to the notion that the civil society guards the interest of the individual (as opposed to the state) and at its highest form, the civil society constitutes to form the state. (Chandoke, 2003) The Marxist critique of the civil society, while recognizing the description of Hegels civil society as valid, rejects the belief that it can serve as an entry point into the state. (Fine, 2001) Gramscian analyses further explained civil society as that arena of politics where the ruling class manufactures a culture of consent for its sustenance. The popular legitimacy bestowed on the concept of civil society in the past two decades has occurred in parallel with the reduction of the importance of the state in grassroots service delivery. Concurrently the definition of civil society/CSOs has been pared down to mean nongovernmental organizations alone. Admittedly the designation is reductionist in equating the entire gamut of civil society activity to mean one particular group of organizations that share certain feature i.e. they are voluntary, non-profit organizations, working separately from the state towards one characteristic of development e.g. rural health, childrens education, minority rights. Implicit in such a definition is the marginalization of other forms of social activism contained in social movements, political parties and voluntary associations. The spread of neo-liberal economics and markets has commonly been associated with the rise of New Social Movements (NSMs) that are considered to be radical in that they challenge the hegemony of the state by raising localized concerns against them (e.g. displacement of settlers for construction of dams, cutting down trees for clearing land). The proliferation of NGOs in the 1980s and 1990s transpires alongside the implementation of neoliberal reforms in developing countries. (Qutb, 2005) Thus, NGOs are regarded by many to be the alternative channels

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to the state for implementing the development targets of neo-liberal economic reform. The mainstream critique of non-governmental organizations rests on the notion of civil society as a space that is used to legitimize the existence of state negligence in basic service delivery functions by dint of moving in to fill the vacuum created by government failure, mismanagement or reticence. The practice of NGOs as largely conservative, status quo organizations rebels against the conceptualized model of a space that should normatively act as a pressure group with regards to the state in a dialogue of accountability. Anecdotal evidence collected in the course of this study makes it clear that most CSOs are aware and declare their primary responsibility to be that of advocacy and activism. However, in the course of their interaction with the government, a number of factors coerce them into focusing energies on to service delivery, which admittedly should only form a fraction of their mandate. The main factors undermining a purely watchdog role were identified as a) Community misgivings about the involvement of the state in schools. During the field observations, parents in some cases make it abundantly clear that they are only interested in the nature of teaching carried out by an authority other than the state. One CSO respondent interviewed, reported that after making a ghost school operational, the agency tried to hand it over to the government but was forced to retain the school as parts of its operations as parents threatened to pull out their children if it came under government operation. b) Key CSO respondents in most cases felt that engagement with the state is seen to be synonymous with compromising on critical aspects of the vision and mission laid out by a CSO hence inevitably leading to the creation of a parallel system of service delivery. The objection can be contrasted against the critique on the donor component of NGO functioning. Essentially, the appraisal notes that since NGOs are strapped for funds, their area of focus and strategy is donor dependent and changes from project to project. In the course of other projects, CSOs can be seen taking up

projects not directly related to their mandate on account of the fact that a donor is available for that particular target. Similarly, donor focus on its strategies is intrinsically linked with the availability of a donor interested in the same process, hence explaining how individual development goals (e.g. child centered education or supporting small cottage industries) tend to become buzzwords from time to time. c) Lobbying the government for change, was commonly perceived to involve prohibitive costs in terms of time and logistics. Most respondents made it clear that the state chooses to engage with some CSOs and disregard others on the basis of criteria that rely fractionally on the work carried out by the CSO and more so, on the personnel staffing the organization. In one instance, the interviewed CSO reported a case of an adopted school being closed down because the district government despite public approval of the project did not release funds for its maintenance while a similarly more visible NGO (run by a political notable) received funds for multiple projects of the same nature. d) Most CSOs surveyed strongly eschewed any affiliation with a political channel for the achievement of their stated goals. The goals of NGOs seem to be direct opposition to the comparatively radical NSMs in that they scorn formal entry in the state machinery and insist on maintaining an autonomous third sphere. Such autonomy and disconnect from the political sphere limits the potential of NGOs to effect social change and diverts them into attending to piecemeal issues (e.g. womens rights, micro-finance) in areas that lie explicitly within the control of the state. e) The emphasis on autonomy on part of the CSO respondents, extends to their general disinclination to be externally monitored on the processes front. This facet forms a popular feature of community perception of NGOs they enter and exit development projects without significant measures towards sustainability or assessment of long term impact. Additionally while it is recognized that CSOs emphasize social mobilization, the interaction with community members showed that the conceptualization

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of developmental needs is CSO derived as opposed to being derived from the community. The last widespread critique of CSOs is on the grounds that it unduly saddles NGOs with a nature of responsibility akin to that of the state. There needs to be a realization that no CSO or consortium of NGOs/CSOs can or should replace the role of the state in basic service delivery. Any contemporary analysis of the relationship of the state with CSOs in the education sector necessarily culls in the issue of public-private partnerships (PPP), particularly given the emphasis on PPP in the Education Sector Reforms, that discouragingly acknowledges the shift in governments role from being a provider to a facilitator (Ministry of Education, 2005: pg 31). There needs to be an acknowledgment of the fact that while CSOs can act as facilitators and initiators, it is unsustainable to rely on them for implementing policy delivery nationwide. As seen in the study relationship with the formal sector was seen to vary at multiple levels. While some CSO key personnel maintained genial and cooperative relationship with the formal sector, other CSOs reported indifferent relations. In schools again, relations with the local Nazims varied from region to region, regardless of the nature of the head CSO units relations with the formal sector. In recognition of the fact that no one CSO model in the study was found to holistically address the 4 fault lines recorded at the beginning of the study, individual practices from the CSOs noted in this study can be incorporated in the public domain through mechanisms that appreciate and build on the role of CSOs as piloting agents. The greatest strength of CSO undertaking in this study have been found to be their ability to activate communities into owning and managing projects at a certain level. A grassroots presence is thus an important component for the state to incorporate in the success of any delivery mechanism. While the recent measures of decentralization theoretically afford great space for such reforms, the devolution reforms are mired in teething problems. Two issues that directly relate to devolving ownership to lower levels are a) the critique that the reforms have been unable to undertake a shift from a policy instrument to a ground

reality due to political maneuvers at all levels of the devolved framework and b) that localization has occurred in such a way as to distribute responsibility over multiple tiers so that no one agency can be localized or identified as a responsible agent The recommendations presented in the following section do not assume that CSOs can form the whole panacea for the issues afflicting the education sector. They are based on the understanding that the role of the public sector cannot be replaced by either the private or the civil spheres of society; however, the latter two can serve as definitive facilitators and partners in all service delivery projects particularly with regards to technical innovation, evaluation and monitoring thus harking back to the original theoretical role of civil society.

47

Diagnostically then, the problems infesting the education sector in Pakistan are largely problems of inequity.

policy avenues A

n integral part of the study has been highlighting the role CSOs play in Pakistan in contradiction to the theoretical role mapped out for civil society systems in the Hegelian model whereby their role is chiefly that of advocacy and mobilization of political will. Earlier in the report the main factors undermining a purely watchdog role were recognized to be a) Community misgivings about the involvement of the state in any project or any handover of a CSO school to the state b) Engagement with the state is seen to be synonymous with compromising on critical aspects of the vision and mission and c) The prohibitive costs in terms of time and logistics of engaging with the government. The component of the Education Sector Reforms that spotlights development of public private partnerships with NGOs/CSOs encourages the prevalent trend in acknowledging the shift in governments role from being a provider to a facilitator, (ESR, 2002) and detailing incentive packages for the private sector without drawing out a legal and policy framework or a regulatory mechanism necessary for a sustainable and effective partnership. At the nucleus of such indistinct role lies the growing trend of withholding the procedures of effective practices on both sides of the public-private drive, not so much from deliberate denial as from the absence of formal mechanisms enabling the transfer of knowledge from one sector to the other. The focus of this study has been principally to examine the models of education practiced in nong o ve r n m e n t a l / c i v i l s o c i e t y s e t u p s fo r t h e marginalized/excluded children with the intention of distinguishing innovative practices that can be replicated within the public education system (formal and nonformal). The CSO component of the private sector has moved for innovation and adaptation along 4 dimensionsi.e. access, retention and relevance and sustainability -

cognizant of a heterogeneous composition of the student population along socio-economic backgrounds. The public schooling system has struggled to deliver in the 4 dimensions that underpin weak schooling histories for working children and the girl child, for reasons ranging from lack of grassroots reach; funding limitations; lack of political will; lack of policy innovation to inability to maintain a monitoring role. However an alteration in policy circles is on track under the current education policies of the Government of Pakistan which have been largely formulated within the context of the Education For All (EFA) goals laid out at the Dakar Conference. Within the EFA framework there is clear acknowledgement of the need to shift to direct planning to bring education to disadvantaged groups in society as opposed to relying on a blanket approach of education delivery. The policy instruments for carrying out EFA and Millennium Development Goals include, at the federal level The ten-year Perspective Development Plan (20012011) which under the Poverty Reduction Strategy recognizes that poverty is a result of deprivation in overlapping sectors i.e. education, health etcetera. The Education Sector Reforms (ESR) which were approved in 2001 and seek to implement the National Educational Policy (1998-2010) to achieve the 6 EFA goals drafted in the National Plan of Action (20012015) The National Ordinance for Compulsory Primary Education (2001) that was based on encouraging enrolment by focusing on parental supervision of child attendance at school. Initially the program was implemented in one taluqa in every district in Sindh selected for availability of favorable infrastructure. Diagnostically then, the problems infesting the education sector in Pakistan are largely problems of inequity. Dichotomies between the public and private education disabuse the formers clients of any notion of participation in the burgeoning formal economy while the clients of

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the private education system are primed from the elementary level to meet the market demand of the country. The educational outcome of such instruments is the emergence of groups of marginalized children, tangential to education systems, both public and private. In the given context it is appropriate to couch policy recommendations within a dualist framework that discriminate public practices from private practices in education accommodating the needs of disadvantaged children. The purpose is to outline particular intervention points within the decentralization framework for the bidirectional transfer of learnings along the public-private sector nexus along the axis of financing, access, relevance and a teacher focused approach to retention.

presence of SMCs the main agent for implementing the guidelines results in underutilization of funds. (Shah, 2003) The (SMCs) form the kernel of community ownership in devolution reforms. Currently the SMC legislation mandates a 5 member committee. (Education and Literacy Department, 2002) Typically SMC funds depend on the number of children present in the school at the rate of Rs. 70/80 per child. Technically the loci of inefficiency revolve around a vague fiscal transfer framework (Ministry of Education, 2003); multiple reporting lines for those working at the district level; (UNESCO, 2005) mismanagement at the local levels i.e. doubts about utilization of SMC funds by head teachers or other officials (ADB, 2005). Some adopters felt that in urban areas mismanagement typically occurred through the generation of false bills on infrastructure expenses and in rural areas through false bills for monitoring visits. The impression of field workers who have evaluated and worked with SMCs at the district level, suggests that the possibility of mismanagement largely exists due to connivance at multiple tiers of operation. Comparative literature review in conjunction with the experience of this study supports the thesis that a break in the cycle is usually made through a parallel framework of accountability either created through third party agencies intervening in the financial mechanism or through entering the monitoring of the school as an Adopter in every sense of the term The former has been the experience of CSOs who have either set up schools on their own or worked to adopt schools through public-private partnership programs, while in the latter scenario the outcome is dependent upon the extent of involvement of the adopter. A model adopter, who has been working girls school in Karachi, notes that the physical presence of the adopter in schools and particularly during auditing greatly reduces the chances of funds leaking through at most levels. Currently, legislation on SMCs is in its final stages of being amended to shift the role of chairperson to an SMC member outside the school staff (relegating the head teacher to the role of deputy

Sustainability/Financing

Prior to devolution the provincial governments received their revenues from the federal pool system that operates in the post devolution period as well with the supplementary clause of empowering district governments to share the provincial funds. The mechanism of transfer from the provincial to the district set up is in the form of one-line formula driven block grants (largely based on the provincial share of population) that are not earmarked for a specific purpose (except when funds are specifically transferred from the federal level to the district for a certain undertaking e.g. ESR.) In the sector of education, district funding is largely a function of resources mobilized at that level and a provincial non-earmarked fund. Given the fact that education budget and expenditure is allocated at the district level, the multiplicity of the communication channels between the district and the province governments hinders transfer of funds. (Shah, 2003) Other funds under the heads of School Management Committees (SMC) funds and development funds are mandated for the provision of free textbooks, repair of school property, infrastructure development (toilets, electricity etc.), scholarships, recruitment of teachers on contract and purchase of additional learning material (e.g. computers). The guidelines are rarely followed as the strain between the education department and the district government obstructs the approval of grants and the ghost

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chairperson) and to make funds accessible through a joint account (in the name of the chairperson and a committee member) to ensure the opportunity to misappropriate funds is reduced. Admittedly the role that adopters can play in education provision is limited given not only the problematic concept of handing over public schools to individual providers but also the impossibility of the logistics. (For further discussion on the role of adopters in education refer to Zubeida Mustafas article attached in the Appendix 4). However, adopter practices again can serve to highlight means of improving upon education practices. Essentially the question of incentivizing education for communities and children is an issue of bringing down the cost of the sending the child to school. The study has shown that community schools -where the community provides for the building or if the school is located in one-room operations- the cost rarely exceeds Rs. 25, 000 to Rs. 30, 000 per month. The cost per child of education in different CSO settings ranges from estimates of Rs. 500-1000/month for younger classes and Rs. 1500-2000/month for higher classes. The case study on ITA presented earlier in this document demonstrates the extent to which PPP can be utilized in establishing and sustaining a best practice school. The concept of PPP can be directly linked to an advocacy role for CSOs through technical partnerships with the state. The current system has no budget tracking mechanisms in place and to that end CSOs, by dint of their grassroots presence and a theoretical presence outside the state machinery, can follow the ITA template in raising awareness in communities about the specific roles and functions of SMCs through seminars and meetings training members in coordinating with the district and provincial departments for allocations training members on how to prioritize and allocate budget for various school needs through workshops impart technical skills on budget tracking and monitor regular reports provide assistance in raising funds within communities

The PPP component of the ESR document lacks definition in demarcating responsibilities. While a generic dichotomy may not be possible as the nature of expertise required by the state may differ from case/CSO to case/CSO as well as the nature of assistance a CSO is able to lend; the issue compels the drawing up of a memorandum that should be clearly indicative of the role of the CSO as a partner in the enterprise. This would then imply that the school remains the responsibility of the state financially thus stabilizing sustainability issues and, that the CSO in its capacity as a partner will be open to accountability by the state

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POLICY BOX: FINANCING


Issues
Technically the loci of inefficiency revolve around a vague fiscal transfer framework (Ministry of Education, 2003) and mismanagement due to connivance at multiple tiers of operation

Recommendation
While a move has been made to structurally stem monetary corruption (see above) one possible alternative could be the creation of a parallel framework of accountability created by the state through external agencies- not parastatals but agencies such as CSOs or private monitoring institutes- intervening in the financial mechanism to ensure transparency. In schools functioning under Adopters, monitoring can be ensured if the adopter maintains a physical presence at audits and expenditures. In the decentralization framework, a step could be taken towards efficient utilization of funds by raising awareness in communities about the specific roles and functions of SMCs through seminars and meetings; training members in coordinating with the district and provincial departments for allocations and training members on how to prioritize and allocate budget for various school needs through workshops In this regard the operation of non-formal systems of education through state initiatives is feasible. The investment to redress this concern will have to be more personnel based than capital based. Through the decentralization framework or through CSO operations in the area of concern the state can identify and mobilize communities that can set up home schools or 1 room school units.

At the brass tacks however, the question of incentivizing education for communities and children is an issue of bringing down the cost of the sending the child to school identified in terms of direct cost and indirect cost in the report (see above)

The absence of formal mechanisms enabling the transfer of knowledge from one sector to the other, limits replication of effective practices on both sides of the public-private divide. Public private partnerships are one formal mechanism through which learning can take place. However at present there is no formal structure of approach and management and no clear understanding of the role of the stakeholders.

An appropriate step could be the implementation of a procedure where a memorandum should be clearly indicative of the role of the CSO/private provider as a partner in the enterprise which would then imply that 1. the school remains the responsibility of the state financially thus stabilizing sustainability issues and, that 2. the CSO in its capacity as a partner will be open to accountability by the state

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Relevance

Education expenditure targeted towards poverty alleviation, as envisaged in the Perspective Plan, should normatively seek to increase the productivity and well being of the poorest sections of society and the communities in which they live. To that end the content of education needs to be relevant to the target population and hence the scope of intervention in this regard goes beyond conventional modification of textbook curriculum and classroom materials. Any student centered learning venture, particularly for working children, or a community based effort needs to integrate the voiced concerns of parents and students alike of the value of the content of education to the future of the student. The curriculum as it stands now is regarded to be relatively inflexible in formulation. (ICG, 2004) While the production of textbooks is the onus of the province, the content is set according to a national framework. The curriculum in the public sector thus is strictly defined while the private sector follows its own curriculum, largely in the medium of the English language. Children, particularly marginalized children, require not only material that bears relevance to their daily life but also material that allows for flexible teaching mechanisms. A centralized control system is singularly crippling to such a venture thus presenting the school system as an apathetic institution for the poorer sections of society. Community based interviews revealed in most cases that parents were unable to relate to what their children learn in school as they were illiterate themselves. Assistance in homework thus was far beyond the scope of caregivers who had trouble understanding the references their children made. Internationally, studies reveal that involving parents in a childs education at all levels drastically increases the retention rate of the child in the education system. To redress a gap that may potentially lead to a parent-child disconnect is essential if the education of a child is meant to have an impact beyond his/her person. To that end mandating schools to run crash courses in literacy and basic education for parents in evening shifts employing

primers such as the Jugnu curriculum is a feasible option that could be explored. A similar venture in family based learning has been carried out by Children Resources International in Pakistan through its Family Literacy program which offers 100 lessons in basic literacy and math skills developed by adult literacy experts. Given the fact that local economies, particularly rural ones are heavily dependent on their surrounding environments it is advisable to devolve certain components/subjects of the curriculum to district level to be set and developed by a local body. SAHEs experience in contextualizing Social Studies textbooks to the geographical climate of the particular district the CSO operates schools in, is one such venture that is notable for instructing children in the locality in which their families practice agriculture. The Community Schools Program run by the Sindh Education Foundation has similarly employed videos on agriculture developed by Shirkat Gah in disseminating lessons in schools in interior Sindh. A further proposal in the pipeline, developed by Professor Anita Ghulam Ali, is the creation of instructional manuals by working children themselves as a means to develop indigenous curriculum and also raise employment opportunities within the school. While the subject of geography and science provides one example, curriculum components of safety at work (particularly for children working in urban areas either as domestic labor or in workshops), health and hygiene are necessary and where possible should also be conducted outside the school systems as short courses in each community open to all for attendance. CSOs such as Pahchan, Insan Foundation and Sudhaar have developed material specifically for the purposes of dissemination amongst street children, working children and girls working at home and attending school. In Pakistans policy history there have been junctures whereby the issue of relevance was linked directly to vocational development. According to a respondent in 1967 an attempt was made to introduce a technical stream of education at the secondary level under the Provincial Government; however the effort stopped at acquiring

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physical infrastructure. The outcome of disused and abandoned laboratories and material was largely a consequence of the inability to locate technical teachers who were degree holders. Similarly in 2003, the government acquired a budget for IT development in schools. Money was collected from the students for the purchase of computers; however there were no trained teachers available to teach in government schools. Currently, the government has announced a policy of introducing the technical stream of education at the secondary level as an alternative to the Arts and Sciences stream and the plan is currently under implementation. It is not clear however whether the authorities are aware of the difference between trader, (wielding, plumbing etc.) vocational and technical education and whether any advance planning has been carried out to have the number of personnel required in their area. Observers and practitioners from CSOs indicate that there is danger of a repeated failure if the state does not loosen its policy of only considering degree/diploma holders as vocational teachers. A prudent course of action would be to enroll master craftsmen/technical workers who ply their trade, in diploma courses for training teachers and appoint them as instructors in the above stream. The policy would serve the dual purpose of raising the status of that trade in society as well as providing schools with a competent instructor. The successful experience of the Community Schools Program (SEF) in employing a potter master in the CSP School in Larkana for vocational training is expressive of the efficacy of advertising for teacher nominations at the grassroots level to facilitate the recruitment of such personnel. SSSS and Behbud Association were two CSOs in our sample that ran vocational schools parallel to their nonformal/formal schooling programs. The vocational schools were run by manual workers in that particular discipline. Behbud Association focuses primarily on vocational opportunities for girls- an underdeveloped arena-and on marketing the products manufactured through funfairs and shop sales. SSSS concentrates on training boys in mechanical and electrical work while girls tend to be trained

for service industries such as hotel management and nursing positions. SSSS additionally has a placement component to its program through which it has successfully placed the girls students in reputable hotels and hospitals. Although SSSS has tried to open workshops and garages for boys, it finds entrepreneurial success to be limited as customers do not trust such venues. A modification that may be met with greater success would be to link the working child with a suitable employer under a specific arrangement that caters to the needs of both and under regular monitoring of the workplace. PPP clearly has a role to play here as a placement and monitoring agent thus ensuring that working children are employed in regularized environments, thereby taking the first step towards standardizing the hitherto unmapped informal sector of child labor.

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POLICY BOX: RELEVANCE


Issues
The curriculum in the public sector thus is strictly defined while the private sector follows its own curriculum, largely in the medium of the English language. Children, particularly marginalized children, require a system where 1. the curriculum bears relevance to their daily life 2. the material allows for flexible teaching mechanisms 3. the school timings matches their needs

Recommendation
1. Given the fact that local economies, particularly rural ones are heavily dependent on their surrounding environments it is advisable to devolve certain components/subjects of the curriculum to district level to be set and developed by a local body. 2. Introduction of a third technical stream of education at the secondary level and enrolling master craftsmen/technical workers in diploma courses for training teachers and appoint them as instructors. 3. Once administration and content are made the purview of district governments then the school running could be adapted to the need of community working children by adjusting to their timing to suit the childrens working hours. A feasible operation would be mandating state schools to run crash courses in literacy and basic education for parents in evening shifts employing primers such as the Jugnu curriculum. The courses in such schools could occur periodically over the year until the entire community is inducted. of education provided lies in the jurisdiction of the district government EDO. The administrative structure under the devolution plan provides for the presence of a learning coordinator at the school level who leads the quality checks. In practice however, teachers appointed centrally are not held accountable by parents, community or the local officials. Reasons range from the fear of political clout, to distrust of the teachers qualifications. Models of school establishment by CSOs typically rely on a consensus building process in the selection of a teacher i.e. a locally qualified and selected candidate is put forward to the parents of potential students and/or elders of the community for approval on the basis of qualification and reputation. Once the selection of the teacher is approved, the community is made responsible for monitoring her/his attendance and performance. Usually the instructor teaches

Involving parents in a childs education at all levels drastically increases the retention rate of the child in the education system but is an unrealized goal in Pakistan, particularly for marginalized children as their parents are illiterate.

The state machinery is the largest source of employment hence teacher appointments are made less on the basis of meritocracy and more to gain both political and monetary mileage. Studies and interviews indicate that the phenomenon of ghost schools is largely a function of the fact that as tenured civil servants with pension rights, teachers have a negligible incentive to attend school thus leaving a school building standing empty and additionally eating into a limited education budget. (ICG, 2004) The depressing state of government institutions for special children has been discussed in detail in far from laudatory terms in an article attached in Appendix 5. Currently appointments and dismissals of teachers are under the jurisdiction of the provincial education department, while monitoring and evaluation of the quality

Retention

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for a probationary period before her/his contract is extended subject to community approval. Absenteeism is a serious issue as mentioned afore with reference to ghost schools. In that regard the Fellowship School Program has piloted a practice in Balochistan that by linking teacher attendance to remuneration has ensured 94% attendance at the school level. To reiterate, the CSO practice of hiring local teachers and moreover local teachers who can provide one room in their house to function as a school is also an effective measure in reducing absenteeism. Where such a practice cannot be implemented, it is imperative that the state bears the cost of transporting the teacher to and from the school premises. Teachers are required to sign in at their schools at the start of the day and their attendance is monitored and checked by the ADO (supervisor). Regular failure to appear at school for work can lead to a stopping of a teachers salary. However, in reality it is difficult for the ADO to check in with all schools on a regular basis to verify attendance sheets due to lack of transportation/vehicles and funds. In Thatta, each ADO for elementary education (female) is responsible for supervising 30 girls schools. (Stone et.al., 2006) Distance has also figured as an issue in the conducting of teacher trainings in which context the Adopt-A-School

Program report indicates that public school teachers were missing from classrooms for weeks and sometimes as much as a month or two as they were ostensibly away for teacher trainings without making a provision for substitute teachers. An evasive mechanism would be to conduct on location trainings, thus evaluating and improving teaching methodologies in their home environment. Given that fact that the needs of working children in particular are locality dependent in terms of their economic activity, teacher trainings on location would be able to incorporate specialized components on how to make activity based and constructionivist models of learning from the curriculum assigned. On a legal scale, such a practice could enter the policy arena by devolving hiring and dismissal of teacher to the same level where monitoring and evaluation lies, in this case, the district level by shifting teachers to institution specific contracts, extendable subject to per formance reviews by increasing public sector expenditure so that a teaching position is more accessible to qualified teachers, thus minimizing the damage caused to their function as a result of part time jobs held outside the institution

POLICY BOX: RETENTION


ISSUES
The phenomenon of ghost schools is largely a function of the fact that as tenured civil servants with pension rights, unscrupulous teachers have a negligible incentive to attend school. Appointments and dismissals of teachers are under the jurisdiction of the Provincial education department while monitoring and evaluation of the quality of education provided is the province of the district government EDO

RECOMMENDATION
Involvement of the local community as the hiringdismissal agency would localize the process of accountability. Measures to counter teacher induced drop out rates might include: 1. Devolving hiring and dismissal of teacher to the same level where monitoring and evaluation lies, in this case, the district level 2. By shifting teachers to institution specific contracts, extendable subject to performance reviews 3. By increasing public sector expenditure so that a teaching position is more accessible to qualified teachers thus minimizing the damage caused to their function as a result of part time jobs held outside the institution

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Access

Questions of access are central to the provision of education for working children. In urban areas, workplaces employing children tend to converge at one geographical locality. Similarly in rural areas, it is not uncommon to find living settlements burgeoning around industrial units and agricultural fields where children work in the daytime. The relatively homogenous composition of the group in question in one particular locality should facilitate the establishment of an educational institute that caters specifically to working children timings and curriculum requirements; however the inflexibility of the education regime sidelines these groups from education. Adequate infrastructure is vital to parental perception of quality education. However, the emphasis in state policies so far on conceptualizing infrastructure strictly as brick and mortar, overlooks the nuances school structure that rule out education for marginalized groups specially girls. Female student retention pivots on guarantees of safety that need to be provided in the form of School provision at walking distance from the homes Schools need to be equipped with toilets and boundary walls Schools need to be staffed with female teachers While the first two points hold true for making education accessible to most children, particularly working children, the last point is a realization that follows from severe security threats of kidnapping posed due to tribal feuds. While most CSOs have been particular in hiring a female teacher from the community, a notable solution targeting the security issue has been the SEFs CSP program in Larkana, which ensures that the teacher hired is from the same tribe as the children being taught in the school. The success rate of the scheme, measured in terms of enrolment and drop out rate has been immense compared to previous records. Typically however, the existence of tribal lines predicts that the realization of any scheme on paper, will need intense on-ground mediation and attention to ensure sustainability and prevent exclusion. The need thus is to move from capital intensive measures in education to

people centered, manually intensive measures to improve education outcomes. An issue of access that pervades across the range of potential students in Pakistan is the lack in sheer numbers of middle and secondary schools to accommodate the students leaving from the primary schooling sector. In the last decade or so primary schooling is seen as the main sector of intervention as it is assumed to be a high-return investment, however the gap in planning of schools has contributed to a drop out rates across the board. With reference to access for working children, the NonFormal Basic Education (NFBE), scheme (launched by NCHD) was introduced to those children who did not have access to formal schooling. Variants of non-formal schooling have been most commonly employed by CSOs to education working children in both provinces. Subsequent to devolution, the district in its role as the operational tier of governance is responsible for the decision of locating new schools, supervising construction and ensuring that school building comply with safety standards. Building on the example of FLAME, SAHE and SEF schools, a sustainable measure is for the district government to establish schools for working children and girls by locating a female teacher in the community who can provide a free room in her house to be used as the school premises. The enterprise can additionally can help raise the status of the teacher in the community, both financially and socially. A number of CSOs follow the practice of mainstreaming working children, once they have finished the non-formal course. Across the board the charge is that head teachers at government schools tend to be hostile towards the enrolled working children and typically need counseling to ensure some form of assimilation of the children in the classroom. Typically though, children tend to drop out after a while as they feel they are unable to adapt. In this context, arguably it would be a significant move if the Head Teacher is a) given leeway in school regimen to make allowances for working children and b) compelled by policy and monitoring action (by an SMC or a third party) to ensure that working childrens needs are adapted to at school.

57

Documenting Educational Innovation

Functionally, the requirements for working children in formal schooling would include leeway in timings to ensure the child is not penalized at work completion of homework in school a curriculum component on child/labor rights and safety at work liaison with the employers and parents of children through regular visits, either by teachers based on a schedule developed internally (e.g. as conducted by ANCE) or through the third agency that can also perform the monitoring function at the school in schools, that develop in and around working areas and exclusively target working children, it could be suggested that the Zindagi Trust model is followed in compensating the child for hours of labor lost local officials e.g. the Nazim should be involved directly

in the effort of mediating the employer-working childformal school nexus. ANCEs effort in the Saddar branch are demonstrative of the levels of leeway employers are willing to provide once the supervision of the Nazim is injected into the scheme Ideally each school should possess a school development plan over a certain timeline developed and worked on by the staff at the school and the community stakeholders. The plan should identify and phase out infrastructural development of the school thus making the SMC function more meaningful. The plan can be developed by a third party or an adopter as has been in the case of CSOs, who adopt schools or carry out needs assessment analyses before obtaining consent from communities to operate in their areas.

POLICY BOX: ACCESS


Issues
The location of the school plays a significant role in determining the attendance of working children, the farther it is from home or place of employment and the more inflexible the timing, the less likely the attendance.

Recommendation
The uniform composition of children in one particular locality (i.e. carpet workers, workshop apprentices working around their trade/factory areas) should facilitate the establishment of an educational institute that caters specifically to working children timings and curriculum requirements Feasible options could include hiring a female teacher from the community (would also include localizing the process of hiring a teacher); to ensure that the teacher hired is from the same tribe/ethnicity as the children being taught in the school (in areas of inter-tribal conflict) and/or to recruit a female teacher in the community who can provide a free room in her house to be used as the school premises. Placement and construction of schools should occur through a targeted process with specific guidelines as to the number of feeder schools per secondary schools. A secondary school for girls and boys (separate) should be a necessary companion to primary schools.

Female student retention pivots on safety points that find physical translation into the need for girl schools 1. to be based at walking distance from the homes 2. and to be staffed with female teachers

An issue of access that pervades across the range of potential students in Pakistan is the lack in sheer numbers of middle and secondary schools to accommodate the students leaving from the primary schooling sector.

58

Sharing Practices for Educational Change

POLICY BOX: ACCESS (contd)


Issues
A number of CSOs follow the practice of mainstreaming working children, once they have finished the nonformal course. Typically though, children tend to drop out after a while as they feel they are unable to adapt and the classroom environment is hostile.

Recommendation
It would be a significant move if the Head Teacher is a) given leeway in school regimen to make allowances for working children and b) compelled by policy and monitoring action (by an SMC or a third party ) to ensure that working childrens needs are adapted to at school such as leeway in timings to ensure the child is not penalized at work completion of homework in school a curriculum component on child/labor rights and safety at work liaison with the employers and parents of children through regular visits, either by teachers based on a schedule developed internally local officials e.g. the Nazim should be involved directly in the effort of mediating the employer-working childformal school nexus.

59

Each stakeholder in the education sector has a certain responsibility to bear in improving the functioning of the education system...The donors and NGO must be willing to provide the new ideas, information, training and resources required for stabilizing and strengthening the education system.

xamining service delivery through the lens of community involvement and mobilization requires a focus on the extent to which policy institutions provide these agents with an enabling environment. The recommendations given above have sought largely to expand the emphasis on state delivery through successful mechanisms employed in the CSO experience. Decentralization of political power has largely been experienced (e.g. Kerala, Mexico) to be a comparatively pro-poor, grassroots reform. In the last decade reservations have emerged about the efficacy of the reform in the face of the possibility that localization of politics blurs accountability lines and allows particularistic politics to rule. To move the decentralization system away from the potential of chaos to the creation of a vibrant system that realizes the areas of reform identified under ESR and EFA dictates a pro-active role on part of the stakeholders in the education sector. The process of creating an education system that is appropriate for the diverse socio-economic background of students, is a process that will take both time and the willingness to experiment and try new approaches and ideas, where CSOs can play an authentic role. While no one CSO model in the study was found to holistically address the 4 fault lines recorded at the beginning of the study, individual practices from the CSOs remarked in this study, can be incorporated in the public domain through mechanisms that build on the transfer of knowledge across the public-private partition. Each stakeholder in the education sector has a certain responsibility to bear in improving the functioning of the education system. The government must strengthen their commitment to supporting new ideas and innovations in education through financial commitment and a translation of political power and accountability from paper to reality. Most significantly the government should take measures to encourage and establish channels of sharing of good practices between CSOs, district governments and between districts. Parents and communities and, principals and teachers, must take a more active role in contributing to and running the education system and in trying new ideas and innovations. The donors and NGO must be willing to provide the new ideas, information, training and resources required for stabilizing and strengthening the education system. The menu of proposals provided above is large and necessitates stakeholder cohesion in every facet to effect an improvement however, it is not unattainable and movement on any one of the dimensions is a step towards better governance.

conclusion E

61

citations A

Andrabi, T. and Khwaja, A. (2002). The Rise of Private Schooling in Pakistan in Gulzar H. Shah, Faisal Bari and Nadia Ejaz (2005). The Role of NGOs in Basic and Primary Education in Pakistan: NGO Pulse Report. Lahore: LUMS-McGill Social Enterprise Development Programme, Lahore University of Management Sciences Asian Development Bank, Department for International Development and World Bank. (2005). Devolution in Pakistan: An Assessment and Recommendations for Action. Islamabad: Asian Development Bank Bacha, A.Z. (2006). Centers for special children in poor shape Karachi: Dawn Group of Newspapers, November 23 Baqir, F. (2001). Development of Grassroots Institutions: Experience of Life in Pakistan (1993-1998) In Gulzar H. Shah, Faisal Bari and Nadia Ejaz. (2005). The Role of NGOs in Basic and Primary Education in Pakistan: NGO Pulse Report. Lahore: LUMS-McGill Social Enterprise Development Programme, Lahore University of Management Sciences Brock, C. and Camish, N. (1997). Factors Affecting Female Participation in Education in Seven Different Countries. UK: Depar tment for I nternational D evelopment Carr-Hill, R.A., A.N.Kweka, M. Rusimbi and R. Chengelele. (1991). The functioning and effects of the Tanzanian Literacy Programme. IIEP Research Report No. 93. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning Chandhoke, N. (2003) The Conceits of Civil Society. New Delhi: Oxford University Press Cheema, A. and Mohmand, S.K. (2004). Local Government Reforms: Legitimizing centralization or a driver for pro-poor change? Lahore: Lahore University of Management Sciences

Education and Literacy Department. (2002). Aao mil ker school banaye [Let us make a school together]. Karachi: Government of Sindh Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), Statistics Division, Ministry of Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis, International Labour Organization (ILO) and International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC). (1996). Summary Results of Child Labour Survey in Pakistan. Islamabad: Government of Pakistan Fine, R. (2001) Political Investigations: Hegel, Marx, Arendt. London: Routledge Ghaus-Pasha, A., Jamal, H. and Iqbal, M. A. (2002). Dimensions of the Non-Profit Sector in Pakistan. Prepared by Social Policy and Development Centre In collaboration with Aga Khan Foundation (Pakistan) and Center for Civil Society, Johns Hopkins University, USA International Crisis Group. (2004). Pakistan: Reforming the Education Sector. International Crisis Group, Asia Report. Accessed at www.crisisgroup.org/ on September 15, 2006 Irfan, G. (2006). Non-formal education body in the offing. Karachi: The Daily Times, September 17 Miedel, W. T., Reynolds, A. J. (1999). Parent involvement in early intervention for disadvantaged children: Does it matter? Journal of School Psychology, 37(4), 379-402 Ministry of Education. (2002). Education Sector Reforms: Action Plan 2001- 2004. Islamabad: Government of Pakistan Ministry of Education. (2005). Chapter: 2: Key Features and Implementation Strategies of the Education Sector Reform in Pakistan Education Sector Reforms: Action Plan (2000-2005) Islamabad: Government of Pakistan Ministry of Education. (2003). Financing of Education in Pakistan: An estimation of required and available

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resources to achieve EFA goals In collaboration with UNESCO, Islamabad. Islamabad: Government of Pakistan Ministry of Finance. 2006. Chapter 11- Education in Economic Survey of Pakistan: 2005-2006. Islamabad: Government of Pakistan Mustafa, Z. (2006). School Adopters in a Dilemma Karachi: Dawn Group of Newspapers, November 11 National Education Management Information System. Academy of Educational Planning and Management. (200405). Pakistan Education Statistics. Islamabad: Ministry of Education. Government of Pakistan Nayyar-Stone, R., Ebel, R., Ignatova, S. and Rashid, K. (2006). Assessment Report: Pakistan Devolution Support Project .Washington: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Oketch, H. (1995) "Kenya". In McGrath, S. et al. Education and Training for the Informal Sector. Volume Two. Education Paper 11. London: Overseas Development Administration Qutb, S. (2005). The development of civil society discourse for Civil Society and Social Movements. Lahore: Lahore University of Management Sciences SAHE. (2003). Status of Education NGOs in Punjab. Lahore: Society for the Advancement of Education (SAHE) Shah, D. (2003). Decentralization in the Education System of Pakistan: Policies and Strategies. Islamabad: Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan Shah, G.H., Bari, F. and Ejaz, N. (2005). The Role of NGOs in Basic and Primary Education in Pakistan: NGO Pulse Report. Lahore: LUMS-McGill Social Enterprise Development Programme, Lahore University of Management Sciences Social Policy and Development Center. (2003). Social Development in Pakistan: The State of Education. Annual Review, 2002-2003. SPDC

Statistics Division, Government of Pakistan. (2005). Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey, 200405. Islamabad: Federal Bureau of Statistics The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. (1973). Article 37 The World Bank. (1996). Annual Report-Section Four: South Asia. Washington: The World Bank. Accessed at http://www.worldbank.org/html/extpb/annrep96/wbar0 8b.htm on 10th August, 2006 The World Bank. (2005). Country Assessment ReportBridging the Gender Gap: Challenges and Opportunities in the Economic Survey of Pakistan, 2005-2006. Islamabad: Government of Pakistan UNESCO (2005). Decentralization in Education: National Policies and Practices. France: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Zafar, F. (2005). Creating alternatives: SAHE Community Based Schools. Lahore: Society for the Advancement of Education (SAHE), Lahore, Pakistan

64

Appendix i

TABLE 1

Enrolment Statistics

Table 11.3: Education Statistics 2004-05 Level Primary Middle Secondary Higher secondary/inter colleges (9-12) Secondary Technical/vocational institutions Degree College Universities

Institutions 157,158 30,418 16,590 1,604 747 677 103

Enrollment Teachers 21,333206 450,136 4,550,473 246,666 1,880,021 282,113 268,595 44,663 113,664 7,356 422,931 15,653 520,666 60,633 Source: Ministry of Education 2004-05

TABLE 2

Gender Disparity
Table 11.8 Gender Gap in overall Literacy, GER and NER at the primary Level (%) 2004-05
Region/Province Gender gap in leteracy(%) Gender gap in NER at the primary Level Gender gap in GER at the primary level

Urban Areas Punjab Sindh NWFP Balochistan Rural Areas Punjab Sindh NWFP Balochistan Pakistan Punjab Sindh NWFP Balochistan

2001-02 16 11 20 29 35 30 25 37 39 38 26 21 29 37 38

2004-05 16 12 18 28 32 29 24 38 38 34 25 21 27 38 33

2001-02 3 -1 6 8 14 10 6 16 16 15 8 4 12 15 15

2004-05 3 1 5 6 6 11 7 16 15 17 8 5 11 13 15

2001-02 7 2 13 14 23 28 19 32 44 35 22 15 25 41 33

2004-05 7 3 9 16 15 21 14 26 30 38 17 11 19 28 34

Source: PSLM 2004-05

65

Appendix ii

TABLE 3

Key Personnel Interviewed


ORGANIZATIONS (PUNJAB)
IDARA-E-TALEEM-O-AAGAHI (urban/rural) SUDHAAR (rural) SANJAN NAGAR (urban) PAHCHAAN (urban) ANCE (urban/sub-urban) INSAN FOUNDATION (urban) SAHE (rural) GHOD (sub-urban) BUNYAD FOUNDATION (urban/rural) BEHBUD ASSOCIATION (urban) INDUS RESOURCE CENTER (rural) ZINDAGI TRUST (urban) SOCIAL SECTOR SUPPORT SERVICE (urban/sub-urban) THE CITIZENS FOUNDATION (urban/rural) FRIENDS OF LITERACY AND MASS EDUCATION (sub-urban) Total number of case studies employed in final sample Rural distribution Urban distribution 15 6 of 15 (4 in Punjab and 2 in Sindh) 11 of 15 (6 in Punjab and 5 in Sindh)

KEY PERSONNEL INTERVIEWED


Dr. Baela Raza Jamil Chairperson ITA Fawad Usman Khan Project Coordinator Dr. Pervaiz Khalid Coordinator Education Fund

Yameena Razzaq Administrative Coordinator Sarah Asad Executive Director Raja Abbas Ali President Muhammad Mushtaq Director Fareeha Zafar Director Nazir Ahmad Ghazi Executive Director Professor Saeed-ur-Rehman Executive Director Khadijah Manzur Chairperson Education Group Sadiqa Salahuddin Executive Director Naved Shahid Hussain Chief Executive Abdullah Khadim Hussain Chief Executive Lt. Gen. (R) S.P. Shahid Chief Executive Officer Ambassador (R) Mansoor Alam Chairman

66

Appendix iii
Agreement on Collaborating for Education Development through Public Private Partnerships Partnerships between District Government Attock And Civil Society Organization Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) Public Trust
This agreement made on the 4th Day of December 2002 between the District Government Sheikhupura through its Executive District Officers, Education, Literacy and Community Development (Herein after), called the (DG) which expression shall, wherever the context allows, includes its assignees, executors, successors, and attorney etc; AND NGO Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) Public Trust, which terms whenever the reference allows shall include their assignees, successors, executors and attorneys etc; AND WHEREAS the NGO is a philanthropic Non-Government Organization, aimed at uplifting the standard of Education through public private partnership. 1) The status of NGO shall be that of a professional partner to district government engaged to improve the educational standards and planning, stimulate civic values, social responsibilities in the students, teachers, parents, local communities and field staff. Planning and implementation is proposed through District Teams with the central participation of Departments of Education/Literacy and Civil Society Partners. A mainstreamed approach will be adopted to optimally use public sector functionaries supplemented by officers hired by civil society organizations. According to government rules public sector officers/civil servants are entitled to hold additional charge for special tasks for which they are eligible to be paid a special allowance. This rule will be applied in an upfront and transparent manner with full participation and endorsement of the government as a strategy for sustaining new skills. The period of collaboration between the NGO and DG will be from December 04, 2002 to December 03, 2007. This may be mutually extended or shortened by both parties. The NGO will be allowed to undertake development of District Education Plan (DEP) with the district education/literacy teams for promoting EFA Goals with full endorsement of the DG. The DG will collaborate with ITA/NGO in capacity building of DG officials where required in the areas of strengthening of EMIS, Decentralization, School Development Planning, Budgeting, Community Mobilization, Early Childhood Education, Literacy and promotion of public private partnerships through participatory methods and IT based learning management solutions. The EDOs (Education, Literacy & Community Development) under the current MOU / Agreement in principle agree to consider initiatives of special programmes by NGO, such as community mobilization, teachers training, health, early childhood education, IT literacy, literacy for mothers and siblings, homework study centers and Child Labor education programs etc. However, the NGO shall consult with the DG prior to initiating such programmes to ensure that liabilities and responsibilities are clearly established and there is no out of budget financial liability for the DG, except where permissible through schemes of govt. The NGO will offer advice and support to the DGs District Education Committee and its Convenor, as and when required as well as give inputs for annual budgets to DG on education/literacy on a voluntary basis as a partner. Where possible and subject to availability of funds and development budgets, NGO may be formally hired by the

2)

3) 4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

67

District Government to render services in education improvement, education management systems, IT support and social mobilization of communities and creation of CCBs. 9) DG will agree to identify target schools for improvement by ITA and its partners through a transparent and logical criteria ensuring a balanced approach so that schools selected represent, primary, elementary and secondary levels of education to the ratio of (40%, 40% and 20%) respectively. The rate of fee and other funds charged by the schools from the students at the time of school improvement shall not be enhanced by NGO later. However, where Nursery, or an Early Childhood Education Programme, Computer classes & Literacy classes are established there will be subject to some user charges based on the ability to pay by the local students/learners and in consultation with EDOs (Education / Literacy). All fees collected by the School through its School Council / PTA account from special programmes will be spent on that specific school to upgrade quality facilities for the students. NGO itself will not claim any donation from the students or burden with any additional financial liability under any head whatsoever. For IT/computer program, same rules and regulations shall apply for public private partnership as they are currently in operation for the District and in accordance with the department of Education Punjab. Any work undertaken in construction will for additional classrooms will be provided through government and NGO support, subject to availability of funds. The NGO shall not make any addition or alteration in the existing structure of the school nor shall raise any fresh construction except with the prior approval of EDO (Education). It shall submit drawings and electrical details where applicable. The technical approval will be given by the District Government, failing which the NGO will officially communicate to the EDO (Education)/ Works the date of commencement of the construction. The NGO shall neither allow any third party interference in any manner whatsoever in the administration, possession or proprietary rights of the school/s being helped by it, nor shall open any office etc; for itself within the school premises except that considered necessary for school administration but that too shall be subject to prior approval of the DG. That the services of the school staff posted by the District Government in the schools shall continue to be administratively governed under the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2001/ Education Departments recruitment rules. That District Government shall not liable to any financial liability except payments of emoluments of the DG staff posted in the school / offices as permissible under the law. That the issues pertaining to absenteeism of teachers / head teachers/field staff in any manner what so ever will be dealt with through a mutually agreed strategy of District Government and the NGO, to minimize absenteeism and enhance teacher presence in schools, the cornerstone of quality education. That the management and other affairs of the schools earmarked for improvement shall be supervised by the School Council consisting of members, from each of the following organizations: School-Head Teachers / Teacher Parents Community NGO/ITA representative Councilor at UC level/Nazim or his / her nominees from the Education Committee Representative officer of EDO Education (optional) The head teacher would act as the Chairperson of the SC The School Council will be eligible to become a Citizen Community Board according to Punjab Local Government Plan 2001 and CSO notification by Federal Ministry of Education to access government funds and other programmes for which CCBs are eligible. NGO/ ITA will help District Government in the formation of CCBs and transformation of SCs into CCBs. 17) That if NGO of its own accord engages any additional staff in schools earmarked for improvement, it shall be at

10)

11)

12)

13)

14)

15)

16)

a) b) c) d) e) f)

68

the risk and cost of NGO. In this connection, NGO shall not be entitled to claim any compensation from the DG. However, NGO hired teachers eligible for contract posts as advertised by the DG from time to time may apply according to the rules to be considered on transparent result based merit and if required be posted at the same school where they are currently teaching, with minimum loss to the school. 18). The staff hired by NGO will be professionally sound. They will be under the joined management of head teacher and NGO. All permissions for leave and or other movement for NGO hired staff will be obtained through head teachers with a copy to the NGO management. A joint review of NGO hired school staff will be conducted by head teacher and NGO representatives including annual teacher/staff appraisals. The utility bills shall be paid from the school funds according to the prevalent practice. Other miscellaneous expenses incurred on purchase of registers, blackboard, chalk, dusters, filters, first aid supplies and any other paraphernalia should also be met principally out of the funds collected by the School / DG subject to availability of funds. Shortfalls in such items, furniture, science materials, libraries etc. will be mutually discussed and supported by NGO, where DG / School funds are not available. Tuck Shop (s) etc. rent will be revised by the DG and the terms will be established jointly by the DG and NGO to ensure that all benefits from revision will be available for the improvement of that specific school facility where the tuck shop is located. The funds will be deposited in the Behbood or Union or the School Fund. School Councils with support from NGO will be authorized to start second shift in all target schools to accommodate increased students strength and re-schedule school timing for better management of the two shifts with approval of District Government and EDO Education. The school would qualify for second shift only if the enrolment overflow for second shift is at least 150 students or if the number of classrooms/space available is insufficient for two or more classes. All qualified professional staff will be recruited for the shift. If undertaken through CPP, then utilities of both second sifts will be provided as per rules of CPP. This can be done through completing prescribed formalities of CPP second shift. If government funds are available through DGs mainstream budget the programme can be funded through approved SNEs (Schedule of new expenditures) for second shift. If undertaken as part of government supported programme, budgets and personnel, then the procedure for utilities will remain the same as the morning shift. NGO will be authorized to supplement the existing syllabus in all the target schools as per Punjab Textbook Board. NGO in collaboration with School Councils will be authorized to apply for change of medium of instruction (From Urdu to English) initially from Cass-I and adopted school in consultation with the DG and its EDO (Education). The provision and maintenance of fully equipped science laboratory and library shall be the responsibility of DG if money is available, otherwise of the school community (parent, teachers and students) and NGO as partners. Any such item introduced by NGO shall be marked as Property of school, which shall be responsible for its maintenance and upkeep. That the annual repairs and white wash of the schools earmarked for school improvement shall be undertaken by the DG and in case of shortfalls collaboratively by SCs / Communities and NGO, subject to availability of resources by all parties. Special learning programs for local communities including literacy, computer /IT literacy, drop in homework centers, training workshops may be conducted in schools in the afternoon shifts of the government schools which will be used as Community Learning Centres. All costs of maintenance, utilities and other ancillary improvements will be borne by the afternoon shift vendors through a formal agreement with the School Council and the EDO Education. Any damage to property on account of these programmes will be the liability of the vendors as reflected in the agreement. Mobilization of local community will be undertaken by forming/making functional of school councils and / or Citizen Community Boards. The joint management through community / parental involvement will enable school improvement to have a sustainable ownership. The school council will have an account to be operated by the Chairperson with full endorsement of the School Council on areas of expenditure, to enable them to mobilize add ional funds. There are two phases envisaged.

19)

20)

21)

22) 23)

24)

25)

26)

27).

69

i).

Phase I will ensure that a separate School Council/CCB account is opened in a scheduled bank with additional funds mobilized from the NGO, the community and through user charges from special programmes such as Nursery and Computer classes for school improvement.

Phase 2 is subject to a principled policy review and will evolve once the policy negotiation have been finalized with the DG according to its financial procedures, such that the account should also have all funds collected from the children at the school level, e.g. Union Funds, Science and Red Crescent Funds, Firogh-e-Taleem funds etc. These funds should be seen as auditable under grant-in-aid category and not be subject to rigors of public sector audit. However, phase II is subject to negotiations and policy review within DG and cannot be enforced without proper finalizations and amendments of DG procedures. 28) The Principal or Head Teacher will remain in the school/s for the school improvement period and will not be transferred for the duration of the program unless this transfer is undertaken on administration grounds by DG, or due to promotion prospects, agreed between DG, NGO and the Principal. All other teaching staff and the support staff shall also remain with the school/s unless they are moved due to unforeseen reasons or for better employment prospects. All transfers of staff should take place through a transparent and agreed process: Shall give one-month notice before leaving to make necessary adjustments. Appropriate replacement shall be made by the DG after meetings with NGO representative and School Head Teacher or the School Council. One-day orientation to be provided to the replacement by the teacher who is moving to another school site. The rights of the child as contained in the convention on the rights of the child (CRC) to which the Government of Pakistan is a signatory be abided by so that the best interests of the Child may be fully observed. The NGO will take steps to improve the quality of Education in consultation with the School Council through new teaching methodologies, technologies and assessment systems. Training opportunities provided by NGO to teachers and School Council will be supported by DG. It will be incumbent on the DG paid teachers to participate in these during the summer break and otherwise at a mutually agreed time and will practice them in school. The certified trainings will be reflected officially in the teachers performance reports and ACRs. Assessment systems of the schools will be improved to move from rote based to enquiry-based learning. NGO will submit quarterly reports to DG on its performance and also attendance and quality of teaching / assessment methods with positive recommendations for improvement and corrective measures. This will be in the best interest of the school and its students. NGO contribution to the school shall become the property of the school. Management of the entire affairs of the listed (attached) school(s) shall mutually vest in DG and the NGO (through the School Council constituted under clause 16 above) subject to overall supervision and control of DG within the formalities of the agreement. Both DG and NGO shall take all such steps including the execution of further agreement as may be necessary for the purpose of ensuring that NGO and the School Council are able to perform their functions envisaged under this agreement effectively and properly. The schools earmarked for improvement through Public Private Partnership would be eligible for all programmes / schemes to improve the school provided by the DG, provincial and federal government under the Education Sector Reforms (ESR) or other such programs for governance, education and integrated development. The NGO will assist the DG in implementing such schemes / or programs expeditiously.

29)

i. ii.

iii. 30)

31)

32)

33) i.

ii.

34)

70

35)

In case of any dispute between DG and NGO the matter will be resolved amicably in the spirit of the collaboration and resolution to promote quality education in the district of Sheikhupura through public private partnership. On behalf of the DG the EDO (Education) of the Education Department will be the representative. Both parties will expedite resolution of the matter within stipulated time formally agreed at the time of conflict by the DG / EDO Education and NGO. In extreme cases the provision under article 2 above will be invoked for exit by the NGO and DG from the agreement.

EYE WITNESS WHEREOF the parties have put their signatures.

E.D.O.(Education) District Government Sheikhupura Date

Chairperson Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi Pakistan Date

EDO (Literacy) District Government Sheikhupura Date

EDO (Community Development) District Government Sheikhupura Date

Witness-I

Witness-II

Signature Name Date

Signature Name Date

71

Appendix iv
DAWN Group of Newspapers School adopters in a dilemma
By Zubeida Mustafa THE adopt-a-school project launched by the Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) under its dynamic managing director, Prof Anita Ghulam Ali, in 1997 faces a dilemma. Having peaked in 2004 when 251 schools enjoyed the benefits of sponsorship, the scheme now has only 150 institutions in its fold. Having shown that a public-private partnership in education can work, the adopt-a-school system has opened the way for others to follow suit. There are a number of adoption schemes now in vogue at multiple tiers. For instance, there are schools that are adopted by private individuals and still have their links with the SEF. There are other schools that have been adopted with encouragement from the Sindh education department that has created partnerships to ease its own financial burden the private sector enters the scheme to pay for the adopted schools physical infrastruc ture. Others have found adopters through the courtesy of the local government or even the Pakistan Centre for Philanthropy. Now the FPCCI has also entered the scene and has promised to improve the physical infrastructure of 50 schools, though they seemed reluctant to use the word adopt for their project. This is at the behest of the city government of Karachi. Ms Ghulam Ali is happy that there is much public interest in the school adoption idea that has caught on and is providing some benefits to the education sector. But what is worrying and she agrees with my concern is that the underlying goal of the adopt-a-school scheme has not always been kept in view. When Ms Ghulam Ali had conceptualised the project, she had expected private citizens who adopted a government school to not only provide financial resources to improve its physical infrastructure but also to play a role in the supervision and monitoring of its management and functioning. Some of the sponsors had been so motivated that they would make it a point to visit their adopted school regularly to keep an eye on its working. If they felt that the staff strength was not adequate they even paid the salary of a teacher. Others arranged for training workshops for the teachers to improve their performance. True, there was friction the schools with lax and corrupt managements resented this intrusion and tried to resist it. But in those days, the schools came under the jurisdiction of the Sindh education department, and in spite of all its failings, the department did not ignore the sponsors if they brought wrong practices of teachers and principals to the notice of the authorities. With devolution and the restructuring of the local bodies system, the organisation and management of the schools has been transformed and not necessarily for the better. Today, the education departments job is restricted to that of policymaking. The supervision and inspection roles have been transferred to the executive district officer, education, (EDO) who has usually been co-opted from the education department but works under the city government. Previously, the education department would post its own officer in every district to supervise the schools. This has caused the working of educational institutions to be undermined. According to Ms Ghulam Ali, the education sector is totally politicised now with the EDO reporting to a number of officials. In effect, he is caught in a tug of war between the education secretariat of the government of Sindh, the nazims of the town governments, the district coordination officer (previously the district commissioner) and the DPO who is a police officer. One can visualise the impact of this struggle for power and influence on the adopter who is supposed to be supervising the schools and improving their quality. As a result, the adopters are now spending mostly on bricks and mor tar. Previously, the SEF had developed a system of accountability in the schools management by strengthening the school management committees (SMC) that are mandatory under the law. But with the politicisation inherent in devolution, the SMCs found their functioning hampered and in due course these committees were rendered ineffective. The interference by the nazims became intolerable and the community represented by the parents that was

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supposed to be the backbone of the SMC system lost interest and drifted away. As a result, the adopters have also begun to pull out. Until last year, when Mr Naimatullah Khan was the city nazim of Karachi and was responsive to the SEFs calls at least verbally Ms Ghulam Ali tried desperately hard to stem the slide. She would convey the adopters complaints to the nazim in no uncertain language, but to no avail. Her letters were hard hitting and one of them even stated the condition in schools is deteriorating by the day and the quality of education is reaching irretrievable depths. The city district government of Karachi under the MQM has ignored the SEFs position on the adopted schools. The latest sponsor to pull out is Azra Karrar, the executive trustee of Helping Hands Trust. Her husband, Haider Karrar, the son of Prof Karrar Husain, had adopted the Government Boys Secondary School, Nazimabad #2, in 2001. The trust raised Rs 15,00,000 in donations and spent it on cleaning the premises and building a boundary wall. More importantly, a computer lab was set up and the school library was renovated and equipped. A librarian and a computer instructor were employed. The students were given a medical check-up and 118 teachers were sent to training workshops. A full time education adviser was appointed to oversee the working of the school. The school had begun to revive and enrolment was going up. All the effort and money have gone waste because Azra Karrar feels that due to the non-cooperation of the directly related stakeholders, no substantial work could be done in the school for a year. She decided to pull out when her pleas evoked no response. If things continue as at present, more adopters will withdraw. This would be a deadly blow to education in Sindh. The fact is that financial constraints are no longer the first problem of the education sector at the macro level. With funds flowing in so generously the countrys education budget jumped up to Rs 163 billion in 2005-06 one can hardly complain that the education departments hands are tied due to lack of financial resources. It is management

and supervision that is lacking. Having fallen victim to widespread corruption at all levels, the education authorities have failed to ensure efficiency and conscientiousness in the working of the school system. Accountability is minimal. The SEF-sponsored adopters were at least providing this to a certain level. The only light at the end of the tunnel is the SEFs research project to re-envision the adopt-a-school system. Since July, the foundation has been investigating the working of public-private partnerships in education in our environment. According to the director of the Foundation, Mashhood Rizvi, his team is studying the various forms of adoption and what would be the best way forward. The FPCC&I is also trying to devise a workable approach with the city district government. Whether a feasible approach will be found we will have to wait and see. But this is clear that in the ultimate analysis the government will have to take responsibility for the successful working of the education sector.

November 22, 2006 Wednesday Shawwal 29, 1427

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Appendix v
DAWN Group of Newspapers KARACHI: Centres for special children in poor shape
By Ali Hazrat Bacha KARACHI, Nov 22: There is no proper official arrangement for rehabilitation of special children in Karachi. The social welfare department has opened five rehabilitation centres in different localities for the deaf and dumb, but these centres are in a pathetic condition. Shortage of funds and poor transport facilities are the main problems. The former district government allocated Rs100,000, as a special fund but it was not released. The government is supposed to provide the quarterly budget but it is often released late and the officials incharge bear the current expenditure from their pockets. The food budget has also been stopped. The existing rehabilitation centres are located at Asifabad (SITE Town), Al-Noor Society (Gulberg Town), Memon Goth (Malir Town) and Lyari Town, where deaf and dumb and children aged between 5 to 14 years with minor physical retardation are admitted. These institutions are basically rehabilitation centres, where primary classes, vocational training in carpentry, electricity and embroidery are available. The aim of the RHCs was to build special childrens confidence so they could earn their livelihood and lead honourable lives. The regrettable aspect is that the facilities given in the past, like physiotherapy, medical care and food, are no longer available. Each of these centres has only one vehicle, which are always in need of maintenance and mostly out of order. The budget has not been revised, despite the fact fuel prices have increased manifold, and the centres have to limit their transport facilities only to close vicinity. An official, seeking anonymity, told this scribe in the past advisory committees under the chairmanship of deputy commissioners, used to arrange funds from the well-to-do. But with the devolution of powers system, none of the officials of these centres can ask for donations directly from people. The idea of opening of the centres was the brainchild of General Zia ul Haq, who had a handicapped daughter, therefore, he paid much attention towards them. Another officer said in a city like Karachi, four centres were insufficient, and such centres should be set up in more areas, so that handicapped people of remote areas could be rehabilitated at their doorsteps. Some parents have demanded boarding houses so their children who hail from far-flung areas can also benefit. The Asifabad RHC was established in 1991 and has 50 students on its rolls. A Suzuki hi-roof is used to pick and drop students. It has no physiotherapist and there is a shortage of furniture and water in the centre. The students are given training in weaving, electrical work. There is another rehabilitation centre in Block 20 in Al-Noor Society which was established in 1990. There are 20 regular students while 27 students are enrolled. People throw garbage inside the centres building, and the staff has no choice except burn it, the smoke enters the classrooms and affects the children. It has only one van and students reach the centre late. There is no sweeper in the centre. The centre has no boundary wall and urgently needs an iron grill. The RHC in Lyari is situated opposite the Lyari General Hospital. There are 54 students, but the transport facilities to pick and drop them are inadequate. Residents mostly belong to the low-income group and cannot afford to transport their children, and the solution is provision of another vehicle. The centre also needs a physiotherapist for the polio-affected children. There is no night watchman and miscreants have broken all windowpanes. The centre is short of furniture. Termites have attacked the doors and windows.. The incharge said two condemned vans have created a space problem, and need to be removed. Land grabbers are trying to occupy the centre, and the centre in-charge alone is fighting a legal battle, and so far protected state-land from the encroachers There are two rehabilitation centre at Korangi, and an RHC at Memon goth which face the same problems. These centres need proper transport facilities and funds. The rehabilitation centre for the blind in Gulistan-e-jauhar is run by the federal government.
November 23, 2006 Thursday Ziqa'ad 1, 1427

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