30,000 children out of school in Islamabad

Govt to set up community schools to prepare students before integrating them

ISLAMABAD: Out-of-school children are acknowledged by the government as a major problem in the education sector of the country. With nearly 30,000 children not in schools in the federal capital the issue has been the subject of intense enrolment drives in the past.

But what do you do when the government-run schools either have no space to accommodate additional children or lack sufficient teachers to teach them?

This is an issue which has been highlighted by an initial survey of out-of-school children in Islamabad and what can be done to enroll them.

The survey, conducted by the federal education ministry through its autonomous organisation Academy of Educational Planning & Management (AEPM), has found that there are 27,300 children in the federal capital (there are contradictory views regarding the figure) who are not enroled in educational institutions.

The survey further found that the largest concentration of out-of-school children was located in Nilore and Tarnol.

Moreover, it said that one of the issues leading to a large number of children staying out of schools was perhaps not a fault which lay with the children or their parents.

Of the 423 schools and colleges in the federal capital, around 30 model institutions did not have room to accommodate any additional children.

The remaining 391 ‘federal government’ schools (FG), lacked a sufficient number of teachers.

However, should the government hire teachers on empty posts in these schools the government could be able to accommodate as many as 23,000 students, it predicted. This would cut the problem down to just 4,000 children.

Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood had last month tasked his ministry and the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) to enrol out-of-school children of the federal capital. He even opened the door for doing so on the basis of public-private partnership.

Sources say that the government claims that in two years, there will be no child in Islamabad who will be out of school.

Solutions

The fresh enrolment drive for out-of-school children is expected to start from next week and could see Prime Minister Imran Khan formally inaugurate it.

Sources say that the FDE, the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD), BESK and two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will provide technical support.

The Education Ministry’s Joint Educational Advisor Rafiq Tahir will be its supervisor and FDE’s Director Schools Saqib Shahab will prepare an action plan based on the survey.

Apart from hiring more teachers in schools, the government believes that it must prepare children before they can be integrated into schools.

For this purpose, the government can work with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and through community schools to prepare students to join schools either in the fifth grade or in the eighth grade.

These schools will especially target the out-of-school children in Nilore and Tarnol.

Sources say that another measure to boost enrolment rates will be to activate the School Management Committees (SMC) in the 13 union councils and 133 villages of Islamabad. These community-led committees will be given the responsibility of enrolling children in institutions at any cost.

In the second phase, SMCs will be given the authority under Article 25-A of the Constitution to issue warnings or impose fines on parents or employers of out-of-school children, and even sentencing them to serve up to six months in prison.

Moreover, the government is also mulling a plan to expand existing school by building additional classrooms.

Additionally, technical education will be provided to older children with help from the Education Foundation, after which they will be enrolled in the classes according to their age.

When an education officer was asked how will the government convince those parents to send their children to school who are earning a livelihood for their families, the officer said that they have an option of providing them grants through the Benazir Income Support Programme for the needy and deserving families.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2018.