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 15-year-olds would be enrolled in general literacy programmes as well as occupational skill programmes, it added.

The report stated that children aged 16 years and above will get vocational training apart from general literacy while the opportunity cost of mainstreaming these children would be addressed through cash-based transfers with effective monitoring or getting support of the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Youth Development Programme for certified trainings.

It further said that the education department would use the existing schools with developed infrastructure in the evening shifts for ALP while 2,632 out of 4,560 schools were being rehabilitated by June next year. Many other projects were in the process for infrastructure and upgrading of schools.

The directorate of non-formal education will be given the role of monitoring the model of outsourcing and engaging the CBOs, it added.

The members of civil society suggested that videos of vocational learning programs be generated by the selected teachers and shared with out-of-school children so that they may learn through virtual learning programmes, the report concluded.

The bench directed the education secretary to prepare the action plan with the consensus of all stakeholders and submit it till Dec 4.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2018