CM okays policy to bring 4.1m children back to schools

Sindh’s chief minister on Tuesday directed the provincial school education department to implement the policy of gradually upgrading all primary schools to post-primary schools, and to develop a connection with cluster schools to retain children and prevent the dropout rate from increasing, reads a statement issued by the CM House.

CM Syed Murad Ali Shah presided over an important meeting at the CM House to discuss bringing 4.1 million out-of-school children back to schools. The meeting was attended by Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah, Principal Secretary to the CM Agha Wasif, School Education Secretary Zahid Abbasi and other officers concerned.

Shah mentioned that according to the Pakistan Institute of Education’s report published this January, 26.2 million children are out of school in Pakistan. Sindh’s share in this comes to 7.63 million children, which is a very alarming situation, he pointed out.

In response to this, the education minister quoted the latest figure of the federal education ministry, according to which 4.1 million children are out of school in Sindh. The minister said that out of a total of 14,208,257 children in Sindh, 10,204,647 are receiving education at public, private and Sindh Education Foundation (SEF) schools, madrasas and other institutions, while 4.1 million are out of school.

Giving a breakdown of the figure, he said that 4.5 million children attend public schools, 3.9 million private schools, 840,000 SEF schools, 500,000 madrasas, and 500,000 federal, Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy schools.

The CM said that in 2019 UNICEF Sindh had conducted a sample study to determine the reasons behind children not attending schools in the province. He said that according to the study’s results, children between the ages of five and 16 years were out of school for several reasons.

In 20 per cent of the cases the households were living in poverty, 16 per cent were found not giving importance to education, 15 per cent of the respondents cited girls’ schools being unavailable as the reason, and in 14 per cent of the cases schools were too far away.

In 13 per cent of the cases children were engaged in making a living, 13 per cent of the respondents cited nearby educational institutes lacking appropriate infrastructure as the reason, and in eight per cent of the cases cultural barriers were found to be obstructing girls’ education.

The education minister said that there were 36,234 primary schools and 4,730 post-primary schools, and a 54 per cent dropout rate was observed at post-primary level. The CM acknowledged the disparity between primary and post-primary schools, and stressed the need to address it to prevent dropouts.

To tackle this issue the CM approved the policy to gradually upgrade all primary schools to post-primary schools under the Annual Development Plan. Moreover, the government will work on developing linkages with cluster schools to retain children and prevent dropouts, he said.

The education minister highlighted the importance of providing non-formal education opportunities to children between the ages of nine and 16 year. He also mentioned that accelerated learning programmes could be used to bring non-formal education into the mainstream.

However, he noted, the current resources are insufficient to meet the demand for non-formal education. In response, the CM said his government is in the process of creating a non-formal education authority to better address the educational needs of these children.

He pointed out that 19,806 schools were damaged, of which 7,503 were fully damaged and 12,303 were partially damaged, while 5,295 units had been included in the construction programme, for which donor agencies were also assisting.

He said he would request the prime minister for financial support for three priority areas: upgrading schools from primary level to elementary level, rehabilitating the remaining flood-affected schools, and establishing more non-formal literacy centres in all districts.