Pakistan

YouTube video of the day: The 'education emergency' in our schools

The video highlights the dilapidating state of a government school, stressing the need for a movement for change.

Naureen Aqueel March 12, 2011

A recent video by the March for Education campaign highlights the dilapidating state of the City District Government Junior Model School in Lahore.

The film takes viewers inside the school and shows the children studying under roofs with loose cement and washrooms with overflowing pipelines. The school has an enrollment of 500 children but only three teachers. The video also features interviews with teachers speaking about the precarious condition of the school infrastructure and the problems they face.

March for Education is a recently launched campaign the Pakistan Education Task Force, a body set up in 2009 by the federal government to offer recommendations on how to implement education policies.

The campaign aims to end the "education emergency" in the country and seeks to make March the month that Pakistan talks about only two things: education and cricket. It aims to initiate a national debate to push education to the top of the political agenda.

Video rating: Two thumbs up!

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COMMENTS (2)

Ali | 13 years ago | Reply This should be shown to all of the actors... sorry politicians in the national assembly. That is where they control the purse strings.The mighty Sharif brothers can then roar and growl about their great governance of Punjab. Also plaster it on every news bulletin.. shame the Punjab government into taking action. Assuming they have any shame left. When this school has been repaired, choose another school and repeat the process. We have tens of billions of ruppees for tram systems, government lodges, bullet proof cars for NA members. But not enough money for schools? I don't believe it!!

JN Richards | 13 years ago | Reply I detect an air of desparation in this campaign if the people organising it do not have the courage to identify only education as the topic for discussion. Dragging in the obsession for cricket to get people's attnetion looks cheap and opportunistic. The media blitz around the campaign is presumably orchestrated by the campaign team themselves and so it is hard to see in this any real impact and widespread support as is being claimed. Simply using one's friends to get a story in the press or calling on the same old faces to talk on TV is not a way to address the situation. Am I alone in thinking that these are the pople who have been the key influencers in the education sector for years and have not done much to address issues of access or quality in the system. Indeed they have overseen the decline in the last 15 years. Bringing in highly-paid management consultants from other countries to help with the campaign is also unlikely to have much of a positive impact when they have no track record in developing countries. What is their role in Pakistan? Can not Pakistan identify the issues for itself and formulate a plan of action? This all smacks of post-imperialist intervention which is motivated by self-interest. Otherwise why else would these same management consultants be getting close to the Chief Minister and donor-funded initiatives in Punjab? There is a lot of money flying around Punjab and who is running after it? The same consultants who tell you it is your duty as Pakistanis to address the education emergency.

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