Saba Saeed, Hamza Sarfraz
In the recent past, reform efforts and interventions in education sector have been underway across the country, particularly in Punjab. These interventions have achieved some progress in terms of education indicators but there is still a long way to go when it comes to fulfilling the constitutionally guaranteed Right to Education.
One third of the poorest of girls, aged between 10 and 18, have never stepped inside a school, the United Nations has revealed in a scathing new report.
The female gender is pretty marginalised in Pakistan. And the marginalisation begins early. Right when the time comes to put a child in school. For many Pakistanis – surprisingly in this day and age – the place of a girl and eventually a female is still inside the perimeter of a house. There is no need to educate girls. All a girl needs to learn, many continue to believe, are cleaning after others, cooking lavish meals and being obedient to whoever else is in the house. She has no business being in school learning about worldly deviances; she has no business being educated.
The newly-elected government has many challenges to face and likely the most important is about the security and education, especially girls’ education. Education in Pakistan is facing a severe crisis and it is imperative for the new government to take credible steps for educating the next generation.
Harassment and marginalisation of women is a touchy topic in Pakistan, let alone the country’s academic circles. We discover how two young students are taking the issue head on.
Pakistani Nobel laureate and noted girls’ education activist Malala Yousafzai has said that her fund was striving hard to improve girls’ access to education in Pakistan.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the federal government to provide details of how a US pledge of $70 million, or over Rs 7 billion, meant for girls’ education in Pakistan has been utilised.
Sindh Government’s Education and Literacy Department has formally launched a gender unit with an aim to encourage and promote girl’s education across the province. The unit has been jointly initiated by the Government of Sindh, Oxfam and Indus Resource Centre.
Following the loss of humanitarians extraordinaire Abdul Sattar Edhi and Dr Ruth Pfau within a span of a few months, Pakistan has lost another one of its hidden gems. Leelavati Harchandani, commonly known as Dadi Leela, remained a devoted advocate for girls’ right to education throughout her life spanning over a 100 years. Born on December 201, 1916, Dadi Leela passed away on September 14, 2017 following a prolonged illness.