ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday called for enrollment of nearly 26 million out-of-school children in the country through drastic measures including the education emergency, double shifts in educational institutes and utilizing the mosque for the teaching purposes.
President Alvi, addressing an event in connection with the World Education Day, also suggested a mechanism to engage the newly graduates and intermediate students for teaching the out-of-school minors offering them a stipend.
He also advocated the promotion of online education besides extending the facilities to engineers, doctors, and trained workforce in the country to discourage the trend of them moving abroad.
The president said that the alarming figure of 26 million out-of-school children was worrisome for the nation and exemplified other countries including Sri Lanka and Bangladesh where the children’s enrolment was nearly 98 to 100%.
He said that educating the children was of paramount significance to produce a skilled and qualified workforce, not merely the laborers. Appreciating the contribution of the partner organizations, he said the country should take advantage of their services for benefit of the coming generations.
He told the event that since Pakistan’s inception, nearly 55,000 schools were built and the enrolment of out-of-school children needed another 50,000 schools which was extremely difficult considering education budget of the provinces. In such a scenario, the out-of-box solutions were necessary to cope with the challenge, he added.
Reiterating his suggestion to use mosque’s platform as a center of learning, President Alvi said the worship places were equipped with all basic facilities including clean drinking water and electricity. The platform can be used to teach out-of-school minors in alternate timings including both girls and boys at separate mosques, he added.
President appreciates BISP
The president appreciated the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) for its contributions to child and mother’s health and suggested to link that financial help with the enrolment of out-of-school children. Underlining the ratio of 15-20% of Dyslexia disease in Pakistan, he commended the steps taken for the suffering children.
