Did members of the National Assembly and Provincial Assembly bring any improvement in their constituencies since their election in 2013? This is what Alif Ailaan has tried to gauge through its two recently published report cards.
As per a latest survey by the United Nations, the country ranks as low as 119 out of 127 national education systems around the globe with a literacy rate just close to 55 percent. In such precarious times, special attention by the policy makers is required to bring about considerable improvements. Though education is a provincial subject with MPAs directly responsible, the role of MNAs is discernible in eventually bringing reforms in the education sector.
The study grades the MNAs and the MPAs on four key factors that are four key areas where government actions can produce direct and immediate results. These are the state of school facilities (school building infrastructure), the state of gender parity, the student to teacher ratio, and the ability of the system to retain students within the primary level. Ranging from A+ to E, the grades show the measurable improvement in the constituencies and the need for greater efforts by the MPAs and MNAs to improve ranks.
The study of MNAs highlights below par performance of the members in bringing any palpable improvement in their constituencies by the mid of their tenure. The overall grade for the National Assembly is a C grade. Of the 272 elected MNAs, only three MNAs score an A, while all others score either a B or a C grade.
Performance on the first indicator - school facilities - reveal that Punjab enjoys the benefits of comparatively improved investments in school infrastructure with MNAs from South Punjab leading in grades. However, the MNAs from Punjab did not score well in retention ratio along with MNAs from Balochistan. On the gender parity factor, KPK and Punjab MNAs fare well and Sindh tabs poorly, while it looks like the student to teacher ratio is a challenge for Punjab.
A point to note here is that Punjab is still better off, while KPK (amid all its political claims) does not show a drastic change; Sindh remains the laggard amongst the four provinces, and this deduction is further strengthened with grades for the MPAs. Sindhs MPAs get the lowest overall grade among all provinces.
From all the five report cards (National Assembly and 4 Provincial Assemblies) the key recommendations made include the data collection and public reporting. Alif Ailaan rightly emphasizes on the significance of increasing the annual budget allocations and the elimination of political intrusion to bring about some sizeable reforms in the sector.
The final report card will be presented to the voters at the time of General Elections in 2018, which will mark the competition of the national and provincial assemblies five-year tenure. As Alif Ailaan highlights, hopefully the voters would be vigilant and strict examiners before its time for re-election! It surely is one of a kind study that can also be used by the policy makers to mend their wrongs.
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