Murad Raas of Pakistan: the minister extraordinaire

Punjab school education ministry is an unenviable department. For myriad reasons. 11.5 million children attend government-run schools in Punjab. That is a staggering number. Add teachers and other staff, and it is an even bigger one. Public school education department is the second largest state-run department of Pakistan, armed forces being number one. Making the interests of students a top priority is, therefore, a huge responsibility. And it is that only for those who take it up as a noble mission and not just a ministerial job.

Dr Murad Raas, Punjab’s Minister of School Education, seems to understand the importance of the responsibility assigned to him in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf governed Punjab. He is a man on a mission, and his focus and hard work are unfaltering even when the odds turn into visible and unseen obstacles every step of the way.

Much work has been done, much is in progress, and much still needs to be done, Punjab’s Ministry of School Education is working, without a pause, to undo the damage of years of insensitivity and inattention to one of the most important aspects of human life: education of children. Raas keeps the public updated about the work of his ministry through his press conferences and social media posts. There does not seem to be any part of the ministry that is not being completely overhauled, remodelled, restructured. And Raas with his team of competent professionals is dedicated to changing the face and the soul of the ministry of school education for transformation of education into the magnificent force of change that it is meant to be for children and teenagers studying in the public school system.

Prior to and in addition to his ministerial work, Raas has close ties with his constituents of PP-159 of Lahore through constant interaction and tangible steps to resolve the decades old issues of their area: paved streets; replacement of 50-year-old sewerage system; fulfilment of 20-year-old demand for gas supply for residential use; re-carpeted roads; parks; streetlights that work; two underpasses, one operational now, the other under construction; holding of a weekly khuli katcheri [open informal court] to hear their issues; and an open door policy in his office for direct communication with complainants from all parts of Punjab.

Since April 2020, Raas runs two self-financed langars for distribution of two free meals a day serving on an average 2,000 people every day. He started this service during the initial part of the coronavirus pandemic when lives and jobs were turned upside down and basic food became a luxury for a countless number of people.

Raas does not like to talk about the work he does in his constituency and the langars and his other philanthropic work. The wellbeing of his constituents and their gratitude to the person they voted for paying attention to their basic needs in accordance with his electoral and later governmental promises are the rewards that remain his consistent motivation.

I asked Dr Murad Raas a few questions:

Mehr Tarar: What were the biggest challenges of the system of public school education when you took the reins of the ministry in August 2018?

Murad Raas: The first thing that I noticed was the absence of quality education. Secondly, there were an obvious scarcity of schools. For instance, in a city like Lahore with its huge population of more than 11 million, no new government school had been built in the last [before 2018] six or seven years. Infrastructure wise there were problems. We are still trying to resolve those problems. Access to school was one of the biggest issues. After class five, after finishing primary school, 70 percent of children used to drop out.

Now that is a crazy number. 70 percent of students dropping out of school because of the issue of access. 10-15 percent of that 70 percent dropout rate could also be because of financial reasons, but it’s still a huge number–50-60 percent of students falling out of the public school system because of access issues. Next school is not available, class 6 is not close by.

The system of teacher training was working on an obsolete model.

We have brought in the single national curriculum. Textbooks were getting obsolete. We plan to implement the single national curriculum, for the first time ever, on August 1, 2021. Infrastructure was a huge issue, many school buildings were rundown, some even dangerously so.

It’s as if nobody paid attention to the school education department the way it should have been given priority over other things in the ten years before our government came to power. I think lack of interest in education in those ten years has really hurt us and put us on the backseat. An acute lack of attention to Punjab public school education department, and because of that we are suffering today. Catching up with the rest of the world is so hard these days when it comes to education because things are moving and changing so rapidly and getting updated and we are way behind. But we are trying.

MT: What was one of the first major milestones after you became the minister of school education in August 2018?

MR: The e-Transfer is the system that we created for almost 400,000 teachers that work in the Punjab public school education system. Many of them are often looking to transfer from one district to another, for one reason or the other. We do about 20,000-50,000 transfers a year. It was used to be done manually with a great of money exchanging hands. Close to two to three billion, yes, billion with a B, rupees per year. When Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s government came into power in August 2018, we made the process online.

Now with the e-Transfer teachers apply sitting at home and receive their transfer orders on phone. Earlier, they had to run from district to district, office to office, from the place where they were working to the place where they wished to be transferred. They had to bribe people and undergo all kinds of stress to transfer from one place to another. We stopped the corruption. And at the same time, we took the stress away from teachers who were worried about getting transferred. Now they can do it all from home.

I think it was a monumental step because in the first three months when I joined the cabinet, I thought I was the transfer and not the education minister! Everybody was standing outside my door, lines and lines of people. Now we are done with all that.

MT: How successful is the Insaf Afternoon School Program?

MR: One other thing that we have done is the implementation of the Insaf Afternoon School Program. See, there are a number of places in Punjab where there is a primary school and no elementary school close by, or there is an elementary school and no high school close by. Building a school from scratch takes about two years and millions of rupees. What we have done is we have used the same building and the same teachers [to make a new school]. If it is a primary school we have made it an elementary school in the afternoon, and if it is an elementary school we turn it into a high school in the afternoon. The same staff is given an honorarium to teach [in double shifts].

With that we have had the majority of students [who had dropped out] coming back to school. Most of them had dropped out because of access reasons. In one school they attended classes up to class five, and then for class six no school was close by, and hence they were forced to drop out. When they had access to a school after the implementation of our afternoon school programme, they returned to school. The majority of them were girls. I think it is a very successful programme, we are moving along with that in huge numbers now.

MT: What are the steps being taken by your ministry to lessen the stronghold of afterschool tuition centres?

MR: Another programme that we are working on is the Insaf Academy. In Pakistan there is a culture of joining academies [tuition centres] after school hours to get help in schoolwork and in understanding subjects that students may find difficult. This is a huge problem here that teachers don’t properly teach in the morning and ask students to come in the afternoon for extra lectures. Students should be taught in classrooms. However, they have to go and learn at these academies and pay twice. Parents pay the school fee in the morning and then they pay for tuitions in these academies in the afternoon.

What we are doing is we are building an online academy to help students. The Insaf Academy portal will have recorded lectures, that is one of the initial plans. We are hoping to launch it by December 2021. After a few months of recorded lectures live lectures will be added.

The Insaf Academy will be free for all students, and hopefully, students will find it beneficial. It will have quizzes graded by teachers from our department. I think it’ll also be a great help for parents because they can see what their children are being taught and check their grades and their performance. Also, because of being absolutely free, it will be helpful in lessening parents’ stress by paying no extra fees.

MT: Is your ministry focused on changing the infrastructure while providing tools for modern education in public schools?

MR: Since we have come into government, when I was given this responsibility, we have built 2,000 classrooms in about 13 districts, 400 libraries, 1,000 science labs, and 1,000 IT labs. This whole programme of upgrading infrastructure should be completed within the next 60 days. It has been going on for a year and a half now.

MT: What are the key aspects of ITSP of Punjab?

MR: Due to covid we have had to change many things. I know that people all over the world have and continue to suffer. One of the best things that we have done is to change our teacher training by making it online. Earlier, teachers had to visit the centres in their respective district headquarters to receive their training. We have established a new programme, the Innovative Teacher Support Package (ITSP). This programme has really helped; we have already trained 193,000 teachers. We have over 100,000 downloads of the teacher training programmes. I think it is a big step that we have taken towards teacher training shifting from the previous model. Because of the [covid-created conditions], nationally and globally, we had to start this programme right away.

MT: What was one of the biggest challenges you faced during the pandemic and how did you deal with it?

MR: In the tough conditions of 2020 we saw a great number of children dropping out of school because of covid. We started an enrollment drive on February 1, 2021. We changed the entire system that was previously in practice for enrollment. We began on the level of head teachers or principals, and we involved local communities, doctors and lawyers in our enrollment programme. You would not believe that from February 1 to April 2 we have enrolled over 361,000 children. In these conditions when schools continue to open and close, parents are afraid to send their children to school, teachers are afraid to be in schools. In 61 days, we have enrolled over 361,000 children. All verifiable with B forms of children, these are not just numbers.

I think it’s a greatly successful programme. We gave a target of one million for the year starting February 1, 2021, and we have already enrolled 361,000. Most importantly, 60 percent are girls.

MT: You tweeted about Mera School. What is Mera School (My School)?

MR: Mera School is our new programme. In Mera School we will give the option to individuals or a company or an organisation to adopt a public school. For adoption of a school we will give options to meet various needs of a public school. They can choose whichever way they wish to help. For instance, if they wish to provide a missing facility–build a toilet, a library or a computer lab, or give new furniture, or add a room, it will be their choice. They will be given options, but no money will exchange hands. It is all to be done in kind.

No money will be given to the Punjab School Education Department or a school; anyone who wants to help has to do it in kind. We will sign an MoU with them, and they will let us know exactly how they wish to help the school. They will bring their own people and help in the physical improvement of a school. Schools will be given to them only for improvements, nothing else.

I think it will be a great programme because many people have already approached me stating their desire to adopt a public school.

MT: How important is the role of technology in your outlook on short- and long-term rehabilitation of the public school system of Punjab?

MR: Our number one focus since I joined the education department was its digitisation. Before I became the minister, technology was not used in this department. It was minimal. I think that without technology we cannot move forward. You get data, and with data you can make correct assessments of where you need to go and what needs to be done. Right decisions cannot be made without data. E-Transfer and the online Insaf Academy are only possible because of the digitisation of the system.

I’m hoping that by the end of 2021 our department’s digitisation is at a more advanced stage. By the end of our five-year term of which two and a half years have passed, I think everything that this department does will be on the telephone. If you want to look for a student, if you want to look for a teacher, if you want to look for a school, if you want to have any other data that you need, it would all be available on the phone. Without technology and without digitisation I don’t think any education department in the world can move forward.

There are mafias within the system that do not want change because then they will have to work for their paycheck and be held accountable for it. Not many people want digitisation because they know it will stop the corruption.

MT: Recently, the issue of the regularisation of Secondary School Educator (SSE) and Assistant Education Officer (AEO) has been in the news. How is that being resolved?

MR: The issue of AEOs and SSEs is that of regularisation without going through the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC). Teachers have to take a test and appear for an interview at PPSC. I’m in discussion with the law department; the law stipulates that you have to go through PPSC to be regularised and to be made permanent [staff]. These teachers [the ones in protest] have taken the National Testing Service exam, and I’m checking if they can get an exemption from PPSC. If not, we will have to bring in an amendment in the act. I’m talking to PPSC and the law department simultaneously to see what we can do for the teachers to give them a permanent status. Either way we will find a way for them to be made permanent.

MT: What are the SOPs currently implemented in private and public schools all over Punjab, and in particular, in the districts most affected by the coronavirus?

MR: We are making sure that only 50 percent of students attend schools in the districts of Punjab that have a positivity rate of 12 percent or more. At this point schools in all such districts are closed.

No child is allowed inside a school without a mask. Social distancing is followed in classrooms. Temperature of students is monitored at the gate when they come to school. We have advised parents to not send their children to school if they have a cough or fever. If a teacher identifies a child coughing or showing some other symptom, they are sent home right away.

In some places we have staggered attendance–50 percent of students on one day, and 50 percent the next. If there is one case of COVID-19 in a school, we shut that classroom, and everyone in that classroom is tested. If there are two cases in a school, we shut it down for a week. Entire schools are randomly tested.

The process of following SOPs in schools is being conducted in an extremely well-organised way.