Thread by @nadeemhaque

read on day 2 @PIDEpk webinar on education. Role of government in education

1. We wish government canmake quality education. Yet all agree that government is incapable of doing the task. W/o comprehensive should we overloading government with tasks?

2. There was agreement that the decentralization and diversity in education delivery down to the school level was necessary and critical to the development of higher education.

3. Definition of an education policy proved to be very difficult. Education for all important but how and what instruments is unclear.

4. Pakistan has 14 education policies—one every 5 years and evaluation of any policy. Leading educationists felt that these policies were hasty jobs without much research. Some said they had never read a policy document. Clearly, policies made without research have not worked.

5. M&E of education is either done by donors or by foreign NGOs.
6. Government ministries run schools contrary to the commonly held view of experts that the system should be decentralized and diverse. Commentators want ministries to mainly focus on M&E develop long term policy

7. Regulation of education is frequently demanded but again like policy it is thought to be the done be a benign all-knowing government capable of looking after all. We must recognize that the regulation requires good M&E and research to back it up.

8. Both regulation and policy must be based on outcomes such as skills achieved, job market placements and learning outcomes and not inputs such as curricula, hours of schooling and funding as in our policies.

9. There was a strong minority opinion that government should not be in the business of either providing education or developing or publishing textbooks. Delivery of education can be market based with a strong targeted subsidy by the government.

10. M&E and research-based thoughtful regulation could achieve the objective of improving learning outcome.

11. Schools need to be run by local communities and parent organizations and certainly not the federal or the provincial governments. But then we have yet to evolve a participatory culture as evidenced by the limited participation in our debates.

12. we need many more debates like the with a lot of participation to learn. experts who feel they are above this should be kept away from education and education policy. Arrogance has not place in planning our children's future.