CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PAKISTAN'S EDUCATION POLICY 2009

The present government of Pakistan is aiming at increasing the literacy rate of the
country, and develops the education sector of the country; therefore, the
government has announced the new education policy. As is the previous education
policy, the government has used incremental approach in making the new
education policy.
INCREMENTAL POLICY
The government has used incremental approach in designing the current education
policy, this policy has not been made through proper research and surveys and is
mere revised version of previous policy. The incremental approach may not be
appropriate for the current scenario which Pakistan is facing now days.
UNIFORMITY IN EDUCATION SYSTEM
This is the very good and effective measure taken by the government, aiming at
establishing uniform education system all over the country. There has been a great
difference between the education system in big cities and small cities and villages;
this also causes discrimination among the people residing in different regions,
some having good quality education and other low quality education. The
uniformity in education system is effective in providing opportunities of higher
studies to the people residing in small cities. This will also help in achieving
mutual cooperation among the four provinces.
GLOBALIZATION
The policy is aiming at make the education system which is common in many
developed countries of the world. This is the positive step by the government in
making competitive policy for the people of Pakistan. To make the comparison
with different developing and developed countries is effective in making the
sustainable education policy for the people of Pakistan.
SOCIAL COHESION
The government is aiming at making the public sector education institutions as the
good quality education providers that will provide quality of education to the
students as equivalent to that provided in private sector education institutions. The
public sector institutions are accused of being in effective and in efficient which
curtail the individuals in climbing up the ladder in society. To remove the
ambiguity between the roles of federal and provincial governments, the

consultancy board has been establishing which decides the roles of both the
governments not only for school level but at higher education level as well.
BRIDGING PUBLIC PRIVATE GAP
The government in the education policy is aiming at bridging the gap between
public sector institutions and private sector institutions; the government has
encouraged the provincial government in facilitating private schools and
encourages those people who can afford the private schools to take admission in
these schools. The government is aiming at creating public private partnership in
education sector including schools, colleges and universities this is a good step
taken by the government and this will help the development of education sector of
Pakistan. The public private partnership will also help in attracting more
investment in education sector which is required in abundance to promote this
sector. This policy or government is very effective and will help in sustainable
development of education sector of Pakistan.
OVERCOMING STRUCTURAL DIVIDES
This has been very good step of the government, giving importance to the people
residing in less developed regions of the countries especially villages and small
cities. The government has announced that the equal opportunities would be
granted to the people living in the less developed regions or the people having low
social status. The government has, in its policy, has given a due importance to the
English language study especially in the schools located in villages and small
cities. This has been a very good effort of the government and will be useful in
raising the living standards of the people of Pakistan. Giving importance to the
people living in small cities and villages will reduce the social imbalance and
increase the living standards.
MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING CAPACITY
To make the professional environment in the education sector, the government in
its policy has announced that the education policies and plans would be made and
implemented solely by the education experts and managers, the planning and
implementation process of education polices would be transparent and the public
representatives and civil servants will not intervene in the process and no policy
would be made for any political gain. The politics will be excluded from education
sector for making it more effective and efficient.
Establishing a National Standards and Certification Agency for Education
Management and Information System EMIS for monitoring and evaluation will
make the process more transparent and efficient.
INVOLVEMENT OF COMMUNITIES

Firs time, in the education policy, the government is taking inputs from the
communities i.e., teachers, students and parents, this is very positive step towards
the sustainable improvement in the quality of education, and development of this
sector. The training of teachers and principals for mobilizing the inputs of
communities is effective in obtaining the feedback which will help in improving
the policy.
ISLAMIC EDUCATION
Just like previous policy, in this policy as well, the government has given due
importance to the Islamic education in Pakistan. The policy regarding Islamic
education is similar to that of previous education policy.
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
The government in its policy has given a due importance to the quality of
education provided to the children at early stage of their education. Previous policy
has to some extent ignored this. This step will be useful in improving the quality of
education from grass root level this step will also help in improving the living
standard and will help in raising living standard.
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
The government has set a target in its education policy to bring all children from 6
to 10 years in elementary schools by 2015. The government has set the target but
no plan has been made to encourage the children to take admission in the schools.
This target of government to bring all children to schools by 2015 is unrealistic.
Because due to rising inflation the cost of living is increasing day by day and most
of the population is living by hand to mouth. The poverty is increasing at a rapid
rate therefore, the number of children going to school is decreasing, and the
government cannot achieve this target unless the poverty is reduced to minimum.
In the policy the government has not been able to justify that how it is going to
achieve this target. To set this target is unrealistic and is not achievable with only
five years time frame.
SECONDARY AND HIGHER EDUCATION
The government has aimed at providing the higher education for girls and the
development of high schools and colleges in the localities where there are no or
very low amount of higher education schools or colleges. This policy of
government aims at development of underdeveloped regions of the country and
promotes the higher education in these regions. The promotion of higher education
is very critical for raising the living standard of the country.
This policy has included grade XI and XII in school system which is common in
advanced countries as USA and UK. The policy is also aiming at developing skills

of the students to train them to perform different task and earn their living through
self employment and other vocational and technical education.
LITERACY AND FORMAL EDUCATION
The government in its policy has set the target to increase the literacy rate to 85%
by 2015, this target set by the government is very ambitious and difficult to
achieve. The government has set the target but has not been able to provide the
implementation procedures to achieve this target. To achieve this target of 85%
literacy rate within five years is unrealistic. To improve the literacy rate, the
education of children as well as adult is required. And to make people go to school
is very difficult in current scenario where inflation is at its peak and cost of living
is very difficult to meet. Therefore, the target set is not properly planed and it
seems that government has set the target without proper survey, research and
planning. More over the steps described by the government are vague and unclear
they do not provide a guide line how the government policy will work and how it
will be implemented.
EMERGENCY EDUCATION
In the present situation which Pakistan is facing, the government has made a very
effective step in providing education to the students regarding emergency situation.
This education would be provided to the students of colleges and schools to train
them so they will be able to cope with the emergency or crisis situation. This is a
positive point in the education policy, and these types of measures are not present
in the previous policy.
IMPROVING QUALITY OF EDUCATION
The government in its policy is determined in improving the quality of education in
the country, for this purpose the government has described various steps in the
policy including training of teachers so they would be able to provide quality
education to the students. The government has announced that the curriculum
would be revised and new and improved course would be taught to students so that
they would be able to get the latest education and would be able to compete with
the international students. The training of teachers would be helpful in providing
latest education to the students in accordance with the latest trends.
Quality of Text Books and learning education will be improved to raise the living
standards, in the policy the government has announced that new and improved text
books would be provided to the students in elementary and higher schools.
Improving the quality of education is an important step and will help in improving
the living standard. The policy is also aiming at improving the assessment
procedure of the exams to achieve fair and transparent system of assessment.
CONCLUSION

IMPLEMENTATION
The government has made a good education policy, and the aims and objectives of
the government are at increasing the literacy rate of the country and development
of education sector within five years. The government has made targets and
defined the policy to be implemented. The major problem which the government
faces is the implementation process. The government has made the good policy, the
implementation of policies is not up to the mark and the main reason for poor
implementation is the lack of institutions, the implementation process of the
government is ineffective which makes the policies of the government ineffective
and the desired results are not achieved.
The policy designed is good and will only be successful if there are implemented
as is desired.