ISLAMABAD: Education cannot be treated as a commodity delegated to private sector rather it is a fundamental right guaranteed by state, for which it must be held accountable. This was urged by the speakers at a policy dialogue titled “Citizen’s Agenda for Gender-Responsive, Inclusive, and Resilient Education” organized by Society for Access to Quality Education (SAQE) during the 15th Annual Convention.
The theme was “People’s Agenda for Transforming Education; from Silos to Systems.”
Zehra Arshad, Executive Director, SAQE highlighted that addressing the education emergency requires inclusive policy planning with every stakeholder meaningfully engaged and guided by up-to-date gender-disaggregated data.
She stated, “Political will remains central to ensuring access to quality education and urged the adoption of a ‘Charter of Education’ to build consensus on long-term education policies.” She called on the government to commit to scaling up education financing to a minimum of 4% of GDP, compared to the current 1.9%, and significantly increase development budget allocations to catalyze inclusive education transformation.
State has guaranteed right to education for every child, thus government, state and legislators must be held accountable for the education emergency”, said Huma Chughtai, Member National Assembly. She urged for the adoption of “Charter of Education” to synergize efforts from every actor for sustainable solution of the Education Emergency.
Harris Khalique, President of Board of SAQE, pointed out that while Pakistan constitutes 4pc of the world’s population, it accounts for 11pc of the global out-of-school children population. He noted that political parties have repeatedly committed to scaling up education financing to 4pc of GDP, but the allocation remains at 1.9pc.
“Committing to 4pc of GDP allocation to education is the first step toward ensuring justice for every child,” he remarked. Muhammad Ali Kemal, Chief SDGs, Planning Commission emphasized on addressing leakages in education financing along with overall investment in education. He urged for ensuring universal child registration so every child and their rights are acknowledged.
Dr Shahid Soroya, Director General, Pakistan Institute of Education informed that National Education Policy Framework has been developed with consensus of provincial authorities to effectively devolve education policy planning to grassroot level and ensure policies reflect local needs.
Sana Isa, Coordination and Implementation Expert & Lead, Gender and Safeguards, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training remarked that education policies must be connected with larger social contract for state to deliver on Article 25-A. She stressed the importance of decentralizing autonomy to school level to make policies inclusive, participatory, and responsive to actual needs. Abid Gill, Deputy Chief Advisor, JICA AQAL highlighted the alarming decline in student transition rates—from 28 million children enrolled at primary to just 4 million at intermediate level—as a reflection of public mistrust in public education system. “Unless every child receives quality and skills-based education, Pakistan’s youth bulge will become a liability instead of an asset,” he cautioned.
Dr Faisal Bari, Dean School of Education, LUMS stressed that that the public education system is ill-equipped to cater to 26 million out-of-school children and the 2% annual increase in population of school-going children. “Education financing cannot wait until Pakistan becomes economically developed; it must be prioritized now to ensure this is the last education emergency we announce,” he urged.
