Declare Education Emergency Demand NGOs
Karachi:June 29:Representatives of the civil society have demanded the declaration of an education emergency in the country and asked for the allocation of more funds for this vital sector.
They said after the approval of 18th amendment, Article 25-A was inducted in the constitution, under which every citizen was entitled to free and compulsory education.
They said that under this article, every child between the ages of five and 16 should be provided free and compulsory education.
Karamat Ali, Executive Director, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), Nasir Mansoor of National Trade Union Federation (NTUF); Shamsuddin of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Saeed Baloch of Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), Abdullah Langah of Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) and Senior journalist Zubaida Mustafa, while addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Friday, said that despite the lapse of three years, neither the federal nor the provincial government took any action to implement Article 25-A.
They said that no other government, except Sindh, made education compulsory for all children.
They said the previous Sindh Assembly, before being dissolved, approved the bill for free and compulsory education on March 11, 2013.
The civil society members pointed out that on November 13, 2012, the National Assembly also passed a bill for free and compulsory education. They said that after the 18th amendment, education had become a provincial subject, but the federal government could at least implement the law in its federally administered areas.
They said that the budgets of the federal and provincial governments had been studied in details and no additional funds were allocated for free and compulsory education, which reflected the level of seriousness of the authorities on the subject.
They said that according to a statement of the provincial education minister, Nisar Khoro, the majority of the government schools are functioning without basic facilities.
The speakers mentioned that is there no electricity in around 27,000 schools out of a total of 42,000.
They said no water supply was available in 15,000 schools and 10,000 schools of them were operating without buildings. They also mentioned that there are ghost schools where there are no teachers.
They civil society organisations demanded that the chief justice of Pakistan take notice of the situation.The news.
