First Ever Int'l Day Of Education To Be Observed Today

First ever International Education Day to be observed on Thursday (today) across the world including Pakistan with an aim to celebrate the role of education for peace and development across the globe

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jan, 2019 ) :First ever International Education Day to be observed on Thursday (today) across the world including Pakistan with an aim to celebrate the role of education for peace and development across the globe.

On the eve of International Education Day, UNESCO calls on governments and all partners to make universal quality education a leading priority.

In a message on Education Day, UNESCO said that without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is leaving millions of children, youth and adults behind. Today, 262 million children and youth still do not attend school; 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math, it added.

Like the other world, the celebration of day is a step forward towards education in Pakistan with a sharp focus on inclusive and equitable quality education. With an increasing population of 204.60 million, Pakistan is facing a huge backlog of 22.84 million children out of school as per UNESCO Report 2019.

While majority of Out of School Children (OOSC) are girls, the existing education system is grossly incapable of providing an effective learning environment and promote positive educational outcomes.

However, the present government has taken up the challenge and in pilot phase launched "Parho Agay Barho" campaign in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) to enroll 27,000 OOSC residing in Islamabad.

The campaign is implemented with enthusiastic participation of Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) and Federal Education and Professional Training Division building on public-private partnerships including donors to achieve better literacy rates. Provincial governments have also pledged their support to address the issue of OOSC in respective provinces.

In this regard, American Refugees Committee (ARC) has also shown its commitment to improve education in Pakistan with an aim to enroll One Million OOSC under the backdrop of Educate a Child (EAC); a global initiative of Education Above All (EAA) Qatar which aims to significantly reduce the number of children who are missing out on their right to education.

By fostering strategic and working partnerships, ARC in collaboration with government through the federal education ministry has launched a country wide initiative to enroll One Million Out-of-School Children.

The program in the first year achieved the challenging target of enrolling 200,000 OOSCs and aims to achieve overall target in program's life (2018-20).