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Friday March 29, 2024

Free, compulsory education dream remains elusive

Despite Constitutional Amendment five years back

By our correspondents
April 20, 2015
LAHORE: With the completion of five years on April 19, 2015, since the historic Article 25-A was inserted into the Constitution making free and compulsory education a right to all children of the age from 5 to 16, the provincial governments have yet not initiated its implementation, while Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has simply failed to introduce the necessary legislation.
Thus every Pakistani child who was born on the date of the law now falls in this age group. Though during these five years all the provincial governments, except the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, have introduced respective necessary legislations, the rules of business to ensure implementation of these provincial laws have yet to be formulated.
The PTI-led Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government seems completely indifferent to the much-needed legislation, as it had yet to introduce a law vis-à-vis Article 25-A. The first-ever legislation in connection with the Article 25-A was introduced for the Islamabad Capital Territory in 2012. However, the rules of business to ensure implementation of this law have yet to be formulated.
This was followed by Sindh with the Sindh Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education Act in 2013 but still the rules are awaited. Balochistan first promulgated an ordinance in 2013 which was later enacted as the Balochistan Compulsory Education Act in February 2014. Similarly the rules of business have yet to be formulated.
The Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Ordinance was promulgated in 2014 and in August same year, 90 days extension was given to the RTE Ordinance (till November 10, 2014) to solicit input/ feedback of stakeholders by the Punjab Assembly’s Standing Committee on Education. It was made a law through the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act in November 2014. However the rules to implement the same have yet to be formulated.
Undoubtedly the prevailing situation speaks volumes vis-à-vis priorities of the political governments. This also exposes response of the governments to the international commitments such as Education for All (EFA) goals, to be achieved by 2015, many of which have been missed by Pakistan.
The implementation of Article 25-A is a huge challenge for the federal and provincial governments due to enormity of task requiring more schools, classrooms and teachers and funs for non-development expenditures. However what saddens is the lack of political will as exposed by the response from the governments. The academic circles had urged the federal as well as provincial governments to insert timeframe for formulation of rules in the Right to Education (RTE) laws when discussions had started vis-à-vis these very legislations. However, the governments turned deaf ear to such suggestions.
Research Fellow at the Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS) Ahmad Ali said Punjab province already had a compulsory education law, Punjab Compulsory Primary Education Act 1994; however the law could not be implemented as no rules of business were formulated in this regard. “The legislation without rules is like a water tank with no tap to use water”, he explained.
Ahmad Ali said the implementation of the article was a big challenge. According to him his organization shared comprehensive draft laws as well as rules for implementation of same with different provincial governments including Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
When contacted, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Education Minister Atif Khan said his government wanted to do the RTE legislation in a proper manner and not just a “make-up” kind of thing as others did.
“There are huge financial and legal implications with regard to implementation of the RTE law,” Atif said claiming draft law was sent twice to the province’s Law Department but was rejected. “Presently the draft law lies with the law department for vetting,” he said adding once cleared the government would introduce the law.
Sardar Raza Barrech, Education Advisor to Balochistan chief minister, when contacted also mentioned financial and legal implications. “Balochistan’s history is different as compared to other provinces as half of its population still lack schools,” he said. Barrech said governments should support Balochistan in this vital sector.
The News could not reach Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood and Secretary Schools Abdul Jabbar Shaheen despite repeated attempts on their cell phones. They did not reply to the SMSs sent to them in this regard. Sindh Education Minister Nisar Khuhro was not available for comments as his cell phone was switched off.