Education is a fundamental human right – Pakistan Today

Education is one of the basic human rights intended to nurture holistic development of the pupils, enable them to take rational decisions to well-settle ever changing circumstances and uncertainties and actively contribute to the job market.

The concept of human rights highlights that regardless of who we are, where we live and are born, weshould be allowed to enjoy the same fundamental rights. TheUN Human Rights Charter is an international agenda. Incorporating this in the national agenda, Pakistan has taken initiatives in response to international commitments to promote and protect human rights. The National Commission for Human Rights was established by Pakistan, as an independent body institutionalized with the support of Parliament. The commission is responsible to inquire into human rights issues, develop a national Action Plan, create awareness and provide recommendations to redress any violations of human rights. These rights are categorized into personal, social, economic, cultural and political rights. For instance, the right to: enjoy freedom and equality (as all are equal in dignity), rest and leisure, education, enjoy proper living standard, health and wellbeing, celebrate culture,  enjoy freedom of opinion and expression.

In Pakistan, the benefit of “Education as a Human Right” depends upon how much an individual has access to resources (including financial, education background).

During the pandemic crisis, the government imposed a lockdown; the only way of continuation of education was online education that was only limited to private sector schools. And only high quality private schools stepped ahead to overcome the challenges associated with online platforms and reported sufficient engagement of students. These institutions usually offer admissions to those few pupils who have strong academic and financial background and those whose parents are educated and thus for whom the education of their children is the foremost priority and who have sufficient resources and time for tutoring or arranging well-qualified tutors. In addition they must have better English linguistic skills. Thus the beneficiaries are those who have dual characteristics, upper class position and educated status.

Moreover as far as education is concerned, the ASER report and the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) reported that half the children (ages 5-16) are out of school, about 44 percent  in Sindh, and 47 percent in Balochistan, and many fail to continue their tertiary-level education, very few, 12.2 percent of the  population, are enrolled in tertiary education as per record of the World Bank. This highlights that education is limited to a very small number ofpeople.

Employability is one of the core missions of education. Recent technological advancement has opened and eases the learning platform for students, simultaneously increasing hiring demands of job markets. Today’s national and global job market requires skilled personnel who have sufficient technical skills, time management and resource management skills. Education without its essence would be a violation of human tights and needs much attention.

Most of the educational institutions of Pakistan have been criticized for offering a substandard academic quality. Better schools kick off motivation towards learning, help master skills (analytical reasoning, communication and linguistic skills) which help increase academic self-efficacy and lead to accomplishment of education and related career.

In contrast with those nurtured in a poor atmosphere, the acquisition of knowledge and skills becomes challenging for them, this leads to decreased academic SE and may divert them from the educational path orto  discontinuation of education or, insufficient and related contribution in job market are possible symptoms.

Pakistan is considered a poor country, and poverty has further increased in the situation of pandemic due to the collapse of most of the economic activities,and  increase in unemployment. Most of its inhabitants have a dearth of both financial and educational resources. But, enjoying the right of contemporary education is a human rights agenda that believes in equality for all.

How can we say that by providing substandard education to the majority of Pakistani inhabitants,  or shutting down teaching-learning processes for longer periods during the uncertainties (such as corona/upcoming corona variants) would be positive steps in achieving the purpose of education?

Employability is one of the core missions of education. Recent technological advancement has opened and eases the learning platform for students, simultaneously increasing hiring demands of job markets. Today’s national and global job market requires skilled personnel who have sufficient technical skills, time management and resource management skills. Education without its essence would be a violation of human tights and needs much attention.

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