Alif Ailaan Midterm Report Card for Members of the Provincial Assembly - Sindh May 11, 2013 to November 11, 2015 On November 11, 2015, Pakistan’s four provincial assemblies and the National Assembly reached the mid-term mark in their tenure. The Alif Ailaan campaign has assessed the performance of every MNA and MPA since the 2013 elections against four benchmarks for education and awarded grades in each category, as well as an overall grade to each MNA, each MPA, and the assemblies overall. This document contains the Alif Ailaan Midterm Report Card for MPAs of the Provincial Assembly of Sindh. What are the MPAs graded on? The four benchmarks on which MPAs have been graded on are: a) the state of school facilities (with the highest grades for those constituencies that made the most progress in the provision of boundary walls, electricity, drinking water and toilet facilities since the 2013 election) b) the state of gender parity (the ratio of boys to girls or girls to boys – with the highest grades for those constituencies that have shown the greatest movement toward parity since the 2013 election) c) the student to teacher ratio (with the highest grades for those constituencies with the largest improvement in student teacher ratio since 2013 – where low student to teacher ratios are considered better) d) the retention rate between class IV and class II (with the highest grades awarded to those constituencies with the highest improvement in the retention rate since 2013) Data limitations The construction of the grades is not based on ideal benchmarks, but rather on benchmarks made from official government data on education that was available, as well as representative of a desirable outcome in education. The four benchmarks were thus chosen to reflect the four key areas where government actions can produce direct and immediate results, namely: school building infrastructure, equal provision of education for girls and boys, the ratio of teachers to students, and the ability of the system to retain students within the primary school system. The grades do not reflect the state of education in a given constituency, but rather the demonstrable change in each constituency since the 2013 election. Finally, the most recent available official government data that can be reported by constituency is from the end of 2014 – therefore the grades will not reflect any changes to the education landscape during this calendar year. How to read an MPA’s grades? Each MPA has scored grades on school facilities, gender parity, student to teacher ratio and retention. The grades represent the quantum shift made in the given constituency for all public sector schools since the 2013 election. The allocation of grades has been made according to a normal distribution. The highest possible grade is A+ and the lowest is E. 2 A low grade does not necessarily mean that a given constituency is very badly placed and a high grade does not necessarily mean that a given constituency is doing very well. Instead, grades reflect the level of progress made within a given constituency. A low grade does however indicate that a greater effort to improve the state of affairs may have led to a better grade, whereas a high grade shows that measurable improvement was shown. Highlights of the Midterm Report Card for MPAs from Sindh Assembly The report card for the Provincial Assembly of Sindh shows that out of 130 directly-elected MPAs, only five MPA constituencies received an A grade, denoting evidence of some overall progress since the 2013 general election. The constituency of Chief Minister of Sindh scored a B grade for his constituency PS-29 Khairpur-I. All other MPA constituencies score either a B or a C grade, depending on their performance on each of the four benchmarks we have explored. The overall grade for the Provincial Assembly of Sindh is a C. School facilities: In the provision of school facilities, three MPA constituencies in Karachi (PS- 98, PS-108, PS-126) demonstrated a level of improvement consistent with what would represent an A+ effort (the only other A+ goes to PS-83, represented by Shahid Abdul Salam Thahim). Another 16 MPA constituencies received an A grade, twelve of whom belong to constituencies in Karachi. At the other end of the spectrum, MPA Aziz Ahmed Jatoi’s Larkana-Kambar Shahdadkot (PS-41) has demonstrated the most dramatic deterioration in school facilities and was thus rewarded an E grade. Overall, rural constituencies remain overrepresented in the worst performers (including in Umerkot, Thatta, Mirpurkhas, Ghotki). Largely, school facilities did not improve very much since the 2013 election, with 55% of constituencies being awarded a C grade or below. In part, this may have been informed by the significant effort by the Sindh education department, to improve the quality of data in the province. Still, for MPAs in Sindh looking to make a difference, improving the infrastructure of the province’s over 40,000 schools would represent a good beginning. Retention rates: Eight MPA constituencies in Sindh have seen a significant enough improvement in retention rates, to merit an A+ grade. This includes PS-16 Jacobabad-cum-Kashmore, where the MPA is Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani. Other recipients of an A+ are the three other Jacobabad constituencies (PS-13, PS-14, and PS-15), both of Kashmore’s constituencies (PS-17 and PS- 18), and both constituencies in Kambar-Shahdadkot (PS-40 and PS-42). At the other end of the spectrum, Sanghar (1 E and 1 D grade), Umerkot (3 D grades), Nawabshah (2 D grades) and Tando Allayar (2 D grades) all experiences the worst deterioration in retention rates. The contiguous constituencies in the north have performed well in retaining students, while the neighboring constituencies in the central belt of the province are the worst performers. Overall, student retention remains a significant concern across Sindh, with 66% of constituencies scoring a C or below. Gender parity: The largest improvement in gender-parity was in Hyderabad and Karachi, with all six A+ grades going to constituencies in these two cities. Eight of the nine A grades are also from Karachi’s constituencies. The worst performing constituencies in Sindh, in terms of gender 3 parity, are Thatta (with 3 Ds and 2 Cs) and Tharparkar (with 4 Ds). Overall 58% of constituencies received a C grade or below, indicating the great effort needed to achieve a greater balance in Sindh’s classrooms between boys and girls. Student-teacher ratio: Constituencies in Kambar-Shahdadkot, Tharparkar, and Dadu appear to have shown the greatest movement towards improved student teacher ratios. Only one constituency (PS-95) from Karachi receives an A grade. Out of the seventeen Ds awarded in the province for student teacher ratio, sixteen are to Karachi constituencies. Similarly, both E grades from the province are from MPA constituencies in Karachi, suggesting considerable population pressures on schooling in urban areas and an overall undersupply of teachers. All of the five constituencies in Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah’s Khairpur district receive a B grade. Overall 52% of constituencies in Sindh scores a C grade or below as far as this indicator is concerned. Homework for MPAs who want to improve Every MPA in the province is performing below par. Even recipients of A grades would not send their own children to a government school. The grades here are being awarded to the state of government schools. This report card clearly shows that there is not only a lot of room for improvement in the state of government schools overall, but a lot of room for improvement in the effort that MPAs invest in improving education. Further, MPAs can help improve education through data collection, openness and reporting. Acquiring, processing, cleaning and presenting the data for this exercise is an incredibly resource-intensive exercise that government should be doing itself. Government also must begin to produce data faster, and across a richer array of variables – particularly data on learning outcomes and education quality. The Sindh government’s initiative to share the Education Management Information System data with the public is a good first step; more efforts along the same lines are needed to ensure that data is collected and analysed well before the start of the next school year and the budget formulation process. All MPAs can easily improve their grades by insisting on timely and effective improvements in school facility provision, on which government has a rich and detailed database. In the 2015-16 budget, the Sindh government has allocated PKR 10 billion for the provision of missing facilities and the upgradation of existing schools, building new schools and the provision of furniture and fixtures to all schools across the province. MPAs need to make sure that not only are the funds allocated for the current and development expenditure spent judiciously, but that the Provincial Assembly has regular oversight of the utilisation. MPAs can also affect better student to teacher ratios by insisting on rational allocations of teachers, rather than postings and transfers that suit their patronage of political actors in their constituencies. The government’s policy of rationalising teachers according to need requires political ownership by the MPAs. Encouraging girls enrolment and ensuring that practices like corporal punishment are prevented will help MPAs improve gender parity and better retention rates. 4 The ultimate report card for MPAs will be delivered in 2018 – when the time for