It looks good that the local authorities have moved to fulfil their responsibility in the provincial government’s pursuit of ensuring education for all. But one wonders whether an effective implementation of these laws is possible in the absence of the subordinate legislation which devises policies and procedures whereby the governments ensure free and compulsory education and also suggests punishments for the various stakeholders — including the most important private schools and the parents themselves — failing to admit and keep a child in school.
While Sindh is the only province in the country, apart from the Islamabad Capital Territory, which has introduced the legislation enabling the implementation of the laws in question, a lot more is desirable in the context. No mean task it is if India is any reference. There, the constitution was amended in 2002 while pursuant legislation was passed in September 2009. The draft bill remained mired in controversy for a number of years, and among the biggest obstacles were the private schools which were bound to reserve a 25% quota as well as the elite class who did not want to see their first-rate children mix with the poor.
With Nigeria the only country in the world ahead of Pakistan in terms of having more out-of-school children, we need to go about the job on a war-footing basis.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 3rd, 2018.
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