Before I pen down my comments on the subject, let my sincere appreciations be conveyed to the organizers and participants of the recent education conference in Chitral for at least gathering at one place and discussing issues relating to education system in the area.
I don't agree fully with the notion that holding conferences is not the cure to the ailment our education system is suffering from. To me such fora rather provide excellent opportunity in generating professional discussion, the first step in systematic approach to organizational problem solving. Chitral needs such thorough debates, for pointing out the shortcomings in its education system. The correct problem identification can help in developing some right hypotheses while seeking solutions to the problems.
Meaningful discussions on educational problems of Chitral are significant for convergence in the views and approaches of various stake-holders, as there is dichotomy in the education system, so is in the views of the people both in identifying the problems and in suggesting their solutions. Viewing educational problems in a microscopic way, either from one or the other angle may perhaps help us the least in selecting the most viable approach of problem tackling. For example, issues like blaming the teacher for lack of motivation or disillusionment, resulting in students output with lower cognitive, psychomotor and affective domains abilities, or accusing the parents for absolving themselves of the gigantic responsibility of parenting to bring up rightly educated and morally upright youth may generate a good discussion but perhaps leading to a blame game only.
Similarly the responsibility for creating an effective management system can neither be put solely on the shoulders of the educational administrator, nor the political system alone be blamed for failing in providing a legitimate political support to keep the system at the right track.
Education is a social process and its system is a systematically organized whole, with interacting units and individuals, bound together in an organic relationship through social interaction. Education system of the district may be taken as a sub system of the province, but a supra system within the district, having interdependent parts or subsystems with complex network of social relationships and its own unique culture, having both formal and informal aspects. Education in Chitral, like elsewhere, may therefore, be viewed in the context of Social Systems Model having components; like (1) inputs (2) transformation process (3) output and (4) the environment where it operates.
The Inputs. Readers may not disagree that the first component, the inputs, of education system in Chitral has some visible constraints like environmental hazards; human and capital resource scarcity; absence of mission and policy statement; problem of material and methods; and lacking of requisite equipments and techniques.
The Transformation Process. It is the second component where a child is taken as input, transformed in order to bring in him or her the desired behavioral and/ or physical changes and sent to the environment as the output.
The component as well has some of the highly unfavorable indicators in Chitral context. The transformation process to be operational needs a sound structural system; a rich cultural system; a supportive political system; and a vibrant individual system. The structural system provides physical facilities and meets bureaucratic expectations. Education system in Chitral has been quite weak in provision of both physical facilities and the bureaucratic dispensation of the educational administration hierarchy. For example, political considerations more commonly over shadow the intellectual and administrative competence of the aspirants for educational leadership roles, thus shattering expectations of doing the right things by an educational leader. Education system in Chitral has also been weak in social and political power relationship, where the system could not resist the undesired social interferences thus its leadership becoming subservient to one or the other social or political power base. People in education sector believe much in figures that count instead of the system itself.
The transformation process has yet another element, the individual system. It refers to the cognitive understanding and motivation of the people working in the education system in Chitral. This is a highly sensitive issue as people join the education sector not only physically but come with their individual needs, belief systems, minds and thoughts. They have peculiar social relations, attitudes and aspirations. Why the teacher is considered a misfit and disillusioned individual when there is an unsupportive environment. The constraints need careful evaluation as follow:-
The right people may or may not be available to be chosen for the job as teachers; Nepotism may have over-shadowed meritocracy in the selection process; the teacher training system may be too outdated to meet the cognitive needs of an energetic mind; The working environment constraints where a teacher may not remain aloof, for too long, of the malpractices prevalent in the society; The psychological fixation where a teacher may have worked for 30 long years but without adding much to his or her first year's teaching experiences; The transactional management approach, where the teacher and the society are still stuck up in the discussion of give and take; Lack of transformational approach by educational leadership to consider every teacher important and to transform him as part of a dynamic and mission oriented system; Lack of reward and punishment where neither the teacher feels accountable to the system for the misdeeds, nor expects any reward for the achievements; and Absence of dynamism in the educational leadership to enthrall in teacher the sense of belongingness.
Last but not the least, there is a fourth component of transformation process; the cultural system, where shared orientations of the people in a society, in a system, in an academic institution or even in a class room hold them together giving them a distinct identity, pride and privileges. Many people work in the reputable organizations for maintaining this distinct identity. But how many educational institutions in Chitral can provide a point of shared orientations is a question to be pondered upon.
3. The Output. In the system approach, the third major component is the output. In the context of educational system in Chitral, the achievements of the individual teachers, the individual institutions, and the level of trust the society reposes in the educational output needs to be reviewed. It also includes the level of satisfaction of the teachers with their jobs, and the level of satisfaction of society with what the teachers do. It takes into consideration the quantitative aspects as the pass out rate, the drop out rate, the progression of students to higher institutions and so on so forth.
4. The Environment. Environment refers to everything outside the school or the education system. Education system being more social and open in nature, environment always is critical as the system's source of energy, resources, values, technology, demands, culture and history. Environment provides both constraints and opportunities for educational system actions. How far the environment in Chitral facilitates or impedes the educating process? In my opinion there is one highly important contributing factor that the people of Chitral don't want their children remain behind others in the race of educational development. The foregoing discussion depicts education system in Chitral as a complex social phenomenon, where the problems are interwoven as a spider's net.
By discussing a single institution or system, we may be taking just one symptom of ailment leaving all others unnoticed. By quickly jumping into conclusions, but without the requisite deliberations for searching the reasons of the ailment we may be missing the issue of rotten social fabric. Pointing out the malpractices in one or the other part of the educational body and suggesting medication which can hardly address the chemotherapy needs of the cancer patient, we may be doing self appeasement. Education system in Chitral has to respond to the challenges of a dynamic environment. The problems in Chitral should be taken for serious discussions with a holistic approach.
Formation of District Education Task Force can help a lot in devising a district wide strategy and preparing a comprehensive document like Chitral Education Development Plan (CEDP). The district government and the DCO can take such a venture. Such a plan should articulate how the education system could contribute to the attainment of the district development goals, if any, and particularly the human resources development. Apart from District Education Task Force, such bodies may be formed by every prominent education institution and system including the government institutions, private institutions, institutions run by NGOs, Deeni Madaris, etc. The heads of such task forces may in turn be members of the District Education Task Force to give their learned input.
Here I suggest some of the tasks and parameters for district level body (which are inconclusive lists), while others can devise on the same lines:- A Vision for Educational Development in Chitral and the Mission Statement: What do the people of Chitral aspire for their posterity and how the education system can respond? Statement of Educational Goals and Objectives: Stating time bound short term, medium term and long term general goals and specific objectives for quantitative improvement and qualitative enrichment in all the possible segments of education in Chitral. State of Education in Chitral. Where we are and where we want to go. Key Challenges in Education in Chitral. A comprehensive review of the problem areas. Survey of the Available Resources: What all Chitral has in the form of man, money, material, structures, etc. with various stakeholders like District Government, NGOs, private sector institutions, etc. Statement of the Resource Needs: What all Chitral needs in the form of man, money, material, structures, etc. from the various stakeholders like Federal, Provincial and District Governments, NGOs, international donor agencies, private sector institutions, etc. The Action Plan: Matching of the goals and objectives set for educational development with the available and needed resources. Setting the time limits to reach the goal posts. Mobilization of Political and Social Forces.
Devising means to mobilize all the political and social forces to contribute towards the plan. Plan Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation. Lack of accountability brings disastrous outcomes. Plan should have a practicable implementation strategy and an effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism. Following could be the possible aspects, the Task Force may consider:- a. A Holistic View: Education system is taken for study as a whole instead of compartmentalization, thus suggesting measures for its early revival as a joint venture instead of individual effort. b. Eradicating Dichotomy: Eradication of dichotomy, to the possible extent, may be a point in question which is now prevalent. For example, can the children studying in Madaris in Chitral be provided the opportunity to study the current academic subjects like languages, economics, politics, sociology, arts, computer science, etc. apart from their core curriculum of Quran and Hadith.
Chitral can be the first ever district to establish model Madaris to help the youth in enhancing their potential in multiple subject domains and join various fields of social life with greater confidence, skills and sociability. c. Formation of Teacher-Citizen Committees: The Task Force may devise a system where there are Teacher-Citizen Committees in every educational institution, and in every village, town, Union Council, Tehsil Council, and so on to be responsible for managing both the public and private educational institutions with their advisory cum vigilance role. d. Decentralization of Educational Administration: The Task Force may also consider decentralization of educational administration to the extent where it has the reach to every single institution with ease. e. All Major Segments of the System be Addressed: The Task Force may address all the important issues of the system for thorough study.
To conclude we all realize that our children are our future. We can not let them march towards darkness. The price of our inactivity today will cost very high tomorrow. Why can't we think systematically to see what all we have in the education sector? What are our expectations from the system? What the system is doing as a whole? What strategy is needed to overcome the expectation gaps and other weaknesses? What tangible or measurable goal posts we want to set for the immediate, near and distant future? and how we can measure and evaluate the achievements both qualitatively and quantitatively? We need a clearly stated vision and an action plan for development of education in Chitral, describing the aspirations, processes and ensuring that each institution and the system as whole sets realistic yet challenging targets for achievement. Rest assure, educating new generation is quite a serious activity to be left alone to some dormant education department. The situation is quite more complex than our imagination is.
To increase enrollment ratio in the government primary schools of Chitral, an education walk was held here under the auspices of Mohammad Ashraf, president All Primary Teachers Association (APTA). Students from different educational institutions carrying banners and placards inscribed with the messages asking parents to enroll their children in schools passed through various bazaars and entered Govt. Primary School Chitral where it converted into a big gathering. Executive Magistrate Chitral Ziaur Rehman was chief guest on the occasion while the ceremony was presided over by Mohammad Afzal, General Manager National Commission for Human Development (NCHD).Addressing on the occasion, the speakers said highly qualified and well-trained teachers were working in all public sector schools but unfortunately check and balance and accountability system was very weak in the country that is why people had lost confidence in these schools. On the other hand, teachers of private schools are getting less salary as compared to government schools but the owners of these schools strictly watched them and implemented check and balance system. They asked the teachers to teach their students honestly and restore public confidence in the schools. They said everyone should observer self-accountability and perform their duties honestly. A large number of students, teachers and social workers attended the function.
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