PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has failed to take any steps for implementation of a law enacted about three years ago, declaring provision of free and compulsory primary and secondary education mandatory for the government.

The previous Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Free and Compulsory Primary and Secondary Education Act 2017 on April 14 the same year.

However, despite lapse of about three years the Elementary and Secondary Education Department could not frame any mechanism for implementation of the law. After the passage of the law, it was mandatory for the government to provide free and compulsory education to the children.

Section 3(1) of the law states: “The government shall provide free, compulsory primary and secondary education to all the children from age five to 16 years in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”

The law was of important nature to enrol 2.1 million out-of-school children in the province while the number of such children in the seven merged tribal district was unknown, sources in the education department told Dawn.

Official says govt wants to amend the law for removal of certain flaws

They said that under the accelerated implementation programme a survey for tracing the out-of-school children was in pipeline in the erstwhile Fata.

The provincial government had made the law in the light of Article 25-A of the Constitution which states: “The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such a manner as may be determined by law.” This article was incorporated into the Constitution through 18th amendment in 2010.

For execution of the law, it was mandatory for the Elementary and Secondary Education Department to make rules and define each and every aspect of the law.

“The government may make rules by notification for carrying out the purposes of this Act,” states section 8 of the law. However, in the previous three years, the education department failed to frame rules under the law, the sources said. They added that the education department had proposed rules in this regard a year ago which had been shuttling between the education and law departments for removal of flaws from them.

Provincial minister for elementary and secondary education Akbar Ayub Khan was not available for comments despite several attempts on his mobile phone.

However, a senior official of the education department told Dawn that the government had decided to amend the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Free and Compulsory Primary and Secondary Education Act 2017 as there were certain flaws in it.

The official said the law was not applicable in certain cases. For instance, he said, the children with disabilities were excluded from the law.

He said that the law was also not applicable to the children living in the area where there was no government school in two kilometres radius.

The education department realised soon after passage of the law that it was the government responsibility to provide free education to all children, including those with disabilities and the children living the area where there was no government school.

“The law will be amended within a month and all such lacunas will be removed from it,” the official said.

The law also states that the parents who fail to enrol their children in a school without any proper reasons, shall, on conviction by a judicial magistrate, be punishable with imprisonment, which may extend to one month or fine which may extend up to Rs100 for every day after the conviction for which the failure continues or with both.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2020