Malala's recent visit has special significance for me and many others working for the promotion of girls' education in Pakistan. We remain concerned that required attention and visibility for the topic is missing from our national public discourse. Media attention to Malala put girls' education in spotlight for a few days. Her presence in the country and appearance on national TV triggered a few interesting opinion pieces in newspapers publications followed by deep silence.
When the momentary media buzz was over in a week, the same fundamental question resurfaces; if girls' education in Pakistan must be tagged with some external interventions and prominent personalities or it deserves attention as an issue in its own right? The relevance of this question is further highlighted in the wake of Federal government's recently published data, which reports 49% girls in compulsory school age as being out of school and these figures go as high as 78% for Balochistan and 73% for FATA. Shouldn't this denial of a constitutional right to so many citizens of the country be enough to demand an emergency response from our policy makers in political, administrative and legal offices? Shouldn't the gravity of situation spur advocacy for the inclusion of commitment for the promotion of girls' education in the charters of all political parties contesting upcoming general elections? Shouldn't it bring development partners working on education in Pakistan to one table for a jointed, well-deliberated and cohesive strategy to improve opportunities for girls and young women?
The issue is enormous and like any other social phenomenon has intersectoral linkages with political, social, cultural, economic and policy milieu. Without considering the whole ecosystem around girls, opportunities of education for them and then translation of their education and potential into productive roles in national life of Pakistan, any solution will remain lopsided and ineffective. Prominence of the issue is crucial but it needs to go beyond sporadic and inconsistent visibility of the issue and linking it only with donor driven programmes or international visitors. The ecosystem of structures at political, bureaucratic, social, and family levels and that of actors such as girls themselves, their parents, family members, community members, teachers, government officials and aid workers will need to be activated in favor of girls' right to education and work. These structures of support and actors will have to share the responsibility for a meaningful change in the life trajectories of girls both as students and as productive members in the national economy.
The primary responsibility and accountability for improvement in the situation of girls' education lies with the political and bureaucratic leadership in Pakistan. The starting point for them can be the recognition and admittance of the issue and then infusing girl friendly lens on education policies, plans and budgets. All provincial governments are currently in the process of reviewing provincial education sector plans. This process provides an appropriately timed opportunity to carry out a conscious analysis of sector plans for understanding the situation of girls' education in the provincial contexts, and then to devise strategies for improving these situations. The objective should be rapid, result oriented and comprehensive solution. When policy makers have deeper understanding of issues and have thought through the solutions as well, they can lead the agenda of development partners working on girls' education. They can guide donor plans, and work of local organizations and private sector to avoid duplication and to create complementarities among numerous efforts towards improvement in girls' education and skills development initiatives.
Another important catalyst for improving education especially for adolescent girls and work force participation for young women is the support systems in society generally and in their families more particularly. The fundamental responsibility which society and families can dispense for girls is by prioritizing their education and then supporting them in becoming financially active members of the society. Parents have earnest desire for a happy and comfortable life of their daughters and they spend their life savings in marrying them off. This is where a purposeful use of media can play an effective role. There is need for creating a public narrative convincing parents across the country to prioritize education and skills development of their children irrespective of their gender. In Pakistan we have rich poetic and literary traditions, which can be used as advocacy tool for the desired social change. Like a poem written by Tanvir Malik and translated by Dure Aziz Aman hits this chord as:
We give our girls those jewels and pearls
No! Deck them instead with knowledge and skills
Knowledge is light, and skill is power
Together, they can make the sun rise at any hour
The distance of ages is a few steps away
With this spirit, our destination is a mere blink away
We give our girls those jewels and pearls
No! Deck them instead with knowledge and skills
We need more such poems written, more films and TV shows produced and more celebrities conveying the message that best jewels for girls are education and skills making them masters of their own destinies. As this message is at the heart of our religion, constitution and laws, so this it needs to be taken up and spread by our religious scholars, community influencers, politicians and thought leaders.
The energy of youth including boys and girls should be used to fuel this all pervasive movement for social change. The best course can be adopted by giving leadership of this movement to the youth especially girls and women. Can we develop leadership only through leadership development courses and life skill programmes for girls and women? But we have been doing this for quite some time now, isn't it's time now to test the effectiveness of our programmes by walking the talk? We will need to take risks and put young women in leadership roles of at least those programmes working for women empowerment and youth development. May be some off beaten path is the way to the real change we have been striving for through huge investment of time and money.