Education secretary told to file action plan about out-of-school children.

Byline: Ishaq Tanoli

KARACHI -- The provincial education department on Friday informed the Sindh High Court that a plan had been recommended to involve community-based organisations and use the existing infrastructure for non-formal education centres to overcome the challenges concerning out-of-school children.

The secretary of the school education and literacy department, Qazi Shahid Parvaiz, submitted a compliance report before a two-judge SHC bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar and sought time for an action plan.

The report stated that in compliance with the Oct 20 order of the bench, a meeting was held on Nov 15 to discuss the challenges concerning out-of-school children and non-formal education as well as to propose roadmap strategies to overcome these issues.

The meeting was also attended by petitioners and their lawyers, he said.

The main purpose of the meeting was to take civil society members on board for better achievement of goals.

The points discussed in the meeting included involving community-based organisations (CBOs), capturing out-of-school children, using the existing infrastructure for non-formal education centres etc.

The report further stated that the secretary suggested the involvement of CBOs in the vicinity and the selection criteria would be as per their presence in the area.

It added that the education department should combine efforts with CBOs which were already working for the cause, and pay them the management cost annually.

The secretary also recommended that out-of-school children be enrolled in the programmes through different age cohorts. Children aged five to nine would be mainstreamed through accelerated learning programmes (ALP); nine to...