Influencing And Communicating Policy Reform Through Media

Moderator: Amir JahangirPanelists: Mahtab Akbar Rashdi

Mubashir ZaidiTehmina QureshiProf. Dr. Syed Abdul Sirraj Syed Sajjad Kazmi

Amir Jahangir 6 August, 2015aj@mishal.com.pk

Evolution of Education Policy

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2009 was developed after a series of education policies dating back to the very inception of the country in 1947.

National Education Policy (NEP) 2009 was envisioned to get the most out of human capital and deliver social dividends in due course.

18th Amendment devolved the education delivery and responsibilities to the provinces opening a new set of opportunities and challenges while giving provinces autonomy to develop education policies most suited to their respective demographics.

Evolution of Media Print media gained significant freedom in the 1990’s

Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) Ordinance in 2002

Exponential growth of Media Television (State Broadcaster to 90+ Channels) Radio (PBC to 150+) Newspapers (1997 in 2005 to 749 in 2011)

With the advent of the Media Credibility Index in 2013, journalists and anchors placed renewed emphasis on ethical and fair reporting on all key issues in the country.

Current State of Media Education is not a priority subject for media. Although print media allocates certain space for education

related issues, that space is confined to less than 10% of the total content in print media.

The current affairs programs on television channels allocate less than 1% of their airtime for education related issues.

Out of almost 8000 programs in 2014, Only 106 had education as a topic of discussion.

Source: The State of Media in Education Report 2015 - ILM-o-Agahi - Mishal Pakistan ResearchResearch Period: January 2014 - July2014

Education Reporting in Print Media (URDU)

URDU Newspapers:The daily Express 167 news items analyzed The daily Jang 267 news items analyzed The daily Nawa-e-Waqt 342 news pieces were analyzed

 ENGLISH Newspapers:

The Express Tribune 65 news items includedThe News 47 news items were

analyzedDaily Dawn 159 news pieces were

analyzed

• Source: The State of Media in Education Report 2015 - Ilm-o-Agahi - Mishal Pakistan Research• A total of 1,047 news were analyzed for the study which included 776 news from Urdu dailies while

271 news were from English media. Research period January 2014 to July 2014

Education Reporting in Electronic Media January – December 2014

This involved almost 279,990 minutes of television programming across 17 leading news and current affairs channels.

Total Minutes Evaluated, 279,990 Minutes Educational Content, 1,098 Minutes (<1%)

Education Journalism Challenges

Popular Journalism (Focus on ratings)

Lack of resources for investigative journalism

Availability of timely updated data on education and weak interpretation of data

Lack of relevant training for journalists

Capacity issues of policy makers to interact with media

Shift in media consumption patterns