Education is a human right and a means for social and human development. As a signatory of the Education For All (EFA) Declaration and to the United Nations’ (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Pakistan works to bring every child into school by 2015. One of the major steps taken to meet this target is the introduction of the Article 25-A through the recent 18th Amendment of the Constitution of Pakistan. The article states that “the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 5 to 16 years in such manner as may be determined by law”.
UNESCO, in collaboration with Pakistan Association for Continuing and Adult Education (PACADE), held a forum with the media for the enforcement of Article 25-A and promotion of EFA in Sindh at the Karachi Press Club.
UNESCO Pakistan Director Dr Kozue Kay Nagata made a request for accelerating efforts to achieve the internationally committed targets of achieving 86 percent literacy by the year 2015 and meeting the goal of Universal Primary Education as laid down in the UN’s MDGs.
UNESCO exhorted the Sindh government to come up with a requisite provincial law to enforce the Right to Education under the Article 25-A. The organisation also observed that neither democracy nor the economy could function meaningfully and pick up strength and momentum if the masses lacked basic human skills of reading and writing in this day and age.
