OUT-of-School Children (OOSC) is one of the biggest issues faced by our education sector which requires an urgent but effective and coordinated response to deal with it as doing so is important to exploit the true potential of our children and achieve the long cherished dream of socio-economic development.
The worrying figures were shared with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday that according to a survey conducted by Benazir Income Support Program (BISP), 4.7 million children of ages of five to sixteen years are out of school in the province, out of which 2.9 million are girls.
The situation in recently merged tribal districts is far serious as out of one million out-of-school children there, about 75% of them are girls.
It really indicates that we are failing our children which amount to failing the country. It is only through education that the backwardness of areas such as tribal districts can be done away with.
Hence, responsibility rests with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government to focus more on bringing the OOSC to schools.
There should be a strict mechanism to check that the educational institutions in tribal districts remain fully functional.
At the same time, more educational institutions equipped with the latest equipment needs to be established there.
Tribal elders and religious scholars should also be engaged who should play the role of creating awareness amongst the tribal families about the importance of education, especially for the girls.
The families which cannot send their children to schools because of financial issues must be supported through Benazir Income Support Programme.
The problem of OOSC is not confined mere to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa but the situation in other provinces is also not satisfactory.
Hence, effective strategies need to be framed for enrolment and retention whilst rising above mere lip service.
For this, we also need to improve the environment at our public sector schools. We also need to make our education relevant according to the contemporary requirements so that our children could better compete and thrive.
