ISLAMABAD: Lack of female teachers, distance from schools and absence of boundary walls and proper sanitation are all barriers to girls’ education in the country. All stakeholders must work together to make receiving an education a reality for everyone through provision of gender-inclusive facilities, quality education and development of school infrastructure.

This was expressed by participants of an event held on Thursday as they pledged to work together towards eradicating all these barriers to girls’ education.

The event titled ‘Educating Girls in Balochistan’ was held at Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA), organised by the International Rescue Committee, under the ‘Teach and Educate Adolescent Girls with Community Help’ project funded by the United Kingdom. Participants engaged in dialogue as they tried to come up with sustainable solutions to make access to education for girls in Balochistan a reality.

Shabnam Baloch, country director of International Rescue Committee said: “In order to eradicate the barrier to girls’ education in Balochistan, collaboration of all stakeholders, policymakers, practitioners, academia, and civil society is the need of the hour.

Graham Gass, group head (health and education) British High Commission said: “The UKAID-funded Teach and Educate Adolescent Girls with Community Help programme has supported up to 29,000 out-of-school girls in Balochistan - providing accelerated learning programmes and vocational skills and helping to address the limiting social norms and barriers faced by girls in accessing quality education.”

A theatrical performance by Tekrik-i-Niswan, led by Sheema Kermani, was performed on barriers that girls in Balochistan had to face on a daily basis just to reach school. The play covered barriers like non-availability of nearby schools in the community, lack of availability of sanitation and hygiene facilities, boundary walls, and female teaching staff in schools.

Participants of the discussion concluded that such dialogues were necessary for cross organisational learning, adding that financing access to education, providing materials for learning, and creating safe spaces to learn within communities was of utmost importance.

Anne Flaker, who is director, Office of Education (USAID) said: “With an estimated 22.6 million children (aged 5 to 16) out of school,Pakistanis facing an education crisis. This is disproportionately affecting girls, who make up two-thirds of the country’s out-of-school children.

“With so many girls not able to achieve more than an elementary education in Pakistan, USAID has made it a priority to improve girls’ education. We want to build on a long history of expanding access to high-quality education, especially for young girls in Balochistan, since we all understand how important it is for economic development, prosperity, and security that girls have access to school.”

Sher Zaman, managing director of Balochistan Education Foundation said in order to remove barriers to girls’ education in Balochistan, female teachers from the surrounding districts should be incentivised where there is significant shortage of female teachers, hindering basic operations of existing schools. He said girls and teachers who were attending school from surrounding villages should be allowed flexibility in school timing.

Quratulain Bakhteari, who is chief executive officer of Institute for Development Studies and Practices (IDSP) while speaking at the event mentioned the need to focus on adolescent girls’ nutrition and their psychological wellbeing. “Girls go through various physiological changes between the ages of 12 to 15 and it is then when we add in pressure of multiple subjects. Moreover, even if families consent to sending girls to school without female teachers, young girls require a mentor and a female figure to sensitise them on the physiological changes that they are going through.”

Ian Attfield, regional senior education adviser, Girls Education Challenge in his closing remarks shared that girls’ education had a positive multiplier effect as this will reduce child marriages, adolescent pregnancies, maternal mortality, and gender-based violence.The UK is supporting a global coalition that tackles the learning crisis by delivering foundational learning for all children.

During the event, emphasis was placed on the crucial and dynamic role of SDG 4 towards achieving the other 17 goals, which served as the cornerstone of the global commitment to ‘Leave No One Behind’.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2022