Procrastination remaining one of the strongest suits of the nations leaders and policy makers, the matter of the implementation of the Article-25A of the Constitution has remained in limbo for quite some time now.
But on the eve of the National Assembly passing the "Right to free and Compulsory Education Bill 2012" -ensuring the provision of free of cost education to children under 15- optimism has once again picked up for a nation that is still in the crosshair of international infamy for the tyrannical shooting of a helpless 15 year old education activist.
How long this optimism lasts, however, is anyones guess.
The bill, which promises to penalise parents who refuse to send their children to school and people who employ children of school going age alike, also manages to bind educational institutes, which are required to set aside a 10 percent quota for poor children. How the government -both provincial and federal- intends to fulfill and implement these mandates on a country-wide basis at this point remains a mystery quite resembling a Rubiks cube.
Standing at 113 out of 120 nations, Pakistan remains in a dismal position on the Education Development Index, boasting some 5.1 million out of school children, the second highest in the world. Moreover, Pakistan stands amongst the bottom 10 countries in the world for the proportion of poor girls who have never been to a school in their life, with only six African nations being in a worse situation.
With the countrys national spending on education, at Rs 47 billion, being one tenth of its defense spending, debates about the seriousness of our leaders commitment to provide education to all have become the nations favourite past-time- the fodder for innumerable TV talk shows and tea-time discussions.
But the provision of compulsory education -which remains a fundamental right of every child aged five to 15 under the Article-25A of Pakistans Constitution-, has been a dream in the works for much too long now, and words are not helping much.
At this stage, the passing of the bill is being cited by prominent figures as a first step towards the implementation of the provision of compulsory education to children as enshrined under the countrys constitution. But the reality remains that Pakistans progress is literally going backwards- the country having actually reduced spending on education from 2.6 percent of GNP in 1999 to 2.3 percent today.
Consequently, the long-term neglect of educational reform at the hand of our government means that young people in unfortunate circumstances will never be provided with the education and training they need so direly, meaning that they are likely to entirely miss out on a chance to enjoy equal opportunities in work and life forever.
What this also means is that over a third of Pakistanis, some 12 million young people do not have the necessary skills to take on white collar work today, with gender, poverty, location and ethnicity still being the primary roadblocks affecting the nations educational progress.
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