‘Education emergency’ enforced: PM wants 26m out-of-schoolchildren enrolled

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday declared an ‘Education Emergency’ across Pakistan in order enroll around 26 million out-of-school children.

The prime minister told a gathering of federal ministers, parliamentarians, vice-chancellors, diplomats and development partners at the National Conference on Education Emergency that the government wanted to promote literacy to make the country regain its lost space and develop it as one of the most educated societies in the world.

“With strong conviction and with support of provinces, the government will handle the challenge of enrolling 26 million out-of-school children and they will be brought back to schools,” he said.

“I declare from this moment an emergency in education all over Pakistan. The way we did it in Punjab, we will do it in Pakistan,” Shehbaz said.

He said that he would personally supervise the programme and meet all the chief ministers, setting aside political affiliations, with a vision to march in unison, expressing the hope that the provinces too would extend their support.

“This is very challenging task but it concerns our children and country’s future,” he maintained.

Quoting the examples of Germany and Japan, he said such nations developed from ashes of defeat. “Pakistan can stand among most educated nations if we move in unison,” he said.

While highlighting achievements of the Punjab government during his chief ministership, Shehbaz mentioned the enhanced enrollment rates, especially for girls, through initiatives like the Zevar Taleem Programme and rescuing 90,000 boys from brick kilns by sending them to schools.

He also mentioned outsourcing of 10,000 poorly performing schools to improve education quality and established Danish Schools which offered free high-quality education and boarding for underprivileged children. He said the enrollment of 26 million out-of-school children and stunted growth were major challenges facing Pakistan which required huge financial resources.

Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said the education sector needed immediate actions and urgent responses as Pakistan stood at the crossroads of destination with no option to lose. He said statistics of education in Pakistan are disturbing, alarming and disheartening. More than 26 million children are out of school. “This number is greater than the population of 150 countries in the world,” he commented.

Unicef Representative in Pakistan Abdullah A Fadil said over 70 percent of children of age 10 in Pakistan could not read or understand text. Despite constitutional guarantees, education in Pakistan was neither yet compulsory nor free. He said through enhanced investment in education and young people, Pakistan could regain its lost stature as the first Nobel laureate in Physics belonged to Pakistan and that the country also recently sent a space mission to moon.

British High Commissioner in Islamabad Jane Marriott said that Pakistan with 60 percent population under 30 years of age was at a crossroads to make tough choices. She said the conference called for urgent actions like enhanced funding, inclusivity, multiple shifts schools and retaining the children, and assured her country’s all-out cooperation to make Pakistan achieve the goal.

World Bank Vice President Martin Raiser said Pakistan was faced with 40 percent children having stunted growth and the ratio was around 60 percent in poor districts. He also commended the prime minister for taking the out-of-school children as a challenge and suggested the government to hold absent teachers accountable, and provide public transport, safe roads, toilets and electricity in schools to enhance enrollment. He said as Pakistan’s education system was vulnerable to climate change, it was a must to invest in climate resilience.

Meanwhile, World Bank (WB) Regional Vice President for South Asia Martin Raiser, along with a delegation including Country Representative Najy Benhassine, called on the prime minister. Both sides agreed to engage in a long-term, focused partnership under a new Country Partnership Framework with an annual review mechanism to assess progress and ensure that results are achieved, the PM media wing in a statement said.

The strategy will include flexibility for future course correction as the new partnership will have the ambition to achieve transformational impacts over a decade on a selective set of critical development priorities for Pakistan. The initial set of priorities that were discussed in the meeting included structural economic reforms including domestic resource mobilisation, particularly via digitalisation and tax policy reforms.

Both sides agreed that the process for preparation of the new Country Partnership Framework will consist of consultations with federal and provincial governments as well as academia, parliamentarians, civil society, development partners and the private sector. The WB would coordinate with stakeholders to discuss the partnership priorities duly aligned with the key development priorities and strategy of the Government of Pakistan.

The prime minister witnessed the signing of a joint communique in this respect, signed by the WB country representative and the Economic Affairs Division secretary.

Separately, chairing a meeting to review the matters of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development, and National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC), the prime minister directed the authorities concerned to immediately initiate the process of establishing the Pakistan Skill Company and Pakistan Skill Development Fund to unify the technical and vocational education countrywide and provide better employment to Pakistani workers abroad. He instructed to further activate the NAVVTC to provide world-class technical and vocational training to the young workforce and also called for ensuring the globally renowned and international certifications in all technical fields.

The prime minister also emphasized the collaboration between the Centre and provinces to elevate the quality of Pakistan’s technical manpower and human resource development. He called for establishing an integrated system of regulating the manpower equipped with the best and world-class professional technical skills.

Besides, in coordination with Nadra, NAVTTC and all the provincial institutions, a database of manpower in the country and abroad should be developed, he added.

During the briefing, the prime minister was informed about the steps taken by NAVTTC regarding the vocational and technical training of the workforce in Pakistan. It was told that the NAVTTC would provide vocational and technical training to 60,000 people this year, while the figure would rise to 0.6 million in the next three years, following the reforms.

It was told that exchange of information about employment opportunities and required skills from foreign countries was being ensured and that data of manpower consumption was also being obtained from the local industry. The meeting was told that NAVTTC had made certification of male and female students from internationally renowned institutes mandatory to ensure global standards of vocational and technical training.

It was told that as per the prime minister’s directives, not only a quota had been allocated for the youth of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir at the federal level but also a separate programme was being launched for their special training starting June this year.

Meanwhile, in a meeting with Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan Bakhtiyor Saidov, who is currently on a two-day visit to Pakistan, the prime minister reiterated that Pakistan was committed to working with Uzbekistan to speed up and complete all bilateral trade and connectivity projects.

He reaffirmed Pakistan’s readiness to provide access to Uzbekistan to Pakistani ports, a PM Office press release said. He also emphasised the importance of Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan Railway Project and Pakistan’s commitment to its early completion. The two sides discussed enhanced cooperation between Pakistan and Uzbekistan in the fields of trade and economy, security and defence, connectivity and people-to-people contacts. The importance of peace and development in Afghanistan for regional connectivity was also discussed.