MES Annual Assembly 2016

• Pakistan has 25 million out of school children: Dr Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri

Addressing a scholarship award ceremony held under the banner of Minhaj Education Society at Al-Hamarah on November 15, 2016, Dr Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri, President of MQI, has said that there are 25 million out of school children in Pakistan, out of which 56pc are girls. He said that one thousands schools located in terrorism-affected Fata region remain closed and literacy rate has come down to 58pc from 60pc. 22pc schools in Punjab, 50pc in Balochistan, 74pc in FATA, 55pc in Sindh, and 35pc in KP do not have clean drinking water. The same is the case of class rooms, washrooms, electricity, teachers and other missing facilities. Does one call it educational priority, he said.

Dr Hussain Mohi-ud-Din made these remarks while addressing the MES Annual Assembly. The ceremony was attended by hundreds of students, their teachers and parents. He said that Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri founded Minhaj Education Society to impart quality education to the children of underprivileged parents. He said that 650 schools have been set up across the country to further the vision of quality education which is easily accessible to the masses. He said that 150,000 students are studying in these schools and 12000 teachers are employed who are busy imparting education to the children.

Scholarships amounting to Rs. 1 million were distributed among both male and female students in the programme. Minhaj University Vice Chancellor Dr Aslam Ghouri, Brig. (r ) Muhammad Iqbal, senior journalist Habib Akram, Zameer Afaqi, Naeem Mushtaq, Kashif Mirza, Dewan Mohi-ud-Din, Anees-ur-Rehman, Sohail Raza, Prof Victor, Umar Sharif Bokhari, Naveed Ch and Jawad Hamid were also present in the ceremony.

Dr Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri said that unless federal and provincial governments make education topmost priority, Pakistan will continue to grope in darkness and ignorance. He said that Education Policy 2009 made a commitment of gradual increase of development budget for education in the light of the ground realities, adding that by 2016, the federal allocations for education have come down markedly. He asked that the rulers have billions of rupees for construction of motorways, Orange Lines and renovation of private residences, why do not they have money for promotion of education?

The MQI President gave a breakdown of 25 million out of school children, saying that out of these, 25pc children belong to Sindh, 10pc to KP, 7pc to Balochistan, 3pc to FATA, whereas 52pc children are from Punjab. He said that the goal of achieving 100pc literacy and enrolment which was supposed to be achieved by 2015 as part of Millennium Development Goals has not yet been achieved. He said that 44pc children of school-going age are unable to attend schools.

He said that the rulers do issue data regarding enrollment but shy away from sharing information about the drop-outs. He said that the quality of education being imparted in the government schools is way below than that imparted in Bhutan, Maldives and Uganda. He said that Pakistan is being counted among the backward African countries on the subject of educational standards.

Dr Hussain impressed upon the political parties, NGOs and parents to bring their pressure to bear upon the government to increase allocations for education sector development.

Prizes were awarded among the students at the conclusion of the ceremony. The students presented tableaus, anthems, and speeches in the programme.