President Asif Ali Zardari has proposed setting up a high-level National Literacy Council “to ensure the launching of a well-coordinated and effective literacy drive throughout the country”, APP is reporting.
In a message on International Literacy Day, the President said the Council aimed at promoting education would include chief ministers and federal and provincial ministers of education, finance and planning as its members. … He said inequalities in education stand in the way of balanced and equitable economic development. “An illiterate labour force also adversely impacts on national harmony. A literate nation is essential for both prosperity and for the integrity and security of the nation,” he added.
President Zardari urged the educational planners to adopt a multi-pronged strategy for eradication of illiteracy and provision of basic education to all including children, youth and adults.
He said, “Together with higher priority to the formal primary education, we must also expand access to non-formal basic education programmes and launch a long term and sustainable programmes which should be purposeful so as to equip illiterate farmers, labourers, and rural women with knowledge and skills which can enhance their income and employability.”
In the same message, the President also talked about recognizing free primary education as a fundamental human right:
The President strongly recommended legislation by the Parliament to recognize and declare free primary education as a fundamental human right in the Constitution of Pakistan.
Is this a sign that, after nearly 60 years of neglect, the policy-makers are finally waking up to the need to educate the masses?
The legislation about recognizing free primary education as a fundamental human right is important because in our three attempts at writing a Constitution since independence, we have progressively come closer to this point but the state has yet to accept this as its ultimate responsibility and provide a time-frame within which full literacy is to be achieved. Dr. Usman Ali Isani’s PhD thesis on the Higher Education in Pakistan provides valuable historical perspective on this issue. In it, he describes how the Objective Resolution fails to mention education as a guaranteed fundamental right and the first Constitution of 1956 only mandates that the state provide “basic necessities of life, such as food, clothing, housing, education and medical relief” to those citizens who are “permanently or temporarily unable to earn their livelihood”.
Progress was made in the 1962 Constitution where, in laying down the Principles of Policy, the Constitution says: “Illiteracy should be eliminated, and free and compulsory primary education should be provided for all, as soon as is practicable” (Article 7). By not setting a deadline, the State effectively kicked the proverbial can down the road.
The Constitution of 1973 restated the eradication of illiteracy as a Principle of Policy in almost identical terms, by stating in Article 37(b):
[The State shall:]
remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory secondary education within minimum possible period;
Again, by not setting a deadline, continued neglect was ensured. Furthermore, as Dr. Isani reminds us, Principles of Policy are “non-justicable rights, whereas Fundamental Rights are justicable rights and can be enforced through a court of law”.
If the legislation the President has talked about is indeed enacted and access to free primary education is recognized as a Fundamental Right (under Chapter 1 of the Constitution), it will oblige the state to act urgently and decisively.
It has been over 60 years that The Universal Declaration of Human Rights unambiguously stated (Article 26 (1)):
Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory.
It’s about time that the Constitution of Pakistan also takes the next step. After all, Pakistan was one of the 48 countries that voted in favor of this resolution on December 10, 1948.
Here, above all else, the distinction between legislation and execution needs to be recognized. Declaring it a human right is empty rhetoric if the President does not follow it up with a detailed plan and the funds to implement the plan.
That’s true. But, if the legislature does include free public education (at the primary level) as a fundamental right, the citizens will be able to approach the courts in cases where the State fails to provide reasonable access. This is especially important for citizens in living in the remote areas, areas with low population density and areas where feudals/sardar/etc. have barred schools from being built.
Perhaps equally importantly though, is the fact that a constitution outlines the priorities of a nation. Or, in our case, gives a snapshot of our priorities at a given time.
With the new education policy promising that the government will be spending 7% of the GDP on education by 2015, as oppose to 2-3% that we now spend, perhaps we are indeed turning a corner here. May be there is reason for some cautious optimism here. Just may be.