Experts for adopting new approach to dealing with education crisis

Alif Ailaan, a campaign seeking to increase the political exigency about education in Pakistan, gathered politicians, academicians, private/non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society experts on Thursday with the resolve to adopt a new approach for dealing with the education crisis in the country.
In this regard, the Alif Ailaan organised an event here on Thursday. Challenging the current ways through which the state is addressing the education crisis, 'Disrupted - ideas and conversations for disruptive innovation in Pakistan', organised by Alif Ailaan along with a host of government, private and non-governmental organisations, outlined the need for new approaches to fix the broken system.
The event highlighted that the country has not been successful in marshaling its resources for reform or change, nor does the state or society or the polity treat education like the emergency that we claim it is. Our society is characterised by great disparities in income, education and opportunities. Nearly half of our country's children are not in schools and getting them there is a herculean challenge, said Ahsan Iqbal, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reform. The role of technology and innovation in such a scenario is imperative the way we deliver education not only to children but also to the society as a whole, he added.
Participants agreed that new avenues to deal with education problem must be explored and implemented to change how the crisis is perceived and addressed by the state and other stakeholders.
Without a 'disruption' to the way things are a fundamental change that alters the very basics, there is a little chance of Pakistan being able to deal with the education crisis, said Mosharraf Zaidi, Alif Ailaan Team Leader. None of the major problems in education, be it low enrolment rates, poor quality, lack of accountability and the total absence of a robust discourse can be solved without a bold new approach. We need to stimulate thinking in the public, private and non-profit sectors about solutions to these problems, he said.
Currently, 25 million children in Pakistan are out of school. Of these, about six million have never, seen the inside of a classroom. The rest have enrolled at one point, only to drop out, most likely within the first three years of enrolling at the age of five. Speakers at the event emphasised that the use of technology can help improve the provision of education to remote areas and disrupt current practices of supplying education.