perspective-child rights - Page 2

Insights From the 2023 Census Report

The 2023 Census conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics released its complete report in July 2024 indicates that the total population of Pakistan is 240 million out of which the population of children under 18 is 112 Million (47% of the total population). Children Population (under 18) Population under 18 Total Male Female Transgender Pakistan 112,472,700 58,099,978 54,370,121 2,601…

The Case for Teaching Punjabi in Schools

THE chief minister of Punjab, Ms Maryam Nawaz, has said that Punjabi will be taught across schools in the province. This was announced at the Punjab Culture Day ceremony last week. It is a welcome announcement. Some 80 million people speak Punjabi in Pakistan and, worldwide, Punjabi speakers number around…

The Role of Parents in Shaping Pakistan’s Education Future

PAKISTAN’S education system faces significant challenges on two fronts. Firstly, there is…

Ghost Schools

KARACHI: Apropos the letter “Ghost Teachers” published on September 19, 2024, the…

Learning From A Child

MY daughter, who is seven and a half, is my latest teacher. She is in grade two. She gets a fair bit of homework and she is kind enough that she lets me sit with her when she is doing her homework. I started sitting with her to see if…

Climate Resolutions 2025

2025 will be a year of new openings and possibilities for Pakistan. Several initiatives started during the outgoing year will approach completion and offer opportunities to integrate economic and climate priorities. For Pakistan, economic and climate vulnerabilities reinforce each other and hence they must be addressed simultaneously. We will learn…

A Year Of Interupted Learning

School days were repeatedly disrupted in 2024 due to political events, climate emergencies & govt decisions LAHORE/PESHAWAR/QUETTA:Twice this year, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared an education emergency. He drew attention to Pakistan’s education crisis of having 26 million out-of-school children. Yet both times, the reaction on ground to tackle this…

Education System Bedevilled By Instability

KARACHI. The matric and intermediate session for the academic year 2024/25 has been converted into a semester system due to the poor strategy and lack of planning exhibited by the Education Department in Sindh. This is the only session in which teaching will continue for barely six and a half…

Madrassa Bill

The rift over the assent for the madrassa bill has come to a pass. The President of the Republic has finally signed it into law after a hiatus, which apparently was aimed at arm-twisting an ally of the coalition government. The JUIF, which was part of the controversial 26th amendment…

Courts Must Prioritise Best Interests Of Child: SC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has held that as the custodians of justice, the courts must adopt a child justice approach that prioritizes the best interests of the child, recognizing their vulnerabilities, developmental needs, and potential. A two-member bench of the apex court – comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and…

Suicidal Behaviour

CHILDREN constitute around 45 percent of the Pakistani population, with 22.7pc adolescents from 10 to 19 years. Along with their educational, safety and physical health needs, there is also an urgent need to prevent and respond to their mental health challenges. The WHO estimates that 15pc of the global burden…

CAN MADRESSAHS BE MAINSTREAMED?

Madressah reform continues to be a major challenge. Since the state is not in a position to outrightly ban madressahs and immediately replace them with regular schools, attempts to mainstream them by encouraging them to incorporate worldly subjects are widely considered the only other alternative. However, actual enrolment trends seem…

Beyond Schools

IN 2019, when I was teaching full time, our institute collaborated with a university in Canada in their Global Reporting Programme where three of our students, along with students in Kenya and the US, were selected to work on an academic year-long project. The three students and I would log…

Vulnerable Vaccinators

THE campaign to eradicate polio from Pakistan cannot succeed unless the safety of vaccinators and security personnel on the front lines of this battle is guaranteed. According to one count, over 200 polio workers and police personnel have been martyred in the field since the 1990s. The latest tragedy occurred…