Alif Ailaan and Sustainable Development Policy Institute Thursday
released the first ever Pakistan District Education Rankings, an
in-depth assessment of the state of education in the country. While the
results are not heartening, they highlight specific issues in the
quality of education and the availability of facilities district by
district.

The new government has a massive task of tackling the education
emergency facing Pakistan. It is a matter of great shame for us that 25
million children are out of school. Strong political will is needed to
change this. We not only need to focus on increasing enrolment but also
ensure that quality is not neglected. My government is preparing a plan
for accelerated delivery of education for all,  said Baligh ur Rahman,
State Minister for Education while speaking at the occasion.

This ground-breaking study, conducted in association with the
Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), shows how widely
education standards vary across the country. One of the goals of the
report is to serve as a benchmark against which the performance of
politicians, administrators and education providers can be assessed. It
will also provide a baseline against which future progress or
deterioration can be measured.

The big picture in education is stark and demands urgent action, 
said Mosharraf Zaidi, Team Leader, Alif Ailaan.  With this report we
hope to generate informed public debate about Pakistan s education
emergency.

The report dispels commonly held perceptions, such as the idea that
providing infrastructure and facilities will automatically improve the
overall quality of education. In fact this is not the case, as
demonstrated by the findings for Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), which
ranks highest in terms of the quality of education but lowest in terms
of school infrastructure.

Similarly, it is surprising that no district in Sindh makes it in the
top fifty, not even Karachi. Meanwhile, Punjab takes the top position
in the overall provincial rankings while Balochistan is  the worst
performing province.  The bottom line here is that very few districts
are performing as Pakistani parents would want them to. This should be a
wake-up call for the government. We need to see a dramatic improvement
in education, if we are not to lose the next generation to illiteracy
and poverty,  said the principal author of the report, Asif Saeed Memon,
of SDPI.

An interactive  Education and Budget  map, the first of its kind in
Pakistan, was also launched at  the event. Available on the Alif Ailaan
website, the map allows users to access key education statistics for
each district and to send a letter to elected representatives in each
constituency, pressing them to play their role in ending Pakistan s
education emergency. To reinforce the message, Alif Ailaan will also
post a copy of each letter sent through the map directly to the MNA or
MPA in question.

Source: http://pakistan.onepakistan.com.pk/news/education/221899-pakistan-district-education-rankings-released.html