During a roundtable discussion with parliamentarians on draft education policy, participants at round table discussion demanded of the government to finalise the national education policy on priority by incorporating civil society's recommendations and share its educational plans and budgets to increase accountability and transparency.
The discussion was organised by Pakistan Coalition for Education (PCE) in collaboration with Action-Aid here on Thursday to initiate a debate over the causes and factors of delay in developing the national educational policy that has long been in limbo and to work out a way forward. Parliamentarians, senior representatives of ministry of education, educational experts, civil activists were also present on the occasion.
The participants stressed upon the government to increase the standard of education, which is not at all satisfactory. About 50 percent of children in Pakistan are deprived of education. They stressed upon the need to raise the education budget. The participants were of the view that due to negligence of the government the condition of the education sector is getting worst day by day.
Previous government who came up with the project 'Parha Likha Punjab' failed to achieve its targets. Not even a single school was built in the rural areas to provide education facilities to the children there. Besides this, what was done was that all the government schools were asked to enrol all the children of their areas not going to school, ignoring the fact that the school had a capacity to enrol such a large strength of the students or not.
Due to lack of sitting space, students were asked to sit at the open areas of the school and were freed just after taking their attendance. They also urged the government to update the course books as they tagged them meaningless and outdated. During the discussion, Bushra Gohar of ANP, expressed serious concern on the burning of schools in Swat and said, "We are committed to ensure girls education in the province and we will continue curbing the elements that are impeding women development through education."
While sharing the commitment of MQM, Dr Rashid, Dr Nadeem Ahsan and Naheed said, "It is part of MQM's manifesto that we will strive to ensure five percent of GDP be spent on education and we are working to develop a political consensus on this one point." Highlighting the political will of PML-N in improving the quality of education, especially girls' education in Punjab, Khalida Mansoor said "Punjab government gives prime importance to girls' education and we are committed to improving its quality and accessibility."
Sharing civil society's perspective on education, Bela Jamil, a leading civil society education activist identified gaps at various levels from primary to higher level. While concluding Haris Khalique of SPO urged the parliamentarians to take into account the recommendations shared with them by the civil society and take practical steps to incorporate the recommendations into the draft policy before tabling it in the house. He recommended open sessions of the education standing committee so that the civil society and education activists can also participate in the sessions.