KARACHI: Thought-provoking speeches were delivered and papers read out at the third Sana Sindh Convention on education with the motto `Acho ta kujh karyon` organised by the Sindhi Association of North America (Sana) in a hotel here on Saturday.

The keynote speaker for the inaugural session of the convention was Hussain Haroon, Pakistan`s former ambassador to the United Nations.

He touched upon the subject of whether the issue of the government`s financial resource and support to bring about a radical change in the deteriorating structure of education was addressed.

A large quantity of resource was allocated for law and order, which raised the question whether the future of this country was at stake because of the law and order situation or it was endangered by a lack of education. He said the debate why Pakistan was created made him recall the 1906 All India Muslim League Conference on education at Dhaka which meant the genesis of this visionwas rooted in education. `What have we done with it?` he said.

`There`s nothing to be smiled upon` Mr Haroon said it would not be right to attribute the situation to one group. The problem could not be solved by wishing it away or by pointing fingers. Referring to an earlier speaker who had talked about Sana`s limited resources, he said: `Don`t call yourself poor` and take money from the United States if need be, for we had been doing that for the past 50 to 60 years.

He asked if anyone had all these years assessed where all the money that was poured in for education was spent. There was no monitoring, no checks and balance. If we had not had the `impact` then it implied no improvement in that regard had taken place, he said and stressed that we should help one another, create avenues and thought processes. `A way has to be worked out. We need to keep going on,` Mr Haroon remarked, and rounded off his speech by saying if Sana could act as a catalyst of change, it would be good.

US consul general Michael Dodman spoke on the different ways the US consulate here was working to strengthen Pakistan-US relations. He said education was on the top of their priority list because the future of Pakistan and its economic development depended on it. He mentioned a few projects.

He told the audience that $155 million would be spent on the Sindh Basic Education Programme with the construction of 120 new schools (in seven districts of north Sindh and five towns in Karachi). A decent amount was allocated for a programme on reading in which 3.2 million Pakistani children would be brought up to the grade level in reading, including 75,000 children in Sindh. Then there were projects such as improving teachers` education, an English language porgramme and scholarship funding. Four hundred students in Sindh had received scholarships, he said.

Retired air marshal Riazuddin Sheikh shed light on the Sindh School System, which he claimed was not restricted to Sana. He said though Sana was not a rich organisation, its members felt obliged to pay back to their province. He lamented that our schools were `behind` all the schools in the subcontinent and concerted efforts were needed to rectify things for which the people`s participation was necessary. He argued that it was not just the problem of our province, but of the whole country. `If we don`t educate,there will be no Sindh, no country,` he said.

Mehvish Siddiqui spoke about the MJSF, a charitable foundation, while Jamil Daudi apprised the audience about Sana and its aims. The session was moderated by Diana Memon.The second session, presided over by Justice Ageel Abbasi, was on the judiciary`s role in education. Justice Abbasi said the first thing that Islam taught the Muslims was to read and acquire knowledge. Article 25(A) introduced after Article 25 of the constitution talked about equality of citizens. It took the legislators 60 years to make the imparting of education part of the constitution. Education was made compulsory for five to six years; if not then courts were there to safeguard their fundamental rights even on a suo motu basis.

He said nations which were `educated` had progressed and developed like anything, whereas those that had not were left behind. Education was a right of every individual and it was the state`s responsibility under the constitution to make sure that its citizens acquired education.

Journalist zubeida Mustafa said Sindh had a great culture and a highly developed language, but the one thing that affected her was its failure to educate children. She lauded the fact that under Article 25(A) education was made compulsory. She said her speech would be supported by statistics, chiefly gathered from the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER).

Ms Mustafa pointed out that there were a few basic issues, the first of which was of `access`schools were notavailable. The quality of education, too, left much to be desired. She gave numbers as to how many schools there were in the province and how many were listed as nonfunctional and ghost schools. She said nine per cent children went to private schools, which meant more children depended on the government schools. Also, when the chief justice (Iftikhar Chaudhry) inquired about the issue last year, it turned out that Rs26 billion was spent on government schools. Where that money went, no one knew. According to the ASER report, 29 per cent of students (six to 16 years of age) were out of school.

Asked to read a sentence in their language (Sindhi or Urdu), only 33 per cent could read a single sentence; 28pc could read a word in English.

Ms Mustafa said it was not right to suggest that the people did not want their children to acquire education.

She argued that instead of using the word equality we should use `equity` The education system in Pakistan promoted inequity where affluent people could send their children to elite schools. A poor person who went to a government school could not get a decent job, which perpetuated poverty.

Barrister Zamir Ghumro gave a historic account of the situation (from the time Sindh was part of the Bombay presidency to post-partition One Unit to the passing of the 18th amendment).

General secretary of the Sindh High Court Bar Association Asim Iqbal spoke on the judiciary`s role in highlighting the education issue.

Three more sessions on different aspects of the subject were to follow.