Alif, the Action Learning Initiatives Facility, is a Pakistani organization whose goal is to promote basic education at all levels, using television and media as its primary tools. Alif was founded by Safi Qureshy, Chairman Emeritus of AST computers, and has already broadcast an Urdu version of Sesame Street, called “Khul Ja Sim Sim” on PTV over the past year with great success. Professor Tahir Andrabi, who has taken a year off from his job as Professor of Economics at Pomona College in Southern California , is the director of Alif’s operations in Pakistan.

Alif organized a recent conference on education ("Education: if not now, when? If not us, whom?") in Islamabad to promote the teacher in the Pakistan education system, and to emphasize the role that the teacher should be given a major role in policy playing. While there are already many education initiatives in Pakistan in both the private and public sector, the conference hoped to encourage collaboration between those initiatives. It also sought to portray the reality of Pakistan's education by bringing government ministers Javed Jabbar (Adviser Information), Shaukat Aziz (Finance), Attaur Rahman (Science and Technology) and Zobaida Jalal (Education) face to face with teachers, educators and others familiar with the "ground reality" in the nation today.

Javed Jabbar acknowledged in his opening remarks that there was a need for convergence between all education initiatives. He pointed out the two great challenges to education in Pakistan: a “visible apartheid” in the segmentation and separation of social classes in education, and the rising cost of education. Zubeida Jalal, Minister for Education, observed that the private sector was the font of ideas, and the public sector's role was to make sure those ideas get to the people. She stated that she felt there was little need for too many conferences where such ideas were discussed academically; the only exception she had made so far was a workshop of the World Bank which assessed what children were achieving in the classrooms.

The conference was divided into five panels, in which educational experts from all sectors and all areas of Pakistan. The following are the highlights of four of the five panels.

Diversity of education: how do we scale up?

There have been inroads in Pakistan in every area of education: public, private, rural, urban, formal, informal, academic, technical. Success stories are many, such as those as in the rural areas achieved by READ, where education is given to orphans and children in Kashmiri refugee camps, or the urban areas, like the work done by the Faran Society in Orangi Town. But the fact remains that poor policy making at the government level has lead to low spending on education (2.2% of the GDP in 1998-1999). Corruption and inefficiency has even eroded that meager amount. To bring about visible change, "people need to be able to own the process of educational reform," said Zafar Qadir, head of the Taaleem Foundation and Deputy Secretary Education.

Qurutul Ain Bakhtiari, Director of the Institute of Development Studies in Quetta, pointed out that fifty years of a state welfare system in education had resulted in a dilemma where people believe the government should do “everything” for them. Parents are unable to see themselves as partners with the Education Department in their children's education. The answer to the breakdown in trust between parents and the Education Department, she felt, is to eliminate the intermediaries - the MNAs, MPAs and other influential people that parents think can negotiate with the Education Department on their behalf. This would build partnerships between communities and teachers where the teacher is the key point person – not just a teacher but also a community mobilizer.

Curriculum and pedagogy: What, how, and for whom?

This session focused on the issues facing curriculum makers, with an emphasis on the weaknesses of existing textbooks. Ameena Sayyid, Managing Director of Oxford University Press Pakistan, highlighted the many errors in Textbook Board-produced textbooks, and the difficulties involved in getting the government to use textbooks produced by the private sector. The Textbook Board, which at present produces textbooks for the government schools, has a tendency to gloss over and even omit important facts in the interests of being patriotic, such as details of the Simla Conference or the Nehru Report. Said Sayeed, "There are ways of instilling pride without sacrificing truth and objectivity."

Dr. Najma Najam of the Fatima Jinnah Women's College in Rawalpindi spoke of the importance of introducing community responsibility in the curriculum, stating that all students of her college were required to take a class in women's development and also perform community service and write a report on it. In terms of support for teachers, Dr. Fareeha Zafar of the SAE noted that teachers needed not just workshops but follow-ups and long term programs that would last the whole year.

The sole government representative on the panel, Parveen Shahid, Joint Deputy Adviser Education, came under some fire for a curriculum document that Professor Pervaiz Hoodbhoy, in the audience, quoted from. The document included shocking guidelines: a 12 year old child should be able to tell the difference between a Hindu and Muslim, and give speeches on Jihad and Shahada – “a recipe for disaster and xenophobia,” as Professor Hoodbhoy stated. Ms. Shahid responded that the said document did not exist, or if it did, it could not be a curriculum document. She also said that while the government could plan and create educational policy, implementation was impossible at the government level; responsibility should be placed at the classroom level.

Educational entrepreneurship: A way ahead?

At this point in the conference, representatives from private sector schooling initiatives spoke on their experiences. They ranged in variety from Abdul Waheed, the President of the Bright Education Society which gave education to poor Pathans in Orangi Town, Karachi, to Nasreen Mahmud Kasuri, whose successful Beaconhouse School System has been a model of private, commercialized education, which many believe is the real answer to the lack of quality education in Pakistan. Other speakers included Lt. Gen Sabeeh Qamar uz Zaman, CE of the Citizens Foundation Karachi, and Mohammed Ibrahim of Al-Azhar School in Swat Valley.

Although Beaconhouse has received much acclaim for its standard of education, as well as its impressive teacher training program, Lt. Gen. Qamar pointed out that education entrepreneurship, or turning schooling into a business, could create the worrying belief that schooling is only for those who can afford it. He offered an alternative model in which “educational entrepreneurship” refers not to a commercial or capitalist model of profit-making, but to a system in which the values of entrepreneurship – hard work, responsibility and integrity – are applied to the running of schools. He also offered his suggestions for how the government could cooperate with the private sector in order to improve the standard of education for all students regardless of their economic status:

- The government should demonstrate political will by all means possible

- It should be the main educational provider in terms of resources, political will and support

- It should facilitate not for profit educational entrepreneurship

- The establishment of private educational institutions should be encouraged

- An independent body should be established to evaluate and accredit all schools

The Macro direction: Where there is a will, there is a way

This panel boasted the most government representatives: Zobeida Jalal chaired, while both Shaukat Aziz and Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman spoke. The Minister for Science and Technology linked high GDPs in countries such as Japan and Germany to human resource development. Japan’s total GDP, for example, equalled four times the GDP of all Muslim nations put together, and that this was probably so because of Japan’s high commitment to education, with over a thousand universities in that small country. He stated firmly that he regarded education not as an expenditure, but an investment in the future of the country. However, the formula for economic success was threefold: there had to be not just a high literacy rate, but an ability to translate knowledge, and specifically scientific knowledge into products, and then be able to market the products. There was also a strong need, in his opinion, to bring about a merit-based system of education, otherwise the nation’s brightest students would quit Pakistan, unable to work and conduct research in a meritless educational system. And “exporting our manpower is a recipe for disaster.”

Shaukat Aziz built on the link between education and economics, stating that a heavy investment in education and positive results in that sector would kickstart all other areas of the economy. “Poverty alleviation goes hand in glove with investments in education,” he said. He stated that in four months’ time, there would be a census taken of all the schools in the country, where census takers would physically visit all schools to ensure accuracy in the record-taking. In his opinion, education was an activity that transcended government; all would have to contribute, including NGOs, the private sector, the public sector, local, and foreign donors, for effective change in this field.

Zobeida Jalal, in her final remarks, said that “the government has the will to lead the way; this commitment to education is shown by the number of high officials and ministers present at this conference”. However, she also stated that boosting education would not be a one-sided effort, but a partnership between the public and the private sectors. She issued a challenge to the private sector, to participate in a plan that she was still in the process of chalking out for the improvement of education in Pakistan. Under this plan, she requested that:

- The private sector select an educational district in each province to support and sponsor

- The private sector should also concentrate on specific public schools with problems

- The government would provide buildings and land, while the private sector would be responsible for providing curriculum and teacher training

- That there should be a fair and transparent mechanism for the delivery of education under this process

Conclusion

Safi Qureshy gave the closing address; he was here at the conference to recognize the importance of the education that he received in Pakistan, and to acknowledge that it was this educational base that allowed him to go on and succeed in the United States, even though it was a normal education at a typical government school. He felt that each minister should actually visit a school to show that education was important, an that an income tax break for teachers should be introduced, much as there were income tax breaks for other professions. Finally, he said that North American Pakistanis were more than willing to enter into public sector-private sector partnerships. Answering a question from the audience as to what the point of education should be, he replied, in his closing remarks, “the point of education is to create people who are functioning members of civil society, balanced individuals who recognize their responsibilities to society.”

Will the government represented by the ministers present at the conference be able to deliver on their promises? Indeed, will Alif be able to follow up after this conference with concrete action and tangible results? Alif stated, in its conference handout, that post-conference activities would include “developing subsequent regional activity”, enlisting the media to provide coverage, organizing teacher forums around the country, developing a plan for a Teacher of the Year award, developing private groups for national movements and also to monitor the government’s promises. Whether or not the dream becomes reality is unknown to anyone, but one thing is clear: if the public and private sector stand firm on their commitments and undertake a collaboration such as the one outlined in the Alif conference, great things are in the reach of the education sector. Let’s see if they have the courage to enact change. Or, put another way, as Bishop Anthony Lobo said, to “build the Kingdom of God out of scraps.”

[Contact Alif at: alifpak@cyber.net.pk or visit their Web site: http://www.pentv.org/indexn.htm]