Pakistan’s parliament, in November, passed a bill to provide free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of five and 16 in schools established by the federal government and local government in the capital. The bill is a giant step towards improving education in Pakistan.

Some features of the bill where some amendments or some additions/clarifications in the rules are required, in my view, are as follows:

Private sector

The bill states that the government shall establish a school in each neighbourhood within a period of three years. In order to educate the 25 million children who are presently out-of-school, the federal and provincial governments need to build thousands of schools, costing over a trillion in rupees that the government does not have. Also, there is enormous amount of corruption in building schools.

However, the good part is that the bill leaves room for the private sector to build and operate low-cost schools, whereas the government can limit its role to providing scholarships to the needy students studying in these low-cost private schools.

Section 10 (a) of the bill allows the government to provide aid or grants to private schools that are providing free education to children. The government needs to provide enough aid and grants to low-cost private schools to not only cover their expenses, but also leave some profit margin to attract the private sector to open and run such schools.

The best way for the government is to provide scholarships of say Rs500 per month for each student at the primary level and Rs1,000 a month per student at the secondary level. These amounts are in line with what low-cost private schools are charging at present. Poor parents can admit their child to any low-cost private school of their liking. The scholarship amount will be paid by the government directly to the low-cost private school on a monthly basis on behalf of that student.

School facilities

Presently, 39 per cent of government schools up to the elementary level lack boundary walls, 35 per cent do not possess a drinking water facility, 38 per cent are without latrines, and 61 per cent do not have electricity. By allowing the private sector to build and operate schools, the provincial governments will be able to free about Rs58 billion presently earmarked for educational development.

These funds can be better utilised to upgrade the existing schools. The Indian Supreme Court, in a landmark order passed in October held that all government and private schools nationwide must provide sanitation facilities and clean drinking water within six months.

Management committees

The bill carries an excellent proposal of setting up school management committees in every school owned by the government or receiving government aid/grants. The committees shall consist of teachers, parents and government representatives.

Two-third of the members of such committees in each school shall be parents, and one-third women.

The committee shall: (i) monitor the general working of the school; (ii) monitor the utilisation of aids and grants received from the government; and (iii) prepare and recommend the annual development plan of the school. This will result in decentralisation of some decision-making powers at the school level, and away from government officials sitting hundreds of miles away from the schools in some cases, and having no idea about the issues facing such schools.

Also, since 50 per cent of the members of the committee will be parents of children studying in the school, they will have a direct stake in the proper functioning of the school. This system has worked very well in countries where it has been implemented. These committees should also be empowered to (i) monitor and evaluate the performance of schools; (ii) determine the salary and allowances payable to, and terms and conditions of teachers’ services; and (iii) reward and penalise the teachers based on their performance.

Advisory council

The bill has another good feature of authorising constitution of an education advisory council that shall advise the government on implementation of the provisions of this act in an effective manner.

The council will consist of nine members primarily having a background in education and child development. In my view in addition to education experts, senior executives of corporations, and renowned businessmen and professionals should also be inducted in such councils as they have the experience of managing, monitoring and evaluating a large workforce, and can also bring entrepreneurship to basic education, which is the missing element at present.

The council should be established as an elementary education commission, similar to the Higher Education Commission, but focus on primary and secondary education rather than higher education. The commission should enjoy complete independence and autonomy to carry out its functions and responsibilities. These commissions should report directly to the prime minister/chief ministers.