A child rights organisation has called for additional allocation of rupees 1.08 billion for provision of basic education facilities in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), saying education is the worst affected sector in the tribal belt.
Jahanzeb Khan, Regional Manager, Society for Protection of Rights of Child (SPARC), was addressing a press conference in connection with Global Action Week for Education titled 'Make it Right: Education for Women and Girls Now" here at Peshawar press club on Friday. The Global Action Week is being observed from 19 to 25 April under a global effort to boost ratio of female education.
Flanked by Khalid Mehmood, Programme Manager, Jahanzeb said that his organisation has launched a campaign in 54 districts of the country. "We will focus on Fata for protection of children during the week-long campaign, he explained. He added that Fata is lacking adequate education facilities due to which their literacy ratio has declined from 29.15 to 17.2 percent and female students' ratio is about three percent. He called upon the government to focus on imparting education in tribal areas on priority basis.
Sharing data regarding education ratio in tribal areas, compiled by Fata Secretariat in its Annual School Census Report 2009-10, he said that the education budget swelled from Rs 1.5 billion to 2.7 billion till 2005. The report reflected that the allocation is insufficient, as additional 1.08 billion for provision of universal primary education in Fata is required. He further said that in the report indicated that there are 5, 579 educational institutions, including 196 mosque schools, 2,107 for boys and 1,5 33 for girls. Expressing his views, Khalid Mehmood, Programme Manager, shared that the number of non-functional schools at the primary level is about 542; 281 male schools and 261 female's while 157 community schools, 49 for boys and 108 girls are non-functional. He added that about 844 boys' schools and 629 girls' schools are lacking boundary walls, whereas 713 boys' schools and 1,751 girls' schools are without drinking water facilities. Likewise, he continued, around 654 boys' schools and 1,602 girls' schools are running without electricity facility. Moreover, 1,070 boys and 1,249 girls' schools are without latrine facility.
Mehmood further said that in the report, total dropouts from pre-school to class-5 in government primary institutions over a cycle of six years constitute about 69 percent, out of which 63 percent boys and 77 percent are girls' students. Similarly, drop-out rate from class-6th to class 10th over a cycle of five years is about 54 percent, out of which 53 percent boys and 58 percent are girls students. He stressed the need of bringing changes in the attitude and mindset for provision of quality, free and compulsory education to people.