Education: a fundamental right

Where the government is failing its people

Education unfortunately has never been one of our top priorities. Somehow the politicians and the bureaucrats of the country have thought it best to let it slip by their minds while devising policies of national importance. But that has made the country’s population a burden instead of an asset. The 18th amendment to the constitution stipulates, under article 25-A, that all children from the age of five to 16 will be given free and compulsory education, making it a fundamental right. However, the ground reality is that even though considerable time has passed by since the amendment, no action has been taken by any provincial government other than Sindh whose maximum step was to pass a law validating the amendment but no actual ground work.

Now that the new governments in all the provinces have taken charge of affairs and have settled in, it is up to them to realise the 18th amendment in reality. As education ministry has been devolved to the provinces, it is the provincial governments who are responsible for the implementation of the said article. No child should be deprived of education merely because of a lack of resources or means. Agreed there are problems, huge problems in the way but unless the governments agree to take on the challenge, how they can be sorted out. Unlike KP government, which has announced its inability to implement article 25-A, Punjab and Balochistan have yet to take any official stance on the issue. Sindh did pass legislation in this regard but there has been no actual ground work that could be cited as example. The province has thousands of ghost schools, lacks infrastructure, staff, training and proper mindset to make the dream of every child in school a reality. The road is long and the challenges are too difficult, still it is something that cannot be delayed any further. What needs to be done is to initiate a drive to increase enrolment of children in schools, provision of supplies and infrastructure.

However, none of this is possible without governments’ active participation. First of all they need to increase the education budget; they should launch programmes and incentives for the teachers and offer facilities to the children. They should also take into account local and regional sensitivities so that no child is left behind because of local bias or prejudice. Quality is another issue that needs to be kept in mind. Corruption, legal loopholes, political interference and patronisation should be discouraged and banned altogether. If the government thinks that a mere declaration of a fundamental right makes it easily accessible to all, it couldn’t be more wrong. But it has a chance to salvage the situation and do what is necessary.