sangat sindh report on education for all by 2015

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Seminar Report: Education For All By 2015: The Challenges

Education For All By 2015: The Challenges

April 28, 2007

Mirzapur, Nawabshah

Seminar Report

By

Nisar Brohi


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1.An Introduction2. Objectives of the Seminar

3. Seminar Proceedings

3.1 Mr. Nek Soomro, Welcome Address

3.2 Mr. Nisar Brohi, Director, SDF

3.3 Mr. Abdul Hameed, DDO Education,

3.4 Mr. Zulfiqar Ali, Branch Manager, SRSP,

Nawabshah

3.4 Mr. Nawaz Brohi, Eminent Journalist

3.5 Mr. Qurban Brohi, lecturer Rangers PublicSchool, Nawabshah

3.6 Mr. Nazir A. Zardari, Vote of thanks

4. Recommendations of the Seminar


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1. An Introduction

Education is the basic right of every individual;

therefore, easy access to education for every

citizen should be ensured, it is an evitable for

the human resources development and ultimately forsocio-economic

development of

the nation.

However,

according to

government

figures, in

2001-2002, the

over all

estimated

literacy rate

in the country

was 50.5

percent, for male 63 percent and for female 38

percent. The rural literacy rate was 30 percent and

urban literacy rate was 70 percent. But there are

still millions of children are out of schools. The

figures reveal that there are about 6 million

children of 5-9-age group who are left out ofschool. The left out includes those children who

never enrolled and those who drop out.

There are a lot of discouraging elements exist in

education system of the country, which created

hindrances for the poor masses to get their

children admitted in the schools, such as the low

literacy rate, high drop out rate, a large scale

teacher absenteeism, weak and poor management and

supervision structure of our educationaldepartments, dearth of trained and qualified

teachers, lack of dedication, motivation and

interest in their teaching profession and shortage

of physical facilities in the schools especially in

the rural areas. Moreover the curriculum is mostly


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outdated, irrelevant and does not meet the

contemporary challenges.

Education for All (EFA)

Education For All refers to the world wide

commitment for the universal primary education

completion of all children by 2015 all over the

world.

This global commitment was made at the World

Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal in April 2000 and

later on reaffirmed in the Millennium declaration

in New York

in September

2000. But

the

Government

of Pakistan

seems to be

lagging

behind in

achieving

the

committed

goal by2015, if she

would not chalk out uniform strategy for the

promotion of universal education in the country,

especially focusing on the backward and rural

areas, where there is very low education ratio due

to lack of educational facilities to the rural

community.

2.Objectives of the SeminarTo join the Global Action Week from April-23-

28, 2007, education for all by 2015,

To get realized the government for its global

commitments for the promotion and illumination

of universal primary education completion by

2015,


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To discuss the importance of education for the

socio-economic development,

To highlight the flaws in the education

structure in the country,

To discuss the role of the local stakeholders,

including the local government and elected

representatives for the promotion of education,

To sensitize the rural community to play their

due role for the education promotion in their

respective rural areas

3. Seminar Proceedings

3.1 Mr. Nek Soomro, Welcome Address

Mr. Soomro welcomed to all the participants and

offered his gratitudes to SDF holding seminar on

the importance of education on the eve of Global

Action Week, education for all at Mirzapur,

Nawabshah.

While highlighting the current education scenario

in the district said that the majority of people

are uneducated in the area. They have still been

confronting with various problems in accessing

education for their new generation. A large number

of schools in

the area either

closed since

long time or the

teachers are

reluctant to

attend the

schools.

He further said,

education is the

most ignored

social sector in

the district, neither the local administration has

any education promotion policy nor the provincial

government has taken any serious and fruitful


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efforts for the effective and result-oriented

functioning of the rural schools in the district.

Therefore, education of the district especially in

the rural areas is in pathetic and deterioration

condition.

3.2 Mr. Nisar Brohi, Director, SDF

While speaking in the seminar Mr. Brohi said that

SDF is for non-profit and non-governmental

organization, working closely with civil society

stakeholders on socio-economic and human rights

awareness issues. The education awareness of the

rural masses is also one of the main thematic areas

of the organization; therefore, the Sangat

organization has been busy in developing closecoordination and collaboration with local public

and private organizations as well as national

organizations for the promotion of education in the

district.

He further talking on the topic Education and

Development said, it is now universal fact that

without education no nation could achieve the

socio-economic development, because education is

the basic and founding element for the humanresource development, which ultimately leads to

socio-economic development of any society.

When we take stock of the developed nations,

education has had a vital role in their socio-

economic and political clout and development. On

the other side, the developing countries are

lacking behind in all fields of life just due to

lack of education of their people.

History reveals that those nations held sway over

others, which first focused on the education and

skill development of their people. But in the

contemporary world, education is an inevitable for

the survival and development of any nation.Without

it, no nation could pave its way for the prosperity

and development.


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Education merely not helps us to understand the

latest trends around the globe, but also a way to

get rid of socio-intellectual poverty. Education

and development are inseparable elements. Education

helps the people to understand the new developmentparadigm-taking place around the globe. The

government and civil society should come forward

to play their due role for the illumination of

education in our rural society, to bring them at a

par with other people and reduce their

powerlessness and depression.

3.3 Mr. Abdul Hameed, DDO Education, Govt of

Pakistan

While delivering his thought provoking presentation

on Education and Curriculum flaws, said that

education has never been on the first priority of

all the rulers of the country for the last six

decades, which has today brought us socio-political

upheaval. If we would not taken immediate bold and

valiant efforts for the promotion of equally

standardized and universal education in the

country, we would be leading ourselves to social

holocaust. The double standards in our educationsystem has alarmingly widen the gulf of haves and

haves not. Our society has clearly divided into two

classes, one highly rich and other extremely poor,

and the poor community is desperately fighting for

their survival.

This entire problem lies in the lack of education

facilities and curriculum developed by the

government, for the rich class, is separate and

standardized curriculum and for the poor andbackward class is other. It would not be an

exaggeration to say that the elite class is being

trained that how to hold sway over the under

privileged and marginalized class and the poor one

is either left illiterate or given low level


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education just be able to understand the obey

orders of their bosses.

He lashed out at the ruling class to change their

bent of mind and conventional approaches in dealing

with the affairs of the state, and now adoptunilateral approach handling the problems of the

people, the country can only be safe and secure

when the over all business of the state should be

based on social equality and justice. All the

subjects of the state should be treated

irrespectively. The education is the basic right of

all masses; it is therefore, the government should

take urgent measures for the universalization of

education in the country.

There should be a uniform educational policy in the

country, and the curriculum should be adopted

keeping in mind the contemporary global development

trends, and as well as protecting the local and

national values and traditions. It has been noted

that during the last couple of years the mother

languages are largely discouraged in our

educational institutions, which resulted into

large-scale drop out rate of the students. So, that

trend should be reversed in order to control thedrop out ratio which happens due to language

problem in the early years of children in the

schools.

3.4 Mr. Zulfiqar Ali, Branch Manager, SRSP,

Nawabshah

Mr. Zulfiqar talked on the topic Education and

Gender Equality he said that gender equality has

not been maintained in our educationalinstitutions. The government also seems reluctant

to make any serious efforts to develop the gender-

based approach in the educational institutions. Due

to indifferent attitude of government as well as

the civil society, today we have a very low ratio

of educated women in the country. Our education


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system/institutions have very discouraging elements

and unfavorable environment for the girls to have

education freely.

Due to unawareness and illiteracy, our female class

has been facing with multidimensional problems inthe society. They have been marginalized from our

joint social set up. They are confined in the

houses just bearing babies and performing the

duties in their houses. As for as their education

and awareness issues are concerned, they are

deliberately kept away by their respective male

members. Simultaneously, the previous governments

have never designed women oriented policies, which

would have help them in getting education freely

and join the social development sphere.

It is now high time that the government and the

civil society stakeholders should come forward to

collectively and collaboratively make sustained

efforts for developing gender equality approaches

in socio-economic polices of the country, and to

ensure the women participation in the decision

making process. Unless and until, the women

community would not be involved in the over all

planning and policy designing cycle, the countrycould not achieve any development and progress in

any field of life. Let us get participation of our

women population in the mainstream of our society

and provide them equal social status in the

society.

3.4 Mr. Nawaz Brohi, Eminent Journalist

While delivering his presentation on Education and

Role of Local Government said that education isthe key to all developments in the life. It is

therefore, education has been top priority of

developed nations in the world. But alas, our

governments have never taken any tangible efforts

for the promotion of education in the country. Due

to lack of education, we are having


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multidimensional socio-economic and political

problems in the country. There were high public

expectations that with the establishment of local

government system in the county, would reduce the

problems of the poor and backward segment of the

society at the grass root level and would also

involve the powerless in the decision making

process at the local level, but all in vain. This

so called local government system has once again

introduced the local elite class, who has been

making all possible efforts to hold the local power

and keep the poor masses away from the power cadre.

As for the local governments role for the

promotion of education is concerned, it is very

disappointing. There have been no changes in the

socio-educational landscape at the local level. The

local government administration has taken no

healthy efforts for the education promotion in

their respective areas. There are a large number of

schools are either closed or dysfunctional, but the

local government has a lot of excuses to make them

functional. A great numbers of school teachers are

regularly remaining absent from their duties and

used to sit and serve the interests of the localNazim and Naib Nazim, in order to get protection

from any expected punitive action.

The Nazims should have to play their due role for

the promotion and illumination of the education in

their respective local areas. They should make the

teachers bound for their duties, above board from

their political affiliations as to save the future

of the nation.

With this, the local elected representatives haveto change and replace the poor and ineffective

education management, which is the root cause for

the deterioration of education in the country. Due

to the appointment of corrupt and inefficient

officers in the education departments has brought

the education at brink of collapse. So, the time is


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calling for shots in order to bring the education

of the country on the track, other wise we would

have a lot of sufferings and miseries if we would

not take corrective measures for the betterment of

our education system.

3.5 Mr. Qurban Brohi, Lecturer, Rangers Public

School, Nawabshah,

While speaking on the topic Our Education System

and Role of Teacher Mr. Qurban said that the

educational professionals have a paramount

important role in the promotion of education. They

are the nation-building actors of the society. It

would not be an exaggeration to say that the

teachers have had a decisive role for any change inany society; they are the change agents of the

nation. But on the other side, it is the great

dilemma that the most sacred profession has been

systematically made inefficient and corrupts in our

country.

He recalled that during the 90s decade, a large

numbers of so-called teachers were recruited in

public educational department, which was the sowing

of seeds for the destruction and deterioration ofeducation in the country. Due to slaughtering of

merit culture by our so-called democratic

governments in the appointments of the teachers has

played havoc with the education system, and

ultimately brought many problems for the society.

He recommended that either this so called

inefficient army of teachers should be fired or

given trainings for their capacity building, and

after that trainings and education they should alsobe made bound to pass the proposed test/examination

for their service continuity in the education

department, if they failed they should be either

fired or send to other departments, but dont let

them to play the future of the nation. He also

appealed to teaching professional to make hard work


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S i R Ed i F All B 2015 Th Ch ll

for their capacity and skill development, than they

could build the future of nation.

3.6 Mr. Nazir A. Zardari, Vote of Thanks

In the conclusion of the seminar, Mr. Nazir Zardari

presented the vote of thanks, and said that it is

onus and responsibility of all stakeholders of the

society to work collectively for the education

awareness in the society, in order to have better

socio-economic future of the nation. He suggested

establishment of Union, Taluka and district level

education watch groups consisted upon

representatives of all stakeholders of civil

society and the civil society group should work

very closely with the local elected and educationaldepartment for the betterment of education

especially in the rural areas of the district.

3.Recommendations of the Seminar There is badly need of awareness campaign

regarding the importance of education in the

rural community

The all stakeholders should be provided massivecapacity building training in order to ensure

better performance and understanding of theirroles and responsibilities.

The communities should be sensitize and givenproper orientation, as to play their role in the

enhancement of education levels and standards.

The physical infrastructure isnt properly inplace yet, there, the creation of proper

infrastructure is critically important.

The monitoring staff needs to be made mobile toensure effective functioning

The public representatives should refrain fromunnecessary interference and political clout over

education officials.

A number of managerial staff is from teachingcadres. They should be provided with necessary

managerial training

sangat sindh report on education for all by 2015

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