A DEEP failure

The ADBs report on rental power projects is a hot topic in economic and political circles of the country these days. But another report issued by the same institution, unfortunately, is not getting its due share of attention.
No surprises there, however, as the report in discussion is about Pakistans education sector which gets as little attention in the media as it gets by the government. The case in question is the $97 million Decentralized Elementary Education Project (DEEP) of the Sindh government which ADB describe as a failure.
Although, high poverty in rural areas is blamed for low level of education, but in reality, the absence of schooling model suitable for rural population, has made the task of increasing literacy even more difficult.
With population growing at an alarming rate and the demographics showing more than one-third of the population under 15 years of age, complexities in education sector have been on the rise. Rather unsurprisingly, literacy indicators in past few decades have not witnessed any noticeable improvement either.
On the other hand, policy makers usually face disappointment since the target they set, are usually irrational or overstated and are not in concurrence with the availability of resources.
For instance, DEEP was aiming to rehabilitate 1,200 primary schools, establish two English-medium model schools in each of 102 sub-districts, establish 1,000 preprimary classes, convert 100 shelter-less primary schools into elementary schools, improve quality of girls education and train the teachers in a short span of six years.
In addition to the availability of funds, there are far many issues in rural areas that make education projects unsuccessful. At one end, inept staff lacks the capacity to execute huge projects, and the other long distances and poor road network make it difficult to transport building materials, furniture, equipment, and textbooks to remote rural schools.
Then there is the irritant of poor communication between those who design the policy and those who implement it. Only a very few teachers want to serve in rural schools, the problem gets heightened as English medium instructors are still a scarce commodity in Pakistan. On the other hand, parents are unable to afford the high tuition fees of the schools, stationery, uniform and lunch.
Given above problems it is not an easy task to enhance rural schooling system. Instead, a mix of small scale or multifaceted projects will be required to address these serious issues.
In this regard, the government can take a cue from a number of successful educational projects initiated in other developing countries along the lines of double-shift schools, community mobilization programmes, special provision for girls and para-teacher staff - a formula that has successfully worked in UP, India.