Speakers at a seminar urged the people to make respective provincial governments accountable for legislation on ensuring quality education for all as promised in the constitution through Article 25-A of the 18th amendment. They also stressed on firm implementation of legislation, increased educational budget and also its proper spending.
The seminar ‘right to education and social accountability’ jointly organised by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and Idara Taleem-o-Agahi (ITA) was first in series of activities under campaign for advocating right to education in Pakistan.
Centre for Civic Education Executive Director Zafarullah Khan chaired the proceedings and maintained that right to education promised in constitution must be translated into actions such as increased education allocations, ensuring quality and equal access to education for all. He was of the view that in absence of firm implementation, this constitutional amendment would become one another useless article and he also referred to compulsory primary education act passed by Balochistan in 1962.
Idara Taleem-o-Agahi (ITA) Research Associate Rafeel Wasif said there was no legislation on Article 25-A even after lapse of almost two years of the 18thAmendment. There was some progress on a draft law for Islamabad in 2011 and one for Punjab in 2012 but unfortunately, both have been unrealistic in terms of practical implementation, he went on to add. He emphasised on increasing the education budget to at least 4 percent and deliberated that basic learning outcomes must be specified, measured and reported annually by the government for devising more viable policies.
Earlier, he shared findings of study ‘Annual Status of Education Report 2011‘, which focuses on aspects of inequality, quality and exclusions in education sector. The reports highlights that 20 percent of children in Pakistan are still out of schools. The report further reveals dismal level of learning in schools, saying that more than half of all children may complete primary school without learning to fluently read sentence of grade II.
Fayyaz Yaseen of SDPI spoke on social accountability in education and added that inefficient service delivery in education was fueled by lack of accountability by public and proper feedback mechanism. He said that increased participation of people can push governments in setting their policies right and that can result in true implementation of right to education ensuring access to quality education regardless of gender and rural-urban gaps in Pakistan. He also shared results of recently conducted activity of citizens’ reports cards on education in two slums in Islamabad which reveals that about 40 percent of students and parents in these localities are not satisfied with the quality of education.
