Children aged 5 to 16: Legislation to provide free, compulsory education demanded

Participants of a district-level All Parties conference have called for making legislation in light of Article 25-A of the Constitution to guarantee the provision of free and compulsory education to children from the age of 5 to 16 years in the province. The APC was held under the auspices of the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS) in collaboration with Alif Ailaan here at a local hotel, on Wednesday. The representatives of the PTI, JI, PML-N, PMAP, JUI-F, PPP and ANP participated in the conference.
The participants also called for an access to quality education, importance of planning, effective role of public representatives and increase in funds to bring a huge number of street children to schools. During the meeting, the officials of ISAPS gave a detailed presentation on state of education in district Peshawar and also presented different proposals and recommendations in this regard.
The participants of the meeting also called for prioritizing the resolution of problems. In the current financial year, he said the provincial government has allocated a fund of Rs 6.6 billion, whose major share is utilized in salaries and allowances. The provision of these facilities during the next five years will require an amount of Rs 24.2 billion and allocation of at least Rs 8 billion per annum.