While Balochistan and Sindh have passed an ordinance and a bill to implement Article 25-A of the constitution, Punjab is still struggling to formally recognise the right of every child to a free and compulsory education.
Punjab, with an enrollment of only 61 percent, is facing a dire educational emergency. At the current rate of progress, Punjab would not be able to provide all its children with their constitutional right to free and compulsory education for another 28 years; that is till 2041.
Speaking at a seminar organised by Alif Ailaan, Jamaat-e-Islami Deputy Secretary General Waqas Jafri said, “The ultimate responsibility of delivering education rests with the government. The fact that we were still facing an educational emergency depicts the failure of the past governments. Education is the silver bullet for us. It is the solution to all the problems Pakistan is facing. Improvement in provision of education to all would be an important measure of success for the new government.”
Currently only two-thirds of primary-school-age children are enrolled in schools in Punjab. And among those who attend school, half drop out before even completing primary level education.
According to official figures, the drop-out rate at primary level in Punjab is higher than that in KP.
Society for Advancement of Education (SAHE) Chairman Abbas Rashid said, “Ensuring access to education for all children in Pakistan between the age of 5 and 16 years under article 25 A requires great political will, planning and resource mobilisation. Ensuring access, however, is only one part of the equation. Equally challenging is the task of providing quality. For access to education without quality does not really add up to much.”
Parents, teachers, civil society activists and political representatives present at the event agreed that the 2013 elections represented an opportunity to ensure education as the first priority on the national agenda.
Prominent lawyer Rafay Alam said, “With elections around the corner, we must work to remind election candidates of their responsibilities. We are entitled to ask them what they plan on doing to improve literacy in Pakistan. And now, with the 18th Amendment, they are bound to answer us”.
At present, only 1.8 percent of the national GDP is being spent on education. Unfortunately, even this limited budget is not well spent by the provinces. In the last two years, 11 per cent and 12 per cent of the allocated budget was not spent and the under-spending was equivalent to Rs 17.78 billion and Rs 23.21 billion in 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively. In 2011-12, the unspent amount was more than twice the total spending of the federal government on primary and secondary education.
Nothing but political will is needed to fix the system. If the education emergency in Pakistan is to end, the new government would have to urgently address the education crisis in its first quarter.
