KARACHI, April 28: The Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (Sparc) held several programmes at different schools of the city last week to celebrate ‘Global Campaign for Education Week’ to highlight the importance of education and try to pressure the government to ensure this fundamental right of education for every child, a statement issued by the Sparc said on Saturday.

It said the campaign was part of an international movement celebrated throughout the world with the aim of bringing education on the top of every government’s agenda. The theme of the week for this year was ‘Education, a basic human right’.

During the campaign continued from April 23 to 27, the child rights group held programmes at S.D. Abro Government Girls Secondary School, Spacious Public School, CDGK-Elementary School No.8 Malir and Model School Malir.

More than 700 students and teachers participated in these programmes. The nazim of Shah Faisal Town, Mohammad Imran Pervez, Jamshed Town UC Nazim Asghar Ali, Principal S.D. Abro School Ms Saeeda, A.D.O.E Anwar Khan, Principal CDGK-Elementary Government School No. 8 Shamima Bano and Principal CDGK-Elementary Government School No.9 Ms Kausar Jehan also participated and addressed the events.

Students of these schools formed a chain by joining hands to demand quality and free education for all. Some students also took part in discussions and expressed their concern over the present bleak scenario of education in the country. They urged the government to take necessary measures to create a peaceful environment for every child and implement laws for the protection of child rights.

“An estimated 2.5 million children in Pakistan are out of schools, almost 50 per cent children are drop-outs and gender parity is very low”, said Mr Pervez. He said access to quality education was limited to a small number of children coming from the elite class. On the other hand, around 40 million children in the age group 5 to 14 were denied this fundamental right.

Other speakers said education was vital for fighting poverty and contributing to the sustainable development of communities. They said education in Pakistan depicted a depressing picture with the government spending less than two per cent of the federal budget on the sector, the least in the region. “It is half of the Unesco’s recommended 4 per cent”, said a speaker.

According to Sparc officials, during the Global Campaign for Education Week, the group focused its campaign on 21 districts of the country with the help of its Child Rights Committees (CRCs). Child rights activists associated with the organisation lobbied with the legislatures at federal, provincial and district levels to remind them of their promises of enabling every child to go to school. Several activities were conducted to help and support for upholding the promise.

An educational profile was prepared in 21-targeted districts to identify the number of schools, enrolment rate, staff strength and population of the respective district throughout the province.

“This will help in identifying the number of out of school children, gender parity ratio, number of educational institutions in comparison with the population, district education budget allocation etc,” said a Sparc official.

According to him, recommendations were also sent to district nazims and district education officers about security measures at schools, lack of educational facilities, education programmes for juvenile offenders, gender parity in education system, enrolment in schools, corporal punishment, female education etc.