LAHORE: The Annual Status of Education Report’s (ASER) 2014 fifth survey has gone into the field with additional questions to find the status of disability prevalence in Pakistan.

The survey this year will also present results of education status of 5-16 years of age children on the basis of constituencies in some districts, said ASER Programme Manager Sehar Saeed here on Thursday.

Ms Saeed said the ASER Pakistan was the sustained rights-based journey, tracking learning and education of children for public debate and action. It’s the largest citizen-led household based initiative that aimed to fill a gap in the learning outcomes and provide reliable estimates on the schooling status of children aged 5-16 years residing in the rural districts of Pakistan. She said the ASER team had imparted training to some 10,000 volunteers to conduct the survey in 145 rural and 22 urban districts of Pakistan.

Four years into the exercise since 2008, the programme manager said the ASER findings were influencing provincial sector planning in the post-18th Amendment phase and also being referenced for policies, planning, strategies and the legislation on the right to education as per article 25-A. She said the ASER 2013 was dedicated as the year for Right to Education & Learning.

She said the ASER survey findings also occupied space in key government documents including the Economic Survey of Pakistan undertaken by the ministry of finance as well as in sector analyses both at home and abroad.

“The ASER is now being used for PhD research, university course work in Pakistan and also at the Teachers College Columbia University,” she said.

She said the survey had been positioned to be used for advocacy and tracking of Right to Education under Article 25-A as its age group 5-16 years was aligned to the same group that the state had a fundamental responsibility under the constitution.

The survey findings were also being used by the social safety net programmes like Waseela-i-Taleem under the Benazir Income Support Program as well as provincial sector plans, Alif Ailaan District Ranking Report 2014 and Global Partnership for education initiatives, she said.

She said ASER 2014 cycle led by Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi was this year being joined by Reflect Global, Azad Foundation, BRAC besides National Commission for Human Development, National Rural Support Programme, HANDS, DCHD, HDF, local institutions like CRDO, RCDO, SAAD, EHED, Insan Dost Association and Sindh Education Foundation.

“What unites all of the organisations in our network is the firm belief that the education challenge in Pakistan needs to be addressed firmly backed by evidence by all citizens and the government,” she said.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2014