High court tells CS, education authorities to submit compliance reports on education reforms

The Sindh High Court on Thursday directed the chief secretary and education authorities to submit progress reports with regard to action taken for education reforms in Sindh from early childhood education to technical and university level education as per the Durrani committee report.

The direction came on a petition filed by Shahzad Qamar seeking implementation of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy of 2015 and the Sindh Education Sector Plan of 2018 to ensure that early childhood education was prioritised in the education system with adequate budgetary allocations and policy execution.

The petitioner’s counsel Usman Farooq submitted that early childhood education was recognised globally as a crucial phase for cognitive, social and emotional development and as per the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), early education set the foundation for lifelong learning and success.

The counsel submitted that recent reports indicated that Sindh’s early childhood education sector was in a state of crisis as data from the World Bank revealed that Sindh had one of the lowest enrolment rates in early childhood education in Pakistan with less than 30 per cent of children aged between three and five years enrolled in preschool programmes.

He submitted that the absence of proper learning environment, play areas, and age-appropriate learning materials meant that these children were denied their fundamental right to quality education and this unequal access was a breach of the Article 25-A of the Constitution, which mandated the state to provide free and compulsory education to all the children.

He submitted that the Sindh Education Sector Plan of 2018 had specifically aimed at improving access to education for marginalised groups, yet its execution remained minimal, resulting in little progress in expanding early childhood education services in these areas. He said the lack of governmental will and resources had deprived thousands of children in the rural and marginalised communities of their basic right to education, perpetuating the cycle of poverty and exclusion.

A division bench headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar observed that the SHC had also issued a detailed order in the subject issue with regard to education reforms in which the chief secretary was directed to notify the Sindh education policy oversight council and implement the recommendations issued by the Dr Iqbal Ahmed Durrani committee report for education reforms.

The court issued notices to the secretary education and others and directed them to file comments with regard to implementation of the court order in which several directions were issued for education reforms in the province from early childhood education to university level.

The court had earlier observed in its order that the education department has miserably failed to provide primary to higher secondary education to children of the province as millions of children from backward areas are deprived from availing such facility due to non-availability of teachers and lack of school buildings.

The court had directed the provincial government and education department to take effective measures for launching literacy awareness, and reopen all closed government schools by appointing teachers transparently.

It had directed the chief secretary to constitute a committee, including secretaries of schools and colleges and other stakeholders, to work on needs of schools as per the recent census and increase the number of teachers, including subject specialists, and make arrangements for non-teaching staff hiring as per law.