PHC seeks complete report on out-of-school children

PESHAWAR: A division bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Secondary and Elementary Education Department to submit a complete report of the out-of-school children in the province.

A bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Muhammad Younas Thaheem sought the report before November 30, the next hearing into the case.

The court asked Additional Advocate General Mujahid Ali Khan and representatives of Education Department to ensure submission of the report in the court.

The bench was hearing a writ petition of a non-governmental organisation, Society for Access to Quality Education. It had sought the court's directives for the provincial government to enroll out-of-school children in line with Article 25-A of the Constitution.

During the course of hearing, lawyer for the petitioner, Muhammad Haider Imtiaz, submitted that he had received reports from both male and female Education District Officers (EDOs) of the province about the provision of facilities and missing facilities, including boundary walls, electricity, water, washrooms and furniture of the schools.

He informed the bench that the reports consisted of 700 pages and he would apprise the court of deficiencies and missing facilities after going through the documents. He sought some time for that.

On the occasion, Justice Qaiser Rashid remarked that EDOs would be held responsible if there was any mishap in the schools. He said the court would order registration of first information report against them in case of students' death or injuries due to collapse of rooftop or fall of walls of the schools, which are still in dilapidated condition.

The judge observed the court would not tolerate further delay in provision of basic missing facilities in the schools. He said the government should take action against the people responsible for the declining standard of education in its schools. The lawyer submitted that hundreds of thousands of children had not been enrolled on educational institutions. The petitioner claimed that a large number of children begged and scavenged or worked as labourers instead of going to schools for formal education.

He said a survey by the NGO put the number of out-of-school children in the country at around 25 million and 22 per cent of them were in KP.