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Unesco report calls for fulfilling education needs of migrants

By Jamila Achakzai
November 23, 2018

Islamabad : The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) launched the Global Education Monitoring Report at a local hotel on Thursday in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees pushing the governments for addressing the education needs of migrants and displaced populations with the same attention they give to host population by protecting their rights, making national systems more inclusive and building institutional capacity for the purpose.

The third in the series and titled 'Migration, displacement and education: Building bridges, not walls' provided an assessment of the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal on Education (SDG-4) and its targets, the report highlighted the relationship among migration, displacement and education and presenting evidence on the scale and characteristics of different types of migration and displacement and their implications on education.

According to it, Pakistan is hosting 1.4 million registered Afghanistan refugees in the country. The Constitutional Amendment in 2010 guarantees the right to free, compulsory education for all children aged 5-16. Most registered refugee children have access to both formal and non-formal education facilities in the country. Special provisions are also available for students in professional colleges and universities but yet there are issues in access and quality of education for refugee children, especially girls, which are being addressed by the federal and provincial government authorities.

Country representative of the Unesco Vibeke Jensen told the representatives of the education sector, development partners, media and civil society that while education opportunities often served as a major driver in the decision to migrate, the complex process of migration or displacement could also interrupt education.

"The 2019 GEM Report is an essential reference for policymakers to understand both positive and negative effects of migration and displacement on education systems," she said.

The Unesco representative highlighted the importance of a cross-sectoral coordination and planning mechanism to meet the challenges of financing education for migrants and refugees.

Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood welcomed the report as an important contribution of the Unesco for a broader understanding of migration and displacement issues, both nationally and globally and their effect on education.

"The government of Pakistan has instituted a well-coordinated mechanism for the return of the temporarily dislocated people in the country and most of them have returned to their native areas," he said.

Highlighting the government’s education sector reforms, he said a task force on education had been formed to propose concrete solutions to the problem of out of schoolchildren, uniformity in education, quality education and skill development.

UNHCR country representative Ruvendrini Menikdiwela praised the government’s efforts to provide refugee children with access to education through inclusion in government schools.

She added that 40 per cent of Afghan refugee children were attending Pakistani schools.

“Amid its internal education challenges, Pakistan has maintained its generous education policy for refugees which is indeed a great investment in peace, prosperity and sustainable development in both Afghanistan and Pakistan,” she said.

Menikdiwela said the generous education policy was a reflection of Pakistan’s commitment to support the Sustainable Development Goal on Education (SDG-4) and the law in Pakistan, Article 25-A of the Constitution, which stipulated free and compulsory education for all children.

She said through the Refugee Affected and Hosting Areas programme, the UNHCR was improving the existing educational facilities close to refugee villages to benefit both local refugee communities.

The UNHCR country representative called upon the provincial governments to include refugees in the education sector plans to ensure that refugee children’s needs are incorporated in the planning and budgeting process.

UN resident coordinator Neil Buhne said the 2019 GEM report provided valuable insights in order to inform policymakers of different approaches to address migration and displacement issues being used in different context, their benefits and disadvantages. He stressed the need for ensuring the report's maximum use, particularly for upstream policy and research related work in Pakistan.