According to a recent news report that Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Balochistan have spent five years without notifications of the rules about the free and compulsory education laws virtually making the legislation pointless, destroying the future of 22.8 million out of school children in jeopardy.

In fact, the Parliament had passed the 18th Amendment in April 2010 which included Article 25-A, obligates the state to provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 5-16 years. Afterwards, it was devolved to provinces, and the responsibilities were granted to the provincial assemblies and parliament to legislate for the provision of compulsory education in their areas. The report highlighted that at the federal level, the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RFCEA) was enacted on December 24, 2012 for the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), in Sindh, on February 13, 2013 followed by an Ordinance, Balochistan in 2013, Punjab in 2014 and K-P in 2017, among them only Sindh and ICT had notified the rules of business since the legislation efforts became stopped by passage of the bill.

This shows the weaknesses of the assemblies and Parliament who became failed to notify the rules to provide compulsory education to the children. Today we can find several areas where we don’t have schools and staff. How can the state then provide free education to our children? It seems to be very impossible for the provinces to enrol 22.8 million children all of a sudden since there is a cost for new teachers, schools buildings with full facilities and other staffs. The failure of the government seemed to be a major loss for the upcoming generation as she became failed for the notification of the laws to provide free and compulsory education to the 22.8 million children and killed their future dreams. We humbly request the government to focus more on its educational sector and bring positive improvements and developments in it.

SHAKEEL PHULLAN,

Kech, June 20.