Political Parties DialogueThe Right to Education – Article 25-

A

Youth Parliament of Pakistan (YPP)stance on basic education

M. Atique Khokhar (YP11 -ICT01) Yasir Riaz (YP12-ICT02)

Youth Parliament Members from Islamabad.

Article 25a of the amended Constitution of

Pakistan guarantees the right to education

Millennium Development Goals

To ensure access of free and compulsory

primary education to all children

To eliminate gender disparity in in primary

and secondary education

Article 25a

In party manifesto of five largest parties (PPP, PML-N ,PML-Q, MQM and ANP) in 2008 election

All mention their commitment to ‘education for all’.

Only two mention girls’ education as a specific area needing attention.

Just two mention their commitment to increased funding for education.

Only one addresses the issue of language of instruction.

Priorities of Political Parties

One-third of primary age children, are not in school at all.

Around 35 percent of those children who do attend school and make it to grade 3 cannot do single digit subtraction.

Drop out rate is very high Each day around a quarter of the country’s

teachers do not turn up to school

Problems and issues

Missing facilities at public institutions

With

out b

ound

ary

wal

l

With

out d

rinking

wat

er fa

cility

With

out e

lect

ricity

With

out t

oile

t

With

out b

uild

ing

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

2329

50

35

6

Pe

rce

nt

Source: National Education Census

Lack of commitment by Government

Lack of transparency in whole system

Poor school facilities

Accessibility issues

Gender disparity

Poor experience

Issue of medium of instruction

Reasons

A sustained political will

A Narrative of Reform in whole system

What we need…!!!

National public advocacy campaign to create

awareness in community and in parents

High level political commitment

Clear understanding about medium of instruction

Strong monitoring system

Way forward

Consensus among political parties to make the

constitutional right to an education a reality

each province needs a core group that will get

under the hood of education issues, exploring

the technical aspects of what needs fixing and

how

Way forward

The entire system should then turn its attention to the biggest challenge of all which

– to hammer home the point – is implementation,

implementation, implementation.

Implementation !

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME