Pakistan working on UN literacy goals, still far behind: Minister

Mon, 03/17/2008 12:29 PM | National

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 2008 global monitoring report reveals around half of the E-9 countries (nine countries with low levels of literacy) are at serious risk of not achieving the organization's Education for All (EFA) literacy and gender equality goals by 2015. The directive seeks to cut the global illiteracy rate in half from the 2000 rate and achieve gender equality in education. Among the high-risk countries is Pakistan, whose Education Minister Shamsh Kassim-lakha talked to The Jakarta Post's Erwida Maulia on the sidelines of the 7th E-9 Ministerial Review Meeting on EFA in Nusa Dua, Bali, from March 10-12, to discuss the outlook in his country.

Question: UNESCO said in its 2008 global monitoring report that there's a low chance for Pakistan to achieve the EFA goals for literacy and gender parity by 2015. What do you think is the reason for this?

Answer: Two main reasons. One, (literacy) is already very low. The EFA goals are set by the United Nations, so they take the average. For those like Nigeria and Pakistan, the starting points were low. So it's going to take us a little while.

Number two, the amount of money that was put into it was not as much as it should be. But in the last three years, we have put in much more money, so hopefully it will make big difference.

What measures have been taken to cope with this?

We have increased the education budget by 50 percent every year for the last three years. Now we have close to 12 percent of our state budget for education. From here on, we will increase the education budget by 25 to 30 percent every year for at least another three or four years.

We have yet to have a goal to make our education budget 20 percent of our total budget. We have to see how much the money can be quickly absorbed as well. It is not just the question of providing the money. If money was the only problem it would not be so complicated. But we have the problem of recruiting and training the teachers. They can't be trained in one year. They need three years to train. Then we need to build schools, and we need facilities in existing schools. A lot of money is going in. We are hoping that in three years' time we will (be in) a much better position.

What are the main challenges you face in the implementation of the measures?

The big challenge is to make sure the new programs are well-managed. Money is not as big an issue. It is the ability to make it happen, to manage it, to implement it, which are the very big challenges.

Pakistan spends a lot on defense, including for the nuclear project. Is it possible to transfer some of your defense budget to education?

Yes and no. First of all, the nuclear project is not very expensive but, yes, our whole defense budget is much bigger than (that of) many countries. The reason is we are living in a part of the world which is full of conflicts. Pakistan has a very difficult neighborhood, which is why we have to have our national security first, and that's why more money is allocated. But for some years, the increase in the defense budget has been much lower, so more money is going into the social sector.

Our defense budget is now 18 percent of our total budget.

What is the role of international communities in supporting education in Pakistan?

We have received excellent support from UNESCO and also from donor countries who have acknowledged that we're living in a very difficult neighborhood where education can make a big difference.

Do you think you can accelerate the development of education in Pakistan so as to achieve the EFA goals by 2015?

I'm very hopeful. I cannot guarantee that we can meet the goals. It is a very hard struggle. Those are very ambitious goals. They may not be so ambitious for Indonesia because you are at a higher platform to start with. We are starting the race much farther back. But we are hopeful that we will reach very near, if not achieve the goals.

What are best practices of other countries presented in this E-9 meeting that you might consider adopting?

We are looking at working out a joint program with Bangladesh and India for best practices. So we are taking best practices from different countries. And we have our own best practices, like, for example, giving more facilities to female teachers if they are posted outside the places of their villages or their cities. And if their husbands are teachers, we post them together. Maternity leaves are rarer and female teachers get higher allowances, so we're getting more female teachers.

We are looking at best practices in terms of a curriculum for teacher education and also the organization of female teachers, and also the organization of primary school monitoring and quality assurance.

I think Indonesia is one of them (E-9 countries whose best practices are being considered by Pakistan), especially for religious education; very good. We are very impressed by the Indonesian model. Bangladesh has some success, and India, too.

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