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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.

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