Declare and forget

Did someone notice? In May we declared an education emergency to enrol the over 26 million out-of-school children in the country. On June 12 a budget for the financial year 2024-25 was presented by the government in the National Assembly, ideally the country's highest forum for representing the people's aspirations. But no one even talked about the education emergency and the ways to tackle it. Was the emergency just political rhetoric? Although education is a provincial subject, if Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif can declare an emergency then why not keep it a point of focus during the budget session, a session that outlines the government’s financial plans for the whole year. It appears that there is an overall lack of seriousness in the country regarding the poor status of education and spending more on it.

Anwar Sayab Khan

Bannu