Women and Education – Page 20 – Pakistan Gender News

April 6, 2019

Secy visits working women’s hostels

Lahore (PR) In order to improve service delivery for working women in the province, Irum Bukhari, Secretary Women Development Department has begun surprise visits to working women’s hostels.

She visited Working Women Hostel Faisalabad without prior intimation and found the manager and clerical staff of the hostel absent from duty. Consequently, disciplinary action has been initiated against the officials.

Irum Bukhari assured the women that Women Development Department will strive to improve the functioning of WWHs and issued directions to Director, Directorate of Women Development to devise automated IT based system for ensuring availability of staff and Managers across the province. During her visit to WWH Gujranwala last week, the manager was not only found absent from office but was also discovered to have left the station without obtaining leave.

The Nation

April 5, 2019

Training programme for women held

KARACHI: The Women in Finance Society of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Pakistan, in partnership with FTAC, organised an intensive training programme “Women in Business – Making Pakistan Prosperous” for aspiring women entrepreneurs and finance professionals in Lahore, a statement said on Thursday.

Sajjeed Aslam, head of ACCA Pakistan, said: “We believe that it’s every organisation’s responsibility to support diversity and to review and revise the way they support and open up opportunities to women – and indeed all other under-represented groups. Pakistan’s economy can never flourish without ensuring participation of women in the economic activity.”

The News

April 5, 2019

Soul Sisters Pakistan founder to launch own digital talkshow

KARACHI: By now, Kanwal Ahmed has become a pioneer in Pakistan’s digital market. If you haven’t heard of her, you will most certainly have heard of Soul Sisters Pakistan – the women’s only Facebook community she founded back in 2013.

Of course, at that time, Kanwal had no idea just how big the group would come to be. Soul Sisters Pakistan offers thousands of women from across Pakistan a world of information they would seldom find elsewhere. Once a member, they can ask questions, seek and offer advice, buy or sell different things and well, even look for potential suitors. Needless to say, it’s a platform like no other.

Kanwal’s success was further cemented when she was selected to represent Pakistan at the Facebook Community Leadership Programme (FCLP) in late 2018. One of 115 participants from 46 countries, the digital entrepreneur travelled to the US to attend the programme which is designed to empower individuals who have created strong social media communities all over the world. She took the opportunity and is now hoping to make things for women even better with it.

From discussing personal experiences with domestic and sexual abuse to career questions and reproductive health management, Soul Sisters Pakistan is a place where members can to be themselves unabashedly. Taking this precedence forward to an even wider audience now, Kanwal is all set to launch her very first digital talk show, titled Conversations with Kanwal.

The trailer for the upcoming show was released over Facebook on Monday and as expected, got ample support from women who are rooting for the success of ‘Kanwal Baaji.’ The tongue-in-cheek tone, powerful poetry co-written by Faheem Azam and Masood Alam and sardonic play on words left us wanting more of Kanwal’s clever commentary on the role of women in Pakistani society, what is expected from them and the problems they face in their daily lives.

The clip begins with Kanwal browsing TV channels and coming across morning shows with their hackneyed scripts. She gets visibly upset over their content, shuts the TV off and chucks the remote away.

Thus begins the poetry which highlights Kanwal’s inner thoughts regarding morning shows. She questions the stereotypes attached to women and why they are only referred to as daughters, wives, mothers or sisters – i.e. extensions of their male counterparts. The social media celebrity also highlights the plight of women who are often made to suffer in silence because “log kiya kahenge [What will people say?]”

The three-minute trailer covers a wide range of topics: from the lack of female education and career prospects to expectations of dowery, rape, harassment and domestic abuse.

It ends on an optimistic note with Kanwal emerging as a successful warrior fighting for the rights of womenfolk. We get a glimpse of the standard that Conversations with Kanwal hopes to set, sharing the stories of strong women who’ve emerged on top, despite circumstance not being in their favor.

The first episode is slated to release on April 7.

Express Tribune

April 1, 2019

Need stressed for girls’ education and gender equality

Pakistan has the second largest number of out-of-school girls. Low indicators for girls’ education are reflected in the overall low metrics for women’s life expectancy that is 68.2 years, health (MMR: 178/1000) and women labour force participation (24 percent).

It was shared at two dialogues on the issues of equity, inclusion and gender equality held under the aegis of Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA) to prioritise inclusive and equitable education as a mainstream agenda.

The statistics of Gender MIS Punjab Commission on the Status of Women 2018 were referred at the events. It was also shared that while there has been progress in overall enrolment (ASER 2018), there is a gender gap in the number of girls and boys attending school (for both government and private schools). The gender imbalance in enrolment is very prevalent in the province; according to ASER 2018 findings, amongst the enrolled students in government schools, 43 percent were girls and 57pc were boys whereas in private schools 56pc enrolled children were boys and 44% were girls. This means that boys outperform girls in terms of enrolment both in government and private schools.

The first dialogue on ‘Addressing Issues of Equity and Inclusion: Exploring New Pathways,’ was organised in collaboration with the UK Aid Department for International Development (DFID), University of Cambridge, IDEAS Pakistan, FESF and Sightsavers.

The second dialogue on ‘Education for All: The Leap to Gender Equality’ was held in collaboration with the Punjab government, DFID and Oxfam.

Purpose of the events was to promote discourse on inclusion and equity based on findings from the recently launched ASER 2018 report and ITA’s pilot survey on measuring disability prevalence and learning outcomes of CWDs, serving it as a point of reference for crafting powerful solutions to provide access to inclusive quality education and learning opportunities for all.

The first session was attended by a large number of stakeholders from government, bureaucracy, academia, research think tanks and civil society organisations. Findings from a disability prevalence survey, which was conducted by ITA, were also shared with the participants.

These findings showed that a staggering 15.15pc of the surveyed children (5-16 years) were found to have a moderate/severe disability. It was recommended that the survey needed to be scaled up to the rest of the country in order to measure disability prevalence across the country. Results from the learning assessment of visually-impaired and deaf children, using the Braille and Pakistan sign language adapted ASER learning tools, showed that visually-impaired children were performing remarkably well, despite only 33pc of schools having assistive technologies for such children. It was highlighted that deaf children should be taught sign language so that they could also communicate and learn properly. The dialogue ended with all stakeholders, making commitment to take the work initiated by ITA forward and to actively work on the recommendations presented at the dialogue.

Business Recorder

March 29, 2019April 2, 2019

Education for girls, mainstreaming of special children stressed

LAHORE: A staggering 15.15pc of children surveyed between 5 to16 years were found to have disabilities. The disability prevalence survey was conducted by Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA).

Meanwhile, the recent Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) has revealed the gender imbalance is prevalent nationwide. Amongst the enrolled students in government schools, 43pc are girls and 57pc are boys and in private schools, the ratio is 56pc and 44pc for boys and girls, respectively.

These statistics, presented in an event on Thursday, compressed in a nutshell the situation of education for both marginalised groups – girls and those with disabilities with a focused discussion on Punjab and how the government could help provide an inclusive and equitable education in its mainstream. The event was organised by the ITA and was divided into two dialogues.

The first dialogue was organised in collaboration with the UKAid Department for International Development (DFID), University of Cambridge, IDEAS Pakistan, FESF and Sightsavers. It was titled ‘Addressing Issues of Equity and Inclusion: Exploring New Pathways’.

It was proposed that in order to measure the disability prevalence across the country, there was need to scale up the survey to the rest of the country. Results from the learning assessment of visually impaired and deaf children, using the braille and the Pakistan Sign Language adapted ASER learning tools, showed that visually impaired children were performing remarkably well despite only 33pc of schools having facilities for them. It was highlighted that sign language should be taught to the deaf children to help them communicate and learn.

All the stakeholders promised to take on the work, pledging to actively work on the recommendations proposed during the dialogue.

The second dialogue was organised in collaboration with the Punjab government, DFID and Oxfam on ‘Education for All: The Leap to Gender Equality’.

Baela Raza Jamil, chief executive officer of the ITA, initiated the discussion. Farida Shaheed delivered the keynote address and pointed out the key factors contributing to persistent gender inequality.

Others on the panel were Fauzia Viqar, chairperson of Punjab Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW), Uzma Kardar, chairperson of Standing Committee on Gender Mainstreaming, Waqar Azeem, director programmes Punjab Social Protection Authority, Amna Khalid, social development adviser, DFID and representatives from L&NFBE and UNICEF.

In the session, it was pointed out that Pakistan had the second largest number of out-of-school girls.

Fauzia Viqar said the low indicators for girls’ education also reflected the overall low indicators for women, including life expectancy (68.2 years), maternal mortality rate (178/1,000) and labour force participation (24pc). The figures were gathered by Gender MIS of PCSW 2018.

Baela Raza shared the steps taken by the ITA to promote gender equality and justice.

Uzma Kardar vowed to take up these issues of imbalance in assembly and committee proceedings while a representative of Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry also spoke about mainstreaming transgender community.

The panelists included Waseem Abbas, additional secretary of literacy and non-formal basic education, Waqar Azeem, director Programmes of Punjab Social Protection Authority, Amna Khalid, social development adviser DFID, Rubina Nadeem, educationist, Unicef and Akram Khurshid, programme manager Oxfam.

Dawn