President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday called for the enrollment of around 26 million out-of-school children in the country through drastic measures including education emergency, double shifts in educational institutes and utilizing the mosque for teaching purposes.
The president, addressing an event in connection with the World Education Day, also suggested a mechanism to engage the newly graduated and intermediate students for teaching the out-of-school children, offering them a stipend.
Additionally, he also advocated the promotion of online education, besides extending the facilities to doctors, engineers, and trained workforce in the country to discourage the trend of moving abroad.
He said the alarming figure of 26 million out-of-school children was worrisome for the country and exemplified other countries including Sri Lanka and Bangladesh where children enrollment was around 98 to 100 percent.
He said the educating the children was of paramount importance to produce a skilled and qualified workforce, not merely the laborers.
Lauding the contribution of the partner organisations, the president said the country should take advantage of their services for benefit of the future generations.
He informed the gathering that since Pakistan’s inception, around 55,000 schools were built and the enrolment of out-of-school children required another 50,000 schools which was extremely difficult, considering educational budget of the provinces. In such a scenario, the out-of-box solutions were a must to cope with the challenge, he added.
Reiterating his suggestion to use the mosque platform as a centre of learning, he said the worship places were equipped with all basic facilities including electricity and clean drinking water. The platform can be used to teach out-of-school children in alternative timings including both boys and girls at separate mosques, he added.
President Alvi lauded the Benazir Income Support Program for its contributions to child and mother’s health and suggested to link financial assistance with the enrollment of out-of-school children. Highlighting the ratio of 15-20 percent of Dyslexia disease in the country, he appreciated the measures taken for the suffering children.
The president also said the enrollment in higher education after intermediate was around 10-12 percent in Pakistan as compared to 24 percent in neighboring countries.
