LAHORE, April 28: Four-hundred children made a human chain outside the Quaid-i-Azam Library at Bagh-i-Jinnah on Saturday as part of Global Action Week (GAW) celebrations.

GAW celebrations are aimed at promoting education a basic human right and mobilise public pressure on governments as well as the international community to fulfil their pledges to provide free, compulsory education for all people, in particular for children, women and all disadvantaged, deprived sections of society.

The chain was organised by the Pakistan Coalition for Education (PCE).

Punjab Education Minister Mian Imran Masood joined the rally and said he was committed to ensuring educational facilities for all.

Punjab PCE Coordinator Rabia Khan said the PCE had been celebrating the GAW since 1994 and this year, the slogan of the Global Campaign for Education was “Join Up education rights now”.

The GAW focus on education as a human right promotes the Education for All (EFA) agenda of UNESCO.

She said the GAW would unite campaigners across the world at the PEC platform, forming people chains wherein people stood side by side for education rights.

In all the four provinces of Pakistan, she said, the PCE with the help of partner organisations, made human chains to raise awareness among the public about facts that the government’s commitment towards education as a human right was being violated.

Ms Khan says the current year is a crucial mid-point stage towards the EFA goals.

“We should urge governments to take measures to achieve education rights. Rather than being a distant ideal, these rights need to be converted into a reality now and EFA goals give us a deadline,” she said.

Ms Khan said Pakistan was a signatory to EFA goals for the Year 2015. The goals are: expand early childhood care and education; provide free and compulsory primary education for all; promote learning and life skills for young people and adults; increase adult literacy by 50 per cent; achieve gender equality by 2015; and improve the quality of education. She said the government had missed a goal that called for achieving gender parity by 2005.

Ms Khan said the PCE demanded that the government take measures for the promotion of education, implement EFA goals and strategies agreed by 185 world governments in Dakar in April, 2000.

She said the government must involve citizens, teachers and communities in developing concrete plans of action for delivering and sustaining free, good quality public education for all.

She demanded the government abolish all hidden costs from public primary education and increase spending on education.

Ms Khan also urged parliamentarians to ensure that basic education remained a high priority for support in their manifestos and pre-budget debates. They should also ensure predictability of increased budget between now and 2015. —Staff Reporter