First Rate Thinking from the Third World

An Op-Ed in today's issue of the Daily Times of Pakistan evinces more good sense on education policy than is to be found in most U.S. newspapers. More shocking still, its author, Abbas Rashid, is himself a journalist and editor. Dig some of what this chap has to say:

Given the mess that the government has made of its own school system, it is highly unlikely that expanding its scope of supervision to include private-sector institutions will yield positive outcomes in the absence of institutional reform and a change in approach....

One of the key concerns expressed in relation to private-sector schools is that they charge high fees and offer education of a poor standard. This stands in contrast to the situation in public-sector schools that charge a low fee, or no fee, and offer education of an even poorer standard. There are, of course, exceptions in both cases. There is little doubt that that [sic] the private-sector schools became the synonym for quality in Pakistan when the public sector began to falter. In 1972, the government decided to take over almost all the privately managed educational institutions including 18, 926 schools. Whatever else this may have accomplished, it did not help in the task of imparting education of a minimum standard in the face of growing social demand for education.

Equity certainly should be a priority concern. But, a matter of equal concern is that of maintaining minimum standards. Schools offering free education, for instance, are of not much use when they are virtually ‘education-free.'...

Rashid also has a few things to say that are contradicted by the historical and international evidence, but the simple fact that he recognizes many of the limitations of government involvement in schooling sets him apart from most of his colleagues in the United States.

Sadly, we in the "First World" too often have third rate media coverage of education policy.

Oh, and as for Rashid's comment about private schools charging high fees, he might be surprised to learn that families in the city of Lahore who earn a dollar per person per day or less are about as likely to send their children to private as to public schools. A sliding scale of need-based subsides would go a long way to allowing all parents to participate in the educational marketplace. An that is a far easier goal to achieve than the improvement of government monopoly schooling.

Posted by Andrew Coulson at April 24, 2004 12:03 AM | TrackBack