PESHAWAR: Different civil society organisations have demanded of the provincial government to increase funds for girls’ education in the upcoming budget for the financial year 2019-2020.

The demand was made by representatives of CSOs during a joint press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday. QamarNaseem, the programme coordinator of Blue Veins; Imran Takkar, a child rights activist; Taimoor Kamal, coordinator of PCSN; Sana Gulzar, a girl rights activist; and Zeenat Muhib Kakakhel, another education activist, addressed the press conference.

They said that education was foundation of a developed and progressive society. “Pakistan is not only bound by various international commitments but also has national commitments to increase access of education,” they added.

Civil society members say state should provide free education to all children

They said that according to Article 25-A of the Constitution the state should provide free and compulsory education to all children from five to 16 years of age in such a manner as may be determined by law. They said that in 2017, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government passed “KP Free Compulsory Primary and Secondary Education Act”.

QamarNaseem said that government should raise its education outlay to provide enough schools and teachers to enroll 22.8 million out of school children and provide quality education to the children already enrolled in schools.

He said that government needed to ensure equitable approach to resource allocation for girls’ education.

Imran Takkar, referring to an official report, said that nearly 22.5 million children were out of school wherein girls were particularly affected.

Thirty two per cent girls of school going age were out of school in the country compared to 21 per cent boys. “Only 13 per cent of girls are in school to 9th grade,” he added.

Taimoor Kamal said that despite recent efforts to increase female literacy rate, several challenges were affecting the progress including cultural norms, early marriage and childbearing, security concerns and long distance to school.

Zeenat Muhib Kakakhel said that increase in budgetary allocation for girls’ education would be in alignment with the national framework devised by Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform for localisation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at district level to improve public social service delivery for implementation of the global agenda.

Sana Gulzar said that focus on all meant to dramatically raise middle and high school enrollment. She said that main attention should be given to schools to ensure girls’ access to post-primary education.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2019