LAHORE: A roundtable discussion hosted by the Society for the Advancement of Education (Sahe) on Wednesday discussed the impact of the Benazir Income Support Programme’s (BISP’s) Taleemi Wazaif as a social protection initiative.

Sahe Executive Director Abbas Rashid presented data on BISP scholarships for boys and girls in schools. The data shows that 6.3 million boys and 5.67 million girls were receiving ‘Taleemi Wazaif’ or educational scholarships from BISP, which has also increased school enrolment. He said the BISP provides unconditional cash transfers to poor families and has introduced conditional support to encourage school attendance. Initially, BISP scholarships targeted primary schools, but they have now expanded to middle and lower secondary schools for both boys and girls.

Quoting World Bank data, Mr Rashid said that poverty in Pakistan had risen from 34.2% to 39.4% in 2023, suggesting that low-income families would increasingly need support to send their children to school.

Chairperson of the Lums Department of Economics Dr Hadia Majid gave a presentation on girls’ education in Pakistan. She said that while monetary interventions had increased primary school enrolment for girls, the dropout rate also rose due to the lack of middle schools. Pakistan lags behind Bangladesh and India in educating girls.

Dr Majid cited several reasons for out-of-school children, including inadequate facilities, a shortage of female teachers, lack of transport, no boundary walls, and poor job prospects for educated girls. She proposed addressing these issues through distance learning and internet-based education but added that the state must ensure access to tablets and internet for girls.

She said that investing in girls’ education yields returns by increasing productive labour, boosting GDP, and enhancing decision-making and child outcomes.

Punjab Minister for School and Higher Education Rana Sikandar Hayat said that the government plans to coordinate social sector funding for girls’ education. However, he said the government lacked certified data on the number of children benefiting from BISP and other government scholarships. He stated that they are coordinating with private schools to provide enrolment data to accurately identify out-of-school children.

Dr Faisal Bari, Lums faculty member, criticised the current education budget, saying it is insufficient to fulfill the right to education. He said that governments often claim a lack of resources for education, health, social welfare, and social protection, despite having accepted the right to education after Pakistan’s creation. He suggested taxing the wealthy and ending subsidies to the rich to collect around Rs2.6 trillion, which could be allocated to education. He said that 40% of children are malnourished and the state has also failed to provide safe drinking water. He said that the federal government has declared an education emergency, aiming to raise education expenditure to 5% of GDP in five years, up from the current 1.7%.

He compared Pakistan to other countries like Japan, the UK, and the US, which invested in education before becoming wealthy, saying that Pakistan’s excuse of lacking resources is invalid.

Senator Afrasiyab Khattak said that educating girls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has become more challenging since the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan. He said that terrorists have bombed and demolished five girls’ schools in KP and that the Taliban’s policy of prohibiting girls’ education in Afghanistan negatively impacts KP. He suggested that curriculum issues be discussed in the Council of Common Interests but lamented that meetings were not being held within the constitutionally mandated 90 days.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2024