EducationNationalVOLUME 19 ISSUE # 49

Outsourcing schools, a serious blow to education in Punjab

Soon after the formation of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) government in Punjab, the provincial administration decided to outsource around 14,000 schools under the Public Schools Reorganisation Programme (PSRP). This decision was met with significant resistance from educationists and concerned citizens. According to the official announcement, the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) will transfer control of these schools to individuals, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and other entities in phases.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the PSRP, announced that 5,800 schools would be outsourced in the first phase. The utility bills for these schools will be covered by the PEF, while private organisations will hire teachers on daily wages. The Punjab government will provide a fee of Rs. 700 per student to the PEF, which will be paid to teachers based on class size. Salaries for administrators and principals in the privatised schools have been set at Rs. 50,000, while teachers will receive between Rs. 30,000 and Rs. 40,000 per month.

Justifying the initiative, the chief minister stated that there are over 50,000 schools in Punjab, and the education department finds it challenging to manage all of them effectively. She claimed that the outsourced schools would become part of the Punjab government’s team and that this initiative would save the provincial government Rs. 40 billion while providing employment opportunities to 70,000 educated youth.

A spokesperson for the School Education Department mentioned that agreements have been signed with 21 NGOs, 12 education chains, and one Ed-tech firm to manage 3,650 government schools under the public-private partnership (PPP) model in the first phase. Public Schools Reorganisation Programme (PSRP) Director Shafiq Ahmad signed the agreements on behalf of the foundation.

Minister for School Education Punjab Rana Sikandar Hayat believes the PSRP, which aims to run government schools in partnership with the private sector, is a revolutionary step. He claims that the initiative will provide world-class education free of cost to underprivileged students. In a talk at a function in Lahore, he stated that the programme would bring over 1.8 million out-of-school children in Punjab back into the education system. The minister promised that quality education would be ensured through capacity building of teachers in the outsourced schools. Additionally, he announced that high-performing primary schools would be upgraded to elementary levels, ensuring that students in those areas have access to quality education close to their homes.

However, the decision has not been met with general approval. The Punjab Teachers Association has expressed strong opposition, vowing to protest what they see as the privatisation of public education. The Punjab Teachers Joint Action Committee also voiced strong opposition to the provincial government’s plan to hand over government schools to the Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and Punjab Education Initiatives Management Authority (PEIMA) under the guise of reorganisation. They pointed out that the previous and caretaker governments did not hire a single teacher in the last six years, leaving 120,000 teacher posts vacant.

The committee criticised the decision to hand over schools to the PEF, especially since some teachers managed to maintain up to 100 students in primary schools despite staffing shortages. They described the PEIMA and PEF as failed models, with 12,000 educational institutions under their supervision deteriorating due to lack of timely funds. They warned that giving another 14,000 educational institutions to the PEF and PEIMA was unwise.

The committee called on the government to fulfil its responsibility by recruiting new teachers, increasing employee salaries by 100%, and restoring leave encashment for teachers. Currently, 27 million children are out of school in Punjab. The committee predicted this number would rise to 30 million due to higher fees and the lack of free books, forcing children from poor families to drop out of school after the outsourcing.

They questioned whether the government’s role was only to impose more taxes and collect them by any means necessary, while failing to provide basic rights such as education and healthcare. The concerns of teachers and educationists are not without merit. The outsourcing plan includes hiring teachers on daily wages, which could lead to job insecurity and a decline in teaching quality. The payment of Rs. 700 per student, funneled through the PEF to teachers, raises questions about the sustainability and fairness of this funding model, especially in terms of adequately compensating educators for their crucial role.

The government’s argument that outsourcing would improve educational quality by introducing private sector efficiency is compelling but needs careful scrutiny. The risk is that these already struggling schools may become even more vulnerable if the transition to private management is not handled with utmost care and oversight. Outsourcing public education is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it offers the potential to bring much-needed resources and expertise to a system in dire need of reform. On the other hand, it threatens to erode the foundational principles of public education—accessibility, equity, and accountability.

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