40,000 Ghost Teachers and 5200 Ghost Schools remain unaddressed in Sindh despite Rs. 145 Billion budget.

40,000 Ghost Teachers and 5,200 Ghost Schools remain unaddressed in Sindh despite Rs. 145 Billion budget.

60% schools remain without drinking water facility, 40% without electricity, and 35% without any boundary walls. Over 40,000 ghost teachers and 5,229 ghost schools loiter unaddressed in Sindh despite allocation of Rs. 145.02 billion budget for education.

The Provincial Meeting on Education Governance convened in Karachi today to discuss the current state of education in Sindh. The roundtable discussion took place among the key stakeholders of in the education sector. The participants highlighted the importance of government and media partnership to enhance accountability. The meeting was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with ILM Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program).

The objective of ILM-o-AGAHI initiative is to improve accountability and media coverage of priority education issues and build consensus on education policies by engaging stakeholders, including media and policy makers.

Fazlullah Pechuho, Secretary Education to the Government of Sindh, Aamir Latif, President Press Club Karachi, and representatives of the non-governmental organizations and the journalist community attended the roundtable dialogue.

Puruesh Chaudhary, Director Mishal Pakistan, facilitating the group discussion said that, “education is a neglected theme in Pakistan, while the government has not given education sector a priority, media has also failed to safeguard the rights of the citizen to universal education”. Education reporting lacks the accountability perspective, she further said.

'During Pervez Musharraf's tenure schools used to be constructed without any need assessment, this has resulted in an uneven distribution of institutions across the province', said Dr. Fazlullah Pechehu, Secretary Education, Government of Sindh. He also stressed on the importance of constructive role of journalism in monitoring government's work in the education sector. He further added that the system of accountability is there but it is defective. He also said that the merit-based recruitment of teachers is essential to improve the education sector. He also informed that his department has got the approval of the cabinet for public and private partnership for schools in Sindh.

Aamir Latif, senior journalist, while moderating the discussion highlighted that in past, the most incompetent individuals used to join police department or the teaching sector, which has led to the current state of education in Sindh. 

Mishal Pakistan with academicians and researchers produced a literature review in 2014 assessing an overarching complexity and trivial underlying causes that has subjugated the communities to an idealistic narrative on education. The study witnesses “Education Governance and Accountability” as the most underreported area in media. While the literature reviewed does speak volume of increasing public spending on education little does it discuss the possible Educational Governance models. This underreporting further positions the growing need for a dialogue to essentially build mechanisms that streamlines the transparency and utility of existing budgetary allocation for primary and secondary education.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education. Agahi Awards, an annual series of awards for journalism in Pakistan, is another initiative of Mishal Pakistan, developed under the umbrella of the Credibility Lab at Mishal for creating an appreciation methodology for ethical and quality content. The theme of this year's Agahi awards is also going to be 'Education'.

Quality Education Still a Challenge in Punjab, Pakistan

Quality Education Still a Challenge in Punjab. 

A public school, just a few kilometers away from Prime Minister’s Model Town Home remains in deteriorating condition since 1973, Education Governance Roundtable, Punjab. 

Provincial Meeting on Education Governance convened in Lahore on 15 January 2015, to discuss the importance of Government and Media Partnership to Enhance Accountability. The meeting aimed at generating a discussion among major education stakeholders about the current state of education governance in the province. The ILM-o-AGAHI Education Governance Roundtable was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program).

The objective of the ILM-O-AGAHI initiative is to improve accountability and media coverage of priority education issues and build consensus on education policies by engaging various stakeholders, including media and policy makers.

Qaiser Rashid, Deputy Secretary Education (Schools), Engineer Qamar-ul-Islam, Chairman Standing Committee on Education and Dr. Hafiz Muhammad Iqbal, Former Dean Faculty Education Punjab University along with representatives from the non-governmental organizations and the journalist community attended the roundtable dialogue.

Puruesh Chaudhary, Director Mishal Pakistan, facilitating the group discussion said, While the authenticity of data and information are essential to policy development, the use of technology can not only ensure accountability but also assess the performance of the provincial education departments in Pakistan. 

“The government plans to ensure sustainability and allocate more funds in education sector in coming years”, said Qaiser Rashid, Deputy Secretary Education (Schools). He also said that the teachers and students' attendance is highest in the region but quality remains a challenge for the Punjab government. The government is also spending Rs. 4 billion on free textbooks in Punjab and is giving a stipend of Rs. 200 every month to every female student on 80% attendance.

Engineer Qamar-ul-Islam, Chairman Standing Committee on Education, Punjab Assembly, said that teachers' attendance in Punjab is 90% and even the 10% absents are informed in advance. Education budget shouldn't include teachers' salaries in non-developmental budget. Qamar-ul-Islam further states that in future 10% disadvantaged kids will be admitted to all the schools including private schools by law. To ensure 100% attendance, Chairman Standing Committee on Education said that parents who will not send their kids to school would not be allowed to benefit from any community service initiative like Benazir Income Support etc. Chairman Standing Committee on Education then asked journalists to give input on the state of education and said that despite sending formal invitations to journalists in 2014 the department did not received anything from the journalists community.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Hafiz Muhammad Iqbal, former Dean of the education faculty of the Punjab University said, “building a sustainable system of accountability is the most critical factor for improving the education standards in Punjab”. He further said that the Punjab Government is only paying attention to the initiatives that can be counted and showed to public, however the quality of education remains unaddressed.

Mishal Pakistan with academicians and researchers produced a literature review in 2014 assessing an overarching complexity and trivial underlying causes that has subjugated the communities to an idealistic narrative on education. The study witnesses “Education Governance and Accountability” as the most underreported area in the media. While the literature reviewed does speak volume of increasing public spending on education little does it discuss the possible Educational Governance Models. This underreporting further positions the growing need for a dialogue to essentially build mechanisms that streamlines the transparency and utility of existing budgetary allocation for primary and secondary education.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education.

Need to accelerate the pace of Education at all levels to achieve MDGs targets.

Need to accelerate the pace of Education at all levels to achieve MDGs targets.

Literacy rate of Pakistan is only 60% while Millennium Development Goals target is 80% till 2015.

“Government should allocate substantial amount and accelerate the pace of education at all levels to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets and improve the literacy rate in country. According to recent Economic Survey of Pakistan 2013-14 the literacy rate of the population 10 years and above is only 60% while the Millennium Development Goals target is 80% literacy rate till 2015. 

Pakistan is one of those countries who spends minimum percentage of GDP on education. All the segments of society should join hands to highlight the issues related education and put pressure on stake holders because it is a matter of survival for our future generations.” It was the consensus at editors’ round table meeting organized by ILM-O-AGAHI in Islamabad today. A number of senior journalist, editors and news directors from main stream newspapers and leading TV channels participated in the meeting.

Meeting was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas. Earlier today a training workshop on education journalism was also organized and attended by more than 25 education reporters from various mainstream news organization.

Senior journalist Matiullah Jan, while discussing about role of media, said that journalists covering education reporting should focus on more field reporting and unfortunately, education reporting is not given importance by the editors. Reporting on education can drive reader’s interest only when journalists report the complete picture.

The objective of ILM-O-AGAHI initiative is to improve accountability and media coverage of priority education issues and consensus building on education policies by engaging media.

Through the ILM-O-AGAHI initiative, 18 education journalism workshops were held across Pakistan during last two months for education reporters to increase their capacity and improve the coverage on education issues in media. In each workshop, more than 30 education reporters participated where their capacity to report on identified educational challenges enhanced and  improved understanding and skills among journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice including children’s voice.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education.

For more information please visit: www.ilmoagahi.org

76% Schools Infrastructure in Sukkur Unsatisfactory

Infrastructure of 76% Schools in Sukkur Unsatisfactory

Future of next generation depends on quality of education, Dr. Arshad Mughal, Advisor to CM Sindh.

“Despite government’s pre election promise to increase the budget allocation on education to 4% of GDP over the next five years, Pakistan still spends a meager 1.9 % of the GDP on education. Due to such low expenditure, Pakistan is among the least spending countries on education. The situation has led to an emergency situation in the education sector”.  This was the consensus at the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop in Sukkur today.

“All the sectors of community have to work collectively for the to improve the socio-economic situation of the people”, this was stated by Dr. Arshad Mughal, Advisor to Chief Minister Sindh, while addressing the participants of the workshop. A large number of participants from academia, civil society and media attended the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop.

According to Annual Status of Education Report 2013 (ASER Pakistan) there are 22% out of school children in Sukkur between the ages of 5 to 16 years. The 39% government schools in Sukkur have no boundary wall and 54% without electricity.  

Asif Farooqui, Program Manager, ILM-o-AGAHI, said that, “Education spending in Sindh is not rationalized and resources are not allocated according to the needs. Across Sukkur 76% of government school buildings are in an unsatisfactory condition, almost half of the government schools in Sindh are missing the facility of electricity”, this is an alarming situation as Sukkur ranks 5^th among 23 districts in Sindh on the Alif Ailaan’s District Education Rankings 2013 for schools and 8^th on the quality of education in Sindh. 

The ILM-o-AGAHI workshop was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program). More than thirty education reporters from leading media entities of print, television, radio and online journalism were selected for this workshop.

Member PPP Sindh Council and former Tehsil Nazim, Mohammad Aslam Sheikh, shared his views with participants about the current state and challenges for female education in the region. He said, Evidence from around the world suggests that increasing investment in girls schooling is one of the most cost-effective way for socio economic development”.

Senior journalist and lead trainer for ILM-o-AGAHI, Mubashar Zaidi, while addressing to the participants said, “The situation is worst in rural Sindh as compared to other parts of the country. There is a dire need to address the issue of non-functional schools in Sindh. Education is one of the most neglected areas of reporting and media organizations should allocate sufficient space for education stories”, he added.

President, Sukkur Union of Journalist, Jan Mohammad Meher, while addressing the participants, stressed that journalists should focus more on field reporting. Reporting on education can drive reader’s interest only when journalists report the complete picture. The education story should be around facts and real life issues. He further said, according to Alif Ailaan Education District Rankings “Sukkur ranks 98^thcountry wide in terms of enrollment, literacy rate and basic education standard out of 145 districts across Pakistan.”

Mumtaz Ali Pirzada, Regional Coordinator, Idara Taleem-o-Agahi, shared the findings of Annual Status of Education Report with participants. He said, ASER 2013 reflects that every single child among four school going children is out of school and remaining three are deprived of Quality Education. ASER 2013 states that out of four children studying in class five only ONE can read story in Sindhi/Urdu. Same is the case with learning levels of English and Arithmetic. Stakeholders are highly urged to take considerable actions to promote quality education in Sukkur.

Social media expert, Ahsan Mukhtar discussed the art of storytelling through social media and said that social media has become an integral part of day-to-day journalism and has catalyzed communication flow in today’s world. Journalist use social media to find and publish news throughout the world.

Through the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative, 18 education journalism workshops will be held across Pakistan for education reporters to increase their capacity and improve the coverage on education issues in media. In each workshop, more than 30 education reporters will be selected to enhance their capacity to report on identified educational challenges and issues to improve understanding and skills among journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice including children’s voice.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education.

For more information please visit: www.ilmoagahi.org

Every 7th school in Sindh is non functional.

Every 7^th school in Sindh is non functional.

Sindh is facing an education emergency: ILM-O-AGAHI Workshop.

“Education sector is one of the most neglected area in Sindh, whereas ghost schools are the most crucial issue in Sindh”, this was the consensus at the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop in Karachi today.

According to the recent survey of non functional and ghost schools by Supreme Court of Pakistan, there are at least 6,164 non functional and ghost schools in Sindh, this means every 7^th school in Sindh is non functional. “There is a dire need to address the education emergency in Sindh, as the future of the next generations depend on the quality of education”, this was discussed by renowned speakers from media, academia and civil society while addressing the participants of the workshop. A large number of participants from academia, civil society and media attended the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop.

The ILM-o-AGAHI workshop was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program).More than thirty education reporters from leading media entities of print, television, radio and online journalism were selected for this workshop.

According to the Alif Ailaan education data there are 12 million children in Sindh between the age of 5 and 16, of which 6.1 million or 50% are out of school. More than half of the children out of school are girls.

Senior journalist, Mubashir Zaidi, while discussing about the current state of education and role of media, said that the government of Sind spends an estimated Rs. 573 million on schools that exist only on paper. The scope of problem of ghost teachers is crucial as there is no data available on that; however, media reports suggest that many teachers draw salaries from education department without showing up for their jobs. “Education sector is the most neglected area in media, however with the help of civil society, media should play an active role in promoting education” he added. 

While discussing the role of media in policy development, Dr. Tahir Masood, Chairman, Department of Mass Communication, University of Karachi, said that learning outcome of children is also a big issue and requires the attention of education policy makers. Sindh’s children score poorly in reading and mathematics compared to children with the rest of the country. “59% of class 5 students in Sindh cannot read a story fluently in Urdu or Sindhi”, Dr. Masood said.

Senior journalist and media researcher Afia Salam, while talking on the role of media in a society’s evolution said, “Education plays significant role in development of a society, due to advancement in education sector, developed countries makes progress by leaps and bounds in all segments of life. Pakistan’s media can play an active role in creating a demand for quality education in the country”.

At the workshop, Asif Farooqui, Program Manager, ILM-o-AGAHI, said that, “Education spending in Sindh is not rationalized and resources are not allocated according to the needs. Across Sindh, 77% of government school buildings are in an unsatisfactory condition, almost half of the government schools in Sindh are missing the basic facility of toilet”. He further said, “to encourage journalists to create public debates on education, Mishal is also introducing special categories on education journalism in the upcoming annual journalism “AGAHI Awards 2014”.

Adnan Farooqui, senior communication expert, shared his experiences on the art of story-telling through social media. He briefed the participants about how social media is changing trends of journalism across the globe. How digital communication has made the entire news expression in 145 words.

Through the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative, 18 education journalism workshops will be held across Pakistan for education reporters to increase their capacity and improve the coverage on education issues in media. In each workshop, more than 30 education reporters will be selected to enhance their capacity to report on identified educational challenges and issues to improve understanding and skills among journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice including children’s voice.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education.

For more information please visit: www.ilmoagahi.org

Half of the settlements in Balochistan don’t have schools: Sardar Raza Mohammad Bareech, CM Advisor for Education

Half of the settlements in Balochistan don’t have schools: Sardar Raza Mohammad Bareech, CM Advisor for Education.

ILM-o-AGAHI initiative aims to encourage journalists to create narrative on education: ILM-O-AGAHI Workshop

“Half of the settlements in Balochistan don’t have schools. The government is aiming 300 new schools and upgrade 300 primary and 300 secondary schools in Balochistan. Balochistan today needs more emphasis on education sector and media should also follow suit”. This was stated by Advisor to Chief Minister for Education, Sardar Raza Mohammad Bareech, at the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop held in Quetta Press Club, today.

Bareech further said "education sector is one of the most neglecting areas in reporting in media. Journalists often find it boring to report or securitize the education sector. “Lack of stakeholders interest and commitment to the education sector makes it different for reporters to do follow up on education policy or scrutinize education budget allocation” he added".

The ILM-o-AGAHI, one day workshop was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program). More than thirty education reporters from all leading media entities, from print, television, radio and online journalism, were selected for the workshop.

While discussing on current scenario of education, Suleman Raja, Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism, University of Balochistan said almost one-half of Pakistan’s adult population is unable to read or write limiting opportunity towards acquiring skills and technical knowledge for enhanced productivity. School enrollments are low and school drop out rates too high. “The budgetary allocation to education has remained around 2% of GDP for the past decade, with a high proportion being spent on recurrent heads mainly salaries, leaving a small amount for quality enhancement such as teachers training, curriculum development, provision of school facilities and monitoring and supervision of education” he added.

 

Award winning senior journalist, Mubashir Zaidi, while talking how journalists should pitch their stories to their editors, said that “Pakistan’s media should play an active role in promoting education for the marginalised segments of the society as it can help to eliminate economic disparity through the introduction of quality education”.“New entrants in the field of journalism should therefore strive to sensitize the people on the importance of education, as education is the key to success for progress” he added.

Asif Farooqui, Program Manager, ILM-o-AGAHI, while discussing the salient features of the initiative said that, a learning platform for journalists on education would be developed as a ready reference for journalists working on education related issues “The objective of ILM-o-AGAHI initiative is to encourage journalists to create narratives which enable equal access to education for all while analyzing the policy reforms within the education sector and aimed to strengthen institutions” he added.

He further said, “Mishal is also introducing special categories on education journalism in the upcoming annual journalism “AGAHI Awards 2014” to promote education journalism in Pakistan.”

Ahsan Mukhtar, senior Blogger and manager google business group Islamabad, spoke on the art of story-telling through social media. He said in the age of social media, journalism has seen a paradigm shift with the advent of citizen journalism where everyone is in some way involved in spreading news around. Social Media has broken all social and cultural barriers and has extended the reach of a journalist globally. The role of social media in digital storytelling is crucial. Finding a news, verifying it and publishing has seen a revolutionary change and has helped take transparency to better levels.

Through the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative, 18 education journalism workshops will be held across Pakistan for education reporters to increase their capacity and improve the coverage on education issues in media. In each workshop, more than 30 education reporters will be selected to enhance their capacity to report on identified educational challenges and issues to improve understanding and skills among journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice including children’s voice.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education.

For more information please visit: www.ilmoagahi.org

Role of Media stressed to evaluate and assess quality of education - ILM-o-AGAHI "Education Journalism Workshop", Muzaffarabad, AJK

Role of Media stressed to evaluate and assess quality of education.

ILM-o-AGAHI initiative aims to encourage journalists to create narrative on education: ILM-O-AGAHI Workshop

“Pakistan’s media should play an active role in promoting education for the marginalised segments of the society as it can help to eliminate economic disparity through the introduction of quality education. This will broaden the vision and horizon of the students to excel in life.” This was the consensus at the ILM-o-AGAHI education journalism workshop held in Muzaffarabad, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, today. Journalists also agreed that “New entrants in the field of journalism should therefore strive to sensitize the people on the importance of education, as education is the key to success for progress.”

The ILM-o-AGAHI, one day workshop was organized by Mishal Pakistan in collaboration with Ilm Ideas (a 3 year UKaid funded program). More than thirty education reporters from all leading media entities, from print, television, radio and online journalism, were selected for the workshop.

Participants at the ILM-o-AGAHI "Education Journalism Training Workshop" in Muzaffarabad

Prof. Dr. Zafar Iqbal, Chairman of Media Sciences, National University of Science and Technology, spoke on the role of media in policy development in education sector. He highlighted state of affairs of education and educational management in AJK and stressed upon the need of investigative journalism in the education sector. Not only more schools and more teachers, he realized the journalists from AJK to evaluate and assess the quality of Education being important. He also shared the findings of his relevant research on the content of books being taught in the schools and probable impacts on the children behavior.

Asif Farooqui, Program Manager, ILM-o-AGAHI, while discussing the salient features of the initiative said that, a learning platform for journalists on education would be developed as a ready reference for journalists working on education related issues “The objective of ILM-o-AGAHI initiative is to encourage journalists to create narratives which enable equal access to education for all while analyzing the policy reforms within the education sector and aimed to strengthen institutions” he added.

He further said, “Mishal is also introducing special categories on education journalism in the upcoming annual journalism “AGAHI Awards 2014” to promote education journalism in Pakistan.”

Ahsan Mukhtar, Manager Google Business Group, spoke on the art of story-telling through social media. He said in the age of social media, journalism has seen a paradigm shift with the advent of citizen journalism where everyone is in some way involved in spreading news around. Social Media has broken all social and cultural barriers and has extended the reach of a journalist globally. The role of social media in digital storytelling is crucial. Finding a news, verifying it and publishing has seen a revolutionary change and has helped take transparency to better levels.

Sheikh Muhammad Mustaq, Chief Executive Officer, Hamza Development Foundation, discussed ASER’s findings on education with the Journalists during the session. He said according to the Annual Status of Education Report – ASER 2013 National Survey, that 5.3 % children have no access to school between the age of 5-16 years.

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) is a citizen led initiative and survey to check the quality education. According to the survey in AJK 95 % children of 16 years old are enrolled in schools and 5.3 % are out of school, this is very appreciable enrollment rate but quality wise 39 5 children of class 5^th can’t read Urdu story of class 2 level. 42% children of class 5^th can’t read English sentence of class 2. “Our enrolment is better, but we have no quality of education” he added.

Earlier, a workshop on education journalism was held at the Kashmir Press Club, Mirpur, AJK, where journalists agreed to launch a Journalists for Education Forum in Mirpur, AJK. Through the ILM-o-AGAHI initiative, 18 education journalism workshops will be held across Pakistan for education reporters to increase their capacity and improve the coverage on education issues in media. In each workshop, more than 30 education reporters will be selected to enhance their capacity to report on identified educational challenges and issues to improve understanding and skills among journalists to capture community’s perspective and voice including children’s voice.

Mishal Pakistan is the partner institute of the Center for International Media Ethics and the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Networks of the World Economic Forum. Mishal assists the forum in creating soft-data on Pakistan, identifying Pakistan’s competitiveness challenges including primary health & education and higher education.

For more information please visit: www.ilmoagahi.org