ISLAMABAD: The country`s education ministers on Tuesday decided to work jointly towards dealing with out-of-school children (OOSC) as Pakistan at the moment had the world`s largest number of out-of-school population.

Education Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain was presiding over a meeting of the InterProvincial Education Ministers` Conference (IPMEC).

According to a document, members of the meeting were told that earlier education was an area where hardly any work was carried out however now, each province must collectively make it a core objective to create action plans that ensure that every Pakistani child goes to school.

It was further discussed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif already directed the Ministry ofEducation to collaboratively work with provinces to ensure out-of-school childrenenrolment andretentioninschoolsonpriority. The document stated that 78pc of out-of-school childrenare between the ages of 10-16 years, 80pc have never been to school throughout their lives out of whom 77pc are in rural areas and 33pc are in urban areas.

Recently, in collaboration with the Planning Commission, the ministry made engagements with provinces asking them to draft OOSC-related strategies.

Each of the provinces and federal areas drafted provisional strategies using various interventional approaches, learning from each others` best practices however not all draft strategies contain cost estimates and targeted OOSC numbers with timelines.

On May 18, 2023, a high-level national consultative session was organised by the Planning Commission to discuss theOOSC challenge and way forward. It was decided that provinces must be engaged to firmup their strategies with specific targets, timelines, key interventions, cost estimates with provincial share that shall become part of a National Plan of Action for out-of-school children.

The national plan shall be guided and implemented under a National Advisory Committee on out-of-school children. The United Nations Children`s Education Fund (Unicef) has also developed an investment case for out-of-school childrenthat will be shared with the Planning Commission. During the meeting, representatives of provinces shared their efforts and challenges while dealing with the issue of out-of-school children. The participants of the meeting decided to work jointly.

Earlier, the meeting was given a presentation regarding the education minister`s Net-ZeroOOSC initiative in Islamabad which has over 52,000 out-ofschool children. The campaign has been launched in May 2023 with an aim to enrol all these children in schools.

The minister reiterated that IPEMC`s contributions were going to be significant in enrolment of out-of-school childrenand multiple distance learning interventions. He emphasised on the importance of developing framework for data sharing as well. He also assured provinces that maximum facilitation would be given to them for reaping benefits from these projects.

Secretary Education Waseem Ajmal Chaudhary informed participants about the grants provided to provinces under the ASPIRE project during the current and previous fiscal year to facilitate disadvantaged areas for educational access.

He informed all those who were attending about the flag-ship initiatives related to distance learning, out-of-school children, curriculum reforms and foundation learning conference of the ministry and how the provinces could contribute towards their implementation for optimum results.

The meeting proceedings started with a comprehensive overview of the National Distance Education Strategy comprising vision, learning and goals. The strategy was fully endorsed by provinces and they assured the ministry of complete alignment of their plans with the strategy.

A presentation was also given by the National Curriculum Council on inter-provincial coordination with regards to implementation of a core curriculum.

Important decisions were made for effective implementation of the new curriculum focusing on reforms in the quality of textbooks, teachers, and assessments across the country.