Existing educational infrastructure in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is facing wear and tear of the years neglect further aggravated by conflicts, natural disasters and ever rising number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) - big contributing factors of low enrolment and persistently high drop-out rate. Of the approximately 7.1 million children between the ages 5-16 in KP, around 2.5 million children are out of school, owing to the grossly ill-equipped public schooling system to meet the needs of a growing population.
Education has become a pronounced talking point in the global development discourse of the 21st century. Cognizant of the fact, KP is ushering a new era of renewed interest in the long neglected education sector, realizing that the tone of future growth and development are set by provision of quality, accessible, inclusive, and safe education.
As we embark on the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), pressure is mounting on all the stakeholders in education sector to show results. Fresh evidence shows that improvement of physical infrastructure and provision of basic facilities is a key factor in winning the confidence of parents in the public schooling system.
School enrolment patterns evidently show a gender disparity in the province, where 68% of the out of school children population are girls and only around 30% are boys, whereas, the dropout ratio is much higher for girls at 43% as compared to boys at 29%. Of every 100 girls enrolled in primary schools in KP only 28 make it to secondary schools.
KP has the second-highest number of defunct schools in Pakistan, where 1663 schools are non-functional. 77% of the total children go to government schools, 22% private and the remaining 1% go to Madrassa.
Two decades of neglect coupled with natural and socio-economic factors, the schools of KP have been in disrepair:
Humqadam-SCRP is set to capture the education opportunity to transform the schools into safe and secure places of learning by matching high standards of construction with social engineering. An assessment process covering baseline and technical surveys of 1234 schools revealed that the existing facilities were squeezed and many children forced to leave. Humqadam's work in progress is now sharply focused on building additional classrooms and missing facilities.
Humqadam-SCRP is set to capture the education opportunity to transform the schools into safe and secure places of learning by matching high standards of construction with social engineering. An assessment process covering baseline and technical surveys of 1234 schools revealed that the existing facilities were squeezed and many children forced to leave. Humqadam's work in progress is now sharply focused on building additional classrooms and missing facilities.
As the world commits itself to the SDGs, hopes are high for putting education at the center of development agenda. Parent Teacher Councils (PTCs), the Elementary and Secondary Education Department (E&SED) and CCSIs have created a grand alliance to deliver inclusive and equitable education for all. Archaic and centralized strategies are being replaced by local, decentralized strategies to deliver potent solutions to best address the issues highlighted by students, teachers and the community.
Ownership and community involvement are crucial for the success of Programme. It has been proved that one sided government-centric planning meted out deleterious effects than beneficial ones. Therefore, a new tier of CCSI has been added to strengthen the community participation and ensure transparency and accountability.