President calls for education emergency to enrol 26 million out-of-school children

Islamabad : President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday called for the enrolment of around 26 million out-of-school children in the country by and declaring education emergency, starting double shifts in educational institutions, and using mosque for teaching.

Addressing an event in connection with the World Education Day here, the president also said there should be a mechanism to engage new graduates and intermediate students for teaching out-of-school children on stipend payment.

He advocated the promotion of online education besides extending the facilities to doctors, engineers, and trained workforce in the country to discourage the trend of them moving abroad.

"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 the children’s enrolment was around 98 to 100 percent."

The president said the educating the children was of paramount importance to produce a skilled and qualified workforce, not merely the labourers.

Lauding the contribution of the partner organisations for the cause of education, the president said the country should take advantage of their services for benefit of the future generations. He said 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 education 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 mosque’s 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 alternate 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 that financial assistance with the enrolment of out-of-school children. He also said the enrolment in higher education after intermediate was around 10-12 percent in Pakistan compared to 24 percent in the neighbouring countries.

Calling for promotion of online education, he said that the Allama Iqbal Open University could also be used to teach out-of-school children as the university had considerably enhanced its admissions. He said the educated and skilled workforce was moving abroad owing to the lack of opportunities in the country which necessitated the provision of facilities to them in the country.

Education Secretary Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry, Special Secretary Mohiyuddin Wani, Director General of Pakistan Institute of Education Dr Muhammad Shahid Saroya, President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ahsan Bakhtawari, head of Allahwala Trust Shahid Anwar, and representatives of USAID, UNICEF, UNECSO and JAICA attended the event.