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Age: 29 
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While the report provides a glimpse into the horrific state of Pakistan’s education system, the report claims that the failure of the education system is due to politicians’ unwillingness to implement privatization and other rightwing reforms. “Because past reform efforts have failed to deliver results, some have concluded that Pakistan can never overcome its education challenges,” the report states. However, it also claims major improvements can be made within two years of market-driven reforms being implemented.
Although the report does not describe the prescribed reforms, the reactionary agenda of the task force becomes obvious when the report describes some of the “myths” it claims to debunk. These include:
“without money nothing can be done,”
“the public most wants better school buildings,”
“teachers are not paid enough to do a good job,”
“private schools are only for the rich.”
In fact, Pakistan’s education has been woefully underfunded by the state for decades.
The current government has allocated less than 1.5 percent of the country’s GDP for education, as compared with the still woefully inadequate figure of 2.5 percent of GDP in 2005.
With the PPP government determined to cut expenditures in order to meet the budgetary dictates of the International Monetary Fund and secure the last tranche in an $11 billion loan, it is highly unlikely that even a budgetary allocation for education equivalent to 1.5 percent of GDP will be maintained.
The report seeks to shift blame for the education crisis onto teachers, declaring that public school teachers can earn three times as much as qualified private school teachers and 4.5 times the average per capita income of Pakistan. The report claims that teacher salaries account for the majority of expenditure on both public and private education and declares that the supposedly generous salaries paid public school teachers—they make on average two thirds more than their private counterparts—have not translated into a higher level of commitment among teachers.
This is a gross misrepresentation of reality. A public school teacher earns on average 14,330 rupees or little more than US $150 US per month. If this pitiful sum can be construed as large, it is only because the majority of the population earns less than $US 2 a day.
The authors of the report cite the lengths to which parents are willing to go to provide their children with an education, including enduring severe economic hardship. “Every day, parents make huge sacrifices for their child’s education,” the report states. In Punjab, 13 percent of family income is spent on public school education and 20 percent is spent when a family resorts to private schooling.
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