Islamabad, Oct 4, 2018: Inclusive education was talked about at a conference in Islamabad organized by Pakistan Coalition for Education. The event was attended by a diverse group of education stakeholders including UN officials, government functionaries, member of senate, and CSO organizations. The first session of the event focused on making education inclusive for marginalized sections of the society including disabled children. Pakistan signed and ratified the UN CRPD in 2011, yet according to World Bank and WHO estimates at least 10% of country’s total population can be categorized as disabled/Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). The discussants at the conference emphasized that under the national census held in 2017; only 0.48% of the population fell under PWDs thus showing the flawed methodology to collect data on disability. It was noted that for proper implementation of Article 25 A, proper data must be collected on PWDs.Ms. Amna Khalid, Education Adviser at Department for International Development UK spoke about the need to change attitude towards children with disabilities. Mr. Ali Shabbar, Executive Director of TRIAC highlighted the need for affordable technology such as hearing and assisting devices to ensure inclusive education. He pointed the need for the education ministry to ensure access, quality, affordability and trained teachers for disabled children. At the occasion, Mr. Atif Shiekh, Executive Director, STEP detailed the charter for demands that was also presented at the ‘Disability Summit’ in Pakistan earlier this year. The document was endorsed by all the participants of the event.
The second session focused on the need for safe and secure learning environment for children and the need for a strict policy to investigate and prosecute crimes against schools. The discussants brought to light the recent attacks on girls’ schools in Diamer and the primary school in Chitral. Once again education is under attack in the country where there is a crisis of education with 22.84 million children out of school out of which girls’ number to 49%. The platform was also used to advocate for and explore the possibility of Pakistan signing the Safe Schools Declaration. The safety of the schools can be gauged from the fact that according to the Global Terrorism Database, there were 867 attacks on educational institutions in Pakistan from 2007 to 2015, resulting in 392 fatalities and 724 injuries. The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack recorded at least 203 attacks on schools in Pakistan between 2013 and 2017.Panelists included former senator Ms. Sehar Kamran, Ms Raheela Saad,Head of Gender & Child Cell, National Disaster Management Authority, Mr Sameer Luqman, Distaster Risk Reduction UNESCO and Haider Imtiaz, Advocate Islamabad High Court. Ms. Raheela shared a documentary on safe schools that brought into focus a pilot project introduced by NDMA in collaboration with Federal Directorate of Education. Ms Raheela pointed that there is a need to train teachers and students on safety of schools. She recalled the APS School Attack where most of the children were clueless on how to evacuate in an orderly manner. Former Senator Ms Sehar Kamran underscored the need for all stakeholders to identify their responsibility in order to ensure safe learning environment for children in schools. She iterated the dire need to teach safety in curriculum and the need to execute National Action Plan in order to ensure safety in schools. She said that safe and secure schools entails safe access to schools, safe environment, and safe area for schools as well as safe curriculum for children.
The third session reflected on the crucial role civil society can play in Voluntary National Reviews of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) implementation at the High Level Political Forum (HLPF) 2019. For the HLPF 2019 which is meeting under the auspices of General Assembly, Pakistan has also committed to submit its first Voluntary National Reviews (VNR). Panelist, Mr Rene Raya, Lead Policy Analyst he Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE) delivered a talk on HLPF spotlight.