Islamabad: As the world marks “Education for All Week” (23-29 April 2012), UNICEF and UNESCO are concerned that Pakistan is unlikely to meet the two education-related targets of the UN Millennium Development Goals. The theme of this year’s Education for All Week – which raises awareness of the importance of Education for All – is Early Childhood Care and Education.
“A quality and child-friendly education is the basic right of all children in Pakistan. Young children who are marginalized by poverty or other factors stand to benefit most from early childhood care and education, but in Pakistan and across the world, these children have least access to education,” said UNICEF Pakistan Representative, Dan Rohrmann.
“Education is vital for the development of children’s linguistic, cognitive and social skills, which represent the foundations for lifelong learning and children’s contribution to society,” said UNESCO Representative to Pakistan, Dr. Kozue Kay Nagata and, therefore, emphasized that “no child should be deprived of their right to education.”
“Both UNESCO and UNICEF call on all those involved in the provision of education to do all they can to improve the quality of education and extend the reach of existing education services.”
In Pakistan, more than 7 million children aged between 5 and 9 are deprived of their right to basic education. Globally, about 67 million children don’t have access to primary education.
The reality in Pakistan is that good quality Early Childhood Education or pre-primary education programs are not accessible to most of the youngest children, while the majority of primary schools lack basic facilities.
Seventy per cent of Government primary schools have only one or two rooms for five classes. More than 40 per cent of schools are without latrines; 66 per cent do not have electricity; and children in 37 per cent of schools lack drinking water facilities.
Katchi or pre-primary classes in Pakistan are mostly without a separate room, exclusive teacher, and teaching-learning aids, which are required by the national curriculum. A good quality Early Childhood Education is accessible to fewer than 10 per cent of children in Pakistan.
In April 2010, the Pakistan Parliament recognized the fundamental right of all children to free and compulsory education. This was formalised through the historic 18th Amendment and insertion of Article 25-A into the Constitution.
UNESCO and UNICEF are working together to support provincial Departments of Education to improve learning conditions in schools, enhance teacher training, provide teaching-learning materials, and mobilize local communities to increase enrolment of out-of-school children.
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