Parents Teachers Councils (PTCs)

                   

 In our country, significant services responsibilities were entrusted to elected local governments because of a devolution plan. It is important to know that there are significant differences between what is written in laws or regulations and what actually occurs on the ground (de jure & de facto). The devolution of public education is not totally accurate response to widespread dissatisfaction with the performance of education in the country. The existing education devolution is a direct result of the President’s August, 2001 initiative for assigning a number of responsibilities from provincial governments to nearly six thousand elected district and sub-district local governments in the country.

As per design of the NRB, local governments were given revenues for primary and secondary education along with administrative responsibilities of transfer and postings up to BPS 16. Each province designed its own laws for the creation of popularly elected School Management Councils (SMCs) and in KPK, previously known Parents Teachers Associations (PTA) and afterwards, revised as Parents Teachers Councils (PTCs). PTCs have the authority to demand and receive government funding for functioning a specific school in public sector and to decide on the allocated funds each year. It is eight members elected body for three years with representation of elected Nazim/member of the concerned UC, parents, teachers and notables. The council can demand and utilize up to Rs. 250000/- keeping in view the condition of concerned school.

Decentralization is not necessarily the answer towards achieving good results on all the issues of education like school-based community control. The concept is still unclear among the surrounding school communities in general and female folk of society in particular. All the international organizations have identified problems of interpersonal and caste-based differences in the social development sectors. Our differences are almost different and encompass personal interests rather than public interest. The misuse of such funds is now-a-days a big challenge for the district and provincial education management.  

Before initiating a move at gross root level, proper accountability measures along with a progress yardstick must be established. Otherwise, there will be a large portion of desired goals and needs un-satisfied. Sound use of scarce resources is as much important as its provision in itself. There is a large gap between what is planned for promotion of education under the philosophy of Parents Teachers Councils and what is actually happening on the ground.