Article 25-A of the 1973 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan makes free and compulsory education the fundamental right of every Pakistani child. The country is also a signatory to various treaties related to universal education. However, progress towards this end has been painfully slow. In this context, the recent report by Alif Ailan has done a commendable job in making federal and provincial governments uncomfortable, governments that have been befooling the masses with their claims to keep education atop their political agenda and parties’ manifestos. The report has clearly unmasked the miserable condition of basic education in Pakistan where serfdom, feudalism, poverty and non-uniformity in educational systems are keeping 25 million children out of school.
However, morally and intuitively, if one thinks a bit deeper, the stated figure transcends a tangible dimension. It reflects 25 million broken promises to poor children whose very existence is put at risk when deprived of this fundamental human right. To add insult to injury, being unnoticed and underprivileged in the vast and diversified social infrastructure of Pakistan, there is less likelihood of their remaining safe from religious extremism, sexual abuse and terrorism. Moreover, if the government of Pakistan keeps giving a cold shoulder to this urgent issue, it would then be planting 25 million trees with no shade to provide, unaware of the charms of the changing seasons.
Relatedly, it has become a big dilemma that huge plans initiated by national and various international organisations such as USAID, United Nations Development Project (UNDP) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), remained unable to change the attitude of the majority of the people living in far flung areas of Pakistan, who prefer to send their children to work for daily wages instead of providing them with books and pens. Our concern revolves around such children. Pakistan is not keeping pace with the globalised world due to a weak education system. The system of its primary education is highly affected by feudalism, rampant corruption, authoritarian regimes, political instability and a fragile civil society.
Similarly, though the provision of basic facilities such as food, health, shelter and education has always been the top agenda of all governments in Pakistan, sadly, education, among others, has always been criminally neglected throughout mainstream and peripheral Pakistan. This has also been highlighted by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC), the World Bank and UNESCO.
The major reason behind the grave phenomenon of ‘dropout’ children has been found to be unwillingness on the part of parents, especially of female students (34 percent). Other reasons include cost of schooling, location of the school (it being too far) and, in many cases, children not showing interest in attending school. For example, a child’s unwillingness to attend school is the most frequently reported reason (38 percent), followed by the cost of schooling. Also, there is a cultural myth that parents in Pakistan are not willing to send their children to school, especially girls. This myth needs to be debunked. According to latest reports on the total of 162,800 government educational institutions, merely 61,376 cater to the needs of girls and young women. A majority of such institutions lack basic facilities such as clean water, washrooms and boundary walls. In far-flung rural areas, the long journey to school is difficult, if not impossible, in the absence of safe and reliable transportation. Therefore the real reason is not the culture per se: it is the failure of the state to provide security and other requisite facilities so that Pakistani parents can send their children to school safely.
In this gloomy situation, there is, however, enough to move forward. We certainly commend the various initiatives of federal and provincial governments in Pakistan to put the educational wheel back in motion. For instance, the introduction of Article 25-A in the Constitution in 2010, which guarantees free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of five and 16; Pakistan’s commitment to spend four percent of GDP by 2018 on education; the National Plan of Action 2013 to achieve 91 percent net primary school enrolment by 2016; the Programme Monitoring and Implementation Unit (PMIU) of the Punjab government; the Tameer-e-School programme of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government; the Sindh government’s initiative to cancel the contracts of unqualified teachers and 29 percent allocation of education budget by the government of Balochistan for development expenditures are some encouraging policy targets.
However, in view of the foregoing, we would like to provide the concerned bodies with certain recommendations to improve primary education. First, the government, at every level, should institute a permanent programme to create and maintain awareness among parents about the importance of sending their children to school. Second, local and provincial governments should devise a programme to work with communities in organising study classes for the parents of those children who do not know how to read or write or who are otherwise unable to help their children with homework, etc. Third, proper investigation should be conducted to explain why children are refusing to attend school and corrective measures should be taken accordingly. Fourth, child labour, which is dehumanising itself, must be strictly and speedily banned through effective legislation and implementation. Fifth, the government should increase the quality of schools and ensure that schools meet minimum infrastructure requirements such as qualified and trained faculty. In this respect, the provincial ministries of education and teachers associations should work in tandem to certify teachers before they can be allowed to teach formally.
Sixth, strict monitoring should be undertaken by governments to determine why the implementation of free and compulsory primary education has not been achieved. The 160 universities and higher education institutions can initiate, as part of their corporate social responsibility, small school systems where the children of today, not tomorrow, are accorded free education and socio-psychological counselling. In this respect, we feel proud to mention here that COMSATS Institute of Information Technology and Iqra University have set an example by starting Pakistan Sweet Home projects in terms of educating and taking care of orphans (school-based) children.
In summation, though the measures mentioned by governments to improve the level and degree of education point to a realisation of the problem, there is still much to be done as is outlined and suggested in this article. Until the state and civil society come forward, the children of today would never see a better tomorrow.
Dr Ejaz Hussain is a political scientist and woks as assistant professor at Iqra University, Islamabad. He tweets @ejazbhatty. Asif A Malik is assistant registrar, principal seat of COMSATS IIT, Islamabad. He tweets @AsifMalik30