Parliamentary Secretary for Federal Education and Professional Training Wajiha Akram has said that ‘enhancing girls’ access to education lies at the heart of the Ministry of Education’s strategy to improve Pakistan’s education indicators.
She was talking at a round table discussion in Islamabad with the members of the Standing Committees of Senate and National Assembly.
This parliamentary roundtable was organized by civil society organizations including CPDI, Pakistan Youth Change Advocates (PYCA) and Pakistan Coalition for Education (PCE) in collaboration with Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS).
In the closing remarks, Wajiha Akram, Parliamentary Secretary for Federal Education and Professional Training said “The federal ministry is not just aware of the issues but we are very actively working to overcome them despite having very limited resources at our disposal. We are currently in the process of upgrading the list of beneficiaries under the Ehsaas education Stipend program to ensure that children from families that fell below the poverty line after COVID can also immediately benefit from this nationwide initiative.”
Executive Director, Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) Dr Mukhtar Ahmad raised the point that it seems that even though the law of free and compulsory education (Article 25-A) was passed over a decade ago, the government departments are under the assumption that this law cannot be implemented and so, no coherent effort in this regard is necessary.
Zehra Arshad, National Coordinator, PCE while providing an Analysis of Article 25-A, SDG 4 and Ehsaas program shared, “Pakistan has the second largest number of out-of-school children in the world. It is then not surprising that Pakistan stands last in the Human Development Index among South Asian countries. To add to this crisis, it is feared that an additional 1 million children might have dropped out-of-schools.” she emphasized on the importance of not merely ensuring the swift implementation of Article 25-A but also aligning it with the SDGs to ensure at least 12 years of free and quality education for all.
PYCA’s Executive Director Areebah Shahid commented on the progress towards SDG 4 goals and provided recommendations to achieve Agenda2030.“There is a dire need to align Pakistan’s commitments under SDG 4 with the actual spending taking place under education.
