ISLAMABAD: The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has identified over 11,000 out-of-school children who could be enrolled in schools in the first phase of its campaign.

According to a rough estimate, there are over 30,000 out-of-school children in Islamabad and FDE teams have so far managed to reach 11,029.

“We will decide how to enrol these students in schools in a meeting likely to be held on Friday,” said Saqib Shahab, director schools.

He said most of the out-of-school children are residents of Tarnol and Nilor. Asked what will happen if parents of the out-of-school children identified for enrolment refuse, he said legal proceedings will be initiated against them.

He said that article 25-A of the Constitution makes it the state’s responsibility to provide free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of five and 16.

“However, I do not think parents will refuse the admission of their children in schools,” he said, adding that the survey will continue and that FDE teams will reach out to all out-of-school children in the capital.

A few months ago, Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood started a campaign for enrolling out-of-school children into schools and registered the first five students himself during a ceremony.

In the same ceremony, the minister had said that all the over 25,000 out-of-school children in the city will be enrolled in two years.

Sources said attempts have been made in the past to bring out-of-school children into schools and that these attempts failed because the root cause was not addressed, which is that these children contribute towards the finances of their households.

“I do not think the campaign will be successful if the families of these children are not given financial assistance,” an FDE official said.

He added that two full-fledged campaigns were started in 2010 and 2015-16 in which hundreds of children were enrolled. But most of those children gave up their education later on.

However, the official said FDE is pushing a plan for paying parents of out-of-school children via the Benazir Income Support Program so their children can go to school.

An official of the education ministry told Dawn that a meeting has been planned for Friday in which FDE’s progress related to out-of-school children will be reviewed.

He said all the children identified will be enrolled in their nearest schools by March 15.

They said that if need be, an evening shift will be started in FDE-run schools to accommodate these children.

“If an area does not have a school, we will set up a community school so all children in the locality can get an education,” an official said, adding that the education ministry was also planning to provide the children with food.

Sources said that a survey in 2015 had identified 25,000 out-of-school children in Islamabad and that if a fresh survey is conducted, there will be more than 30,000 out-of-school children in the capital city now.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2019