CENTRAL ISSUES AND PROBLEMS IN PAKISTAN EDUCATION SYSTEM AND THEIR

NEEDED REFORMS:

The existing education delivery system is not meeting the needs and aspirations of the
society as such particularly, it is a challenge to the provinces and districts for the 21st
century. Moreover, prior to devolution, the policy and planning have been undertaken by
the central and provincial governments without taking into account the ground realities and
without the participation of community. The main objectives of the devolution plan is to
empower the community at the grassroots level in planning, management, resource
mobilization and utilization, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the education
system to improve the service delivery at that level. The main inherent issues of education
systems are: teachers absenteeism, high drop out rates particularly at primary level, high
repetition rates, low completion rates, inequalities by gender, location and social groups,
low literacy rate and unsatisfactory performance of schools, these issues have been
addressed under DOP through empowerment of local communities.

The present government has initiated political and administrative devolution under its
reforms agenda under Local Government Plan 2000. The Local Government Ordinance was
promulgated on 14th August 2001. Under devolution, political power, decision-making
authority, and administrative responsibilities have been moved as closes as possible to the
village, union council, tehsil and district levels, with only the major policy-making,
coordination, and special service functions being retained with the central and provincial
governments. The main purpose of the devolution is to improve the service delivery at the
grass root level in various sectors.

It is believed that highly centralized system of education is greatly hampering the efficiency
and effectiveness of delivery service at the grass-root level. Successive governments
addressed this problem in their policies and plans since 1947.

The present government has envisioned with a clear commitment to reform a number of
aspects of education system framed within the 1998-2010 National Education Policy and ten
year perspective development plan 2001-2011 to increase educational opportunities for all
children, to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery service at grass root level.
ESR is an Action Plan for 2001-2005, has been fully integrated into the Interim Poverty
Reduction Strategy Paper and about 80% of the ESR packages covers adult literacy,
Education for All and technical education. Devolution plan is the mainframe for
implementation of ESR. The education sector reforms (ESRs) have been design to address
the following areas of education system:

1. Comprehensive literacy and poverty reduction program.

2. Expansion of primary elementary education.
3. Introduction of technical stream at the secondary level.
4. Improving the quality of education through teacher training.
5. Higher education sector reforms.
6. Public-private partnership.
7. Innovative programs.