Mohammad Shehzad

Our education system needs to be totally revamped. Efforts are being made by the government and various NGOs to promote education. The Education Sector Reform Assistance (ESRA) programme is also engaged in promoting education with a $60 million initiative funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in support of the Government of Pakistan's Education Sector Reform (ESR) effort. ESRA is not involved in curriculum, which is a federal subject. Fundamentally, ESRA is about two things: School improvement and the ways and means by which key stakeholders throughout the system can continuously identify and solve their own problems regarding school improvement.

ESRA is implementing this with the help of leading civil society institutions like Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) Pakistan, Paiman, Save the Children, IRC, and AKU-IED. With LEAD Pakistan, ESRA is implementing the education reforms in Khairpur and Sukkur. With LEAD Pakistan, ESRA is implementing the education reforms in Khairpur and Sukkur. ESRA-LEAD are building the capacity of the School Management Committees (SMCs) enabling them to work collectively as a team for the improvement of schools at the community levels. By the end of December, ESRA-LEAD has to prepare more than 3,000 Schools Improvement Plans (SIPs) and train the SMCs in their Monitoring and Evaluation (M&P). To date, around 6,066 people have been trained on SIP's preparation and M&P. The project will be delivered by December 2005.

Sarah Suzanne has been the Chief of ESRA since August 2004. She has extensive domestic and international experience with high-level officials in the public and private sector negotiating policy and program changes.

Question: One of the biggest challenges faced by Pakistan lies in the field of education. What initiatives have you taken in this regard?

Sarah Suzanne: Through ESRA we want to ensure quality education. We do provide quality training to teachers. We provide literacy courses. We will train over 75,000 illiterates to become literates. We will train 34,000 teachers and head teachers in Sindh and Balochistan. We are working with the School Management Committees (SMCs) - trying to strengthen them to help them pull more resources from the government and other sources to structurally improve their schools. Our partners are the district governments of various districts in Sindh and Balochistan, district education officers, district nazims, tehsil nazims, provincial and federal government officials and few NGOs.

Question: What are the issues in your opinion that are affecting education and how are you working to address them?

I think lack of resources from the government is a major problem. My understanding is that the government spends approximately 2 per cent of GDP on education. This rate is among the lowest in the world. Spending more money does not solve many other constraints facing the primary education sector, but it could solve some of the issues related to - teachers' salaries for example. They make a very low salary and the profession is not held in much respect. The future of Pakistan depends on them. You cannot skimp on that.

Question: So, what's the solution?

You hear the government make speeches about the importance of education but then, as we say in my country, one needs "To put the money where our mouth is." There is a direct co-relation between the amount of resources you spend on education per capita and the quality of education.

Question: There are different types of education for different strata of society. Do you support one type of education for all?

I don't know of any country that has a good education system, which has a policy that everybody has to be educated exactly the same way. In the US, the curriculum is designed at the state level - sometimes at the local level. So, the curriculum will vary among different states. I don't believe that there should be one system for all. But accreditation and standards are required.

Question: The private sector has penetrated into the education sector and it has become a business. How do you look at this situation?

: Private education is a business in every country. If there is a system of accreditation, one can ensure that only good private schools remain in business. Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) is a great idea. At ESRA, we are trying to promote PPP. There are some good stories in this effect. In Thatta, some industries have supported the public schools.

Question: Do you think government has the capacity to maintain your work when you are gone?

That's a big challenge. As we implement our programs, we always consider the sustainability issue. For example, we are working to strengthen School Management Committees (SMCs) so that they are able to know how to access and properly utilise money drawn from the district funds or work together with other SMCs. We are hoping that the government will provide funds to teacher training institutions on a regular basis.

Question: Does ESRA have any links with UNESCO?

We are trying to work very close with UNESCO. We will be funding a conference that they are organising probably in May on 'Lessons Learnt from donors' supported education projects'.

Question: The donors often face an objection-why their focus is heavily on primary education? Why not on secondary education?

How could one venture into the secondary education if one is not educated at the primary level? If the dismal statistics about the literacy in this country are true, how could you not be concerned with the state of the primary education? Of course secondary or higher education must never be sideline

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