Management of Primary Education emerged
as a key area for reform and
interventions during the 1990s. In
Pakistan, this was reflected in the
National Education Policy of 1992 with
strategies for decentralization of
administration and management of public
education. In the following decade,
several initiatives were taken both in
the public and private sector with the
objective of expanding the base of
primary education and improving the
delivery of education to the more
disadvantaged sections of society. In
this study, the educationist Dr. Fareeh
Zafar, lays out the context of the
decentralization initiative and how it
has emerged as a possible solution to
arrest the decline in quality of public
schools and falling enrolments at
primary and middle levels. It then
discusses six examples of successful
public schools to illustrate how
school-based decentralization can only
be meaningful if the school head is
dedicated and works with the School
Councils (SCs) which must be conferred
the authority to employ teachers, manage
funds, control tuition fee, have a say
in curriculum design, textbook
selection, and in-service teachers
training.
The study concludes by discussing
obstacles that exist in the realization
of effective decentralization of the
education sector; firstly the
administrative structure is chaotic with
power not effectively devolved from the
province to the district and from
district to school level. So there is
confusion in the duties that come under
the purview of the various government
officials and still whatever power is
conferred upon them can be overturned by
the nazims who exercise the ultimate
authority. Even at the school level
though the reconstitution of School
management Committees as SCs provides
them an expanded role to address
qualitative aspects of schooling, and
provides parents and communities with
real voice and choice in the management
of their children’s schools, experience
has shown that SCs, barring some
examples, have not delivered. SCs face
similar issues; confusion in roles and
responsibilities, lack of decision
making power in important matters,
manipulation by Head Teachers,
government officials and local
politicians and disregard towards their
existing role. The insights as provided
by Dr. Fareeha Zafar quite
comprehensibly relate the inadequacies
of the decentralized education sector
and focus on how to go about reforming
it in order to deliver what the
decentralization initiative originally
set out to.
