Include mandatory training on alternative forms of class management and teacher discipline in all teacher trainings. the education of girls is strictly prohibited on religious grounds. “Everywhere you’ll find a government school—the building is there, the teacher is on the payroll, but there is no teacher and no students,” the director of a community-based organization said. [155] Human Rights Watch interview with Shaheen, Lahore, July 21, 2017. [280] National Counter Terrorism Authority Pakistan, “20 Points of The National Actions Plan,” http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/pakistan/document/papers/National_Action_Plan_20_Points.htm (accessed September 13, 2018). “Sixteen or 15 is a good age to get engaged,” said Ayesha. They come, but they are not doing a good job.”[144], “Once or twice a year they come, unannounced,” another private school principal said. She was not allowed to go to the nearby government school as men are gambling in that area. Include in all job announcements and recruitment materials statements explaining that it is an offense for anyone to demand a bribe at any stage in the recruitment process for teachers and include information on how applicants can confidentially report any such demands. [108], Sahar, 34, sends three of her children to madrasa, two in lieu of regular school and one in addition to regular school; the family receives a discount at the madrasa because they are poor, so they pay 600 rupees ($6) per month for all three children. [240] Human Rights Watch interview with Ayesha, Parveen, and Sara, Karachi, July 25, 2017. It is less likely to be an issue outside of the government school system. [337] See, for example, CEDAW Committee, “Concluding Observations of the Committee to End All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Uganda,” October 22, 2010, para.31, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW-C-UGA-CO-7.pdf (accessed September 13, 2018). [255] The financial pressure of trying to reduce or avoid dowry or needing to receive bride price can induce families to accept a marriage proposal that comes earlier than they would have chosen. “For science classes for the matric [10th grade exam] you have to buy special things, like test tubes for 500 rupees [$4.76] each,” said Alima, whose daughter is in 11th grade. A mother takes her daughter to school in Islamabad. You can join us in taking action here. Between 2013 and 2017, hundreds of schools were attacked, typically with explosive devices, killing several hundred students and teachers, and damaging and destroying infrastructure. [290] Human Rights Watch interview with Salima, Punjab, July 19, 2017. His teacher said, ‘If you do something for me—if you pay us 3,000 rupees—we’ll pass you.’ He said, ‘If I’m doing well, why should I pay?’ Then he failed on three out of four papers at his intermediate course in 12th grade and he got discouraged and left.”[83], Corruption is an issue in both government and private schools, and some parents said that demands for bribes are more of a problem in private schools, perhaps because of the low salaries.[84]. “They are registered with government but not standardized,” the head of an NGO said. “If [parents] have land to inherit, it’s for the boy,” an NGO gender expert explained. [92] Human Rights Watch interview with Aqiba, Lahore, July 21, 2017. 4, Adolescent Health and Development in the Context of the Convention on the Rights of Child, CRC/GC/2003/4, (2003), http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Women/WRGS/Health/GC4.pdf (accessed September 13, 2018), paras. [15] This increased the private schools’ share of total student enrollment to 34 percent. According to Pakistan Social and Living Measurement survey 2008-2009, the literacy rate of women was only 45%. country’s population, have been forced to just bear children for their husbands Monitor expenditure of education funds at the provincial level and ensure full use of funds. Many of the barriers to girls’ education are within the school system itself. In both government and private schools, use of corporal punishment and abusive behavior by teachers was widely reported. “Radicalization doesn’t result from no education—it results from the wrong education,” she said. “There was no one to take care of the house—I can’t leave the house alone.”[188], Often one girl in the family sees her education sacrificed to housework, while others study. But when it was time for her to sit the exam for sixth grade, the exam center was at a different location than her primary school. They will feel hurt at being left out.” Zarifah’s oldest daughter now studies the Quran with a neighbor; the other children are not in education. She said that after the Army Public School attack, the children in the family were afraid to go to school and her husband wanted to take all the children out of school for safety reasons, but Abda insisted on keeping them in school. [273] “Pakistan: Surge in Militant Attacks on Schools,” Human Rights Watch news release, August 3, 2018, https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/08/03/pakistan-surge-militant-attacks-schools. [93] Human Rights Watch interviews with Azwa, Ayesha, and Sidra, Karachi, July 31, 2017, Fazila, Lahore, July 18, 2017, and Bisharah, Lahore, July 18, 2017. [124] Human Rights Watch interview with government high school teacher (name withheld), Peshawar, August 8, 2017. Faiza’s daughter began studying at age 13, at a tuition center. In Islam, it is clearly mention that it is [5] According to 2013-2014 data, by ninth grade, only 13 percent of girls are still in school. Education has become a universal human right all around the globe. [112] Human Rights Watch interview with Mariam and Tehreem, Karachi, July 31, 2017. [331], The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has stated: “The prohibition against discrimination enshrined in article 2 (2) of the [International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights] is subject to neither progressive realization nor the availability of resources; it applies fully and immediately to all aspects of education and encompasses all internationally prohibited grounds of discrimination.”[332], Child marriage—a major barrier to education for girls in Pakistan—is recognized under international law as a human rights violation. Families sometimes face administrative barriers to registering children in school, including requirements for birth certificates, national identification cards, age restrictions, and demands for certificates from previous schools. Sometimes discrimination is built in to the provision of education; for example, one mother told Human Rights Watch about a school in Peshawar for Afghans which provides primary and secondary education for boys, but only primary education for girls. E.g. This clearly states that women should receive education. Ensure universal access to free primary and secondary education, in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 4, including by: Abolishing all tuition, registration and exam fees at government schools; Providing all needed school supplies to all students, including notebooks, pens, pencils, and a book bag; Abolishing uniform requirements, or providing uniforms at no cost to students; Reforming the system for providing textbooks, to ensure that every student receives free use of a full set of textbooks in a timely manner each school year. [26] Human Rights Watch interview with Fazeelah, Karachi, July 27, 2017. The literature focused on analyzing the situation of women education in Pakistan. Some mothers who married young fight to delay their daughters’ marriages. She completed first grade in Karachi, but when her family returned to the village had to redo first grade. [327] UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, “The Aims of Education (article 29),” General Comment No. If anyone said anything, they would have been beaten by the teacher.” Somia now studies in a madrasa but is frustrated that her dreams of becoming a doctor ended when she left school. “There are none of the facilities that I get here—electricity, a generator, furniture. The worst of the violence took place about 10 years earlier, but after missing school during that period, the children were never able to go to school.”[264], Layla, 50, said the government school near her home closed permanently after 10 to 12 bodies were found there during ethnic conflict in the neighborhood in 2005. Respect the right of girls and boys to education in all areas that are contested or under the influence or control of anti-government forces. [184] Human Rights Watch interview with Sheherbano, Karachi, July 26, 2017. Governments also have a positive obligation to remedy abuses that emanate from social and cultural practices. Both dowry (payment by the bride’s family to the groom’s family) and bride price (payment by the groom’s family to the bride’s family) are practiced, in different communities. Parween attended school from age 10 to 13, completing second grade before she was forced to drop out and take on household work after her three older sisters married at ages 17 or 18. [296] Human Rights Watch interview with a researcher on education (name withheld), Lahore, July 19, 2017. Immediately cease all attacks against schools that are not lawful military objectives. Human Rights Watch interview with Rukhsana, Karachi, July 29, 2017. The future of the country depends on it. “It takes one hour to walk to the nearest school, and it’s not a nice area,” said Samika, 12. [81], There is also corruption within schools. [202], Some children manage to combine work and school. The girls now study part-time at a madrasa closer to their home. Hafsa, 16, thinks she was five or six years old on the day she fell into an open sewage ditch on her way to her school which was an hour-long walk away. The picture of educational conditions is grim in [108] Human Rights Watch interview with Najiba, Quetta, January 17, 2018. One of her children is studying, but she said her other children refused to go and said they were not interested. Although there is a government school nearby, Mahvish says the children cannot study there. 36; UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment No. [58] The disparities become even greater at the level of professional colleges and universities. [218] Human Rights Watch interview with Farkhunda, Peshawar, August 6, 2017. [171] Human Rights Watch interview with Khadijah, Karachi, July 30, 2017. [220] Human Rights Watch interview with Amina and Fatima, Peshawar, August 6, 2017. Should children be allowed to use mobile phone? [283], “They walk you halfway home,” said Mumtaz, 20, about the boys at a nearby school, complaining that they follow girls and harass them. She decided to send her 7-year-old son—the first time one of her children has studied—but struggles to pay fees of 500 rupees ($4.76) per month. “Everyone got hit. [57] E.g. “I then come home and teach my siblings,” she says.[107]. Many years later I regretted leaving, but I was too old to start all over.”[260], “We can’t walk alone because of boys selling drugs and big trucks going by,” said Layla, 50, explaining why the school 30 to 40-minute walk away is not accessible to her family. Prohibit all forms of corporal punishment in schools; take appropriate disciplinary action against any employee violating this rule. She began taking shared transport instead, which ended the harassment, but created a financial burden, costing 4,000 rupees a month ($38) which was over 20 percent of her salary. My mother keeps telling me to go back to ninth grade, but I say no. “My father wanted us to go to school, but my grandfather ruled this house, so my father couldn’t ask for us to go.”[216], Attitudes regarding how desirable or acceptable it is for girls to study, especially as they grow older, vary significantly across different communities in Pakistan, and there is a range of attitudes in every community. The paper dealing with Status of Women in Pakistan thus tries to explore various layers of state and society, their functioning and interplay. The path is lonely and isolated and there have been cases of two or three kidnappings in that area…. [281] Human Rights Watch, Dreams Turned into Nightmares: Attacks on Students, Teachers and Schools in Pakistan, March 2017, https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/03/27/dreams-turned-nightmares/attacks-students-teachers-and-schools-pakistan. Work with provincial governments to improve the quality of government schools and quality assurance of private schools. small political or religious parties do the job, because in order to maintain [85] Human Rights Watch interview with Fazila, Lahore, July 18, 2017. Instruct police officials at the provincial and district level to ensure that police at the community level work with schools to ensure the safety of students, including monitoring potential threats to schools, students and teachers, and working to prevent harassment and abuse of students, especially girls. “Things have changed because education changes you…. They are also typically easier for children to join, often accepting children on a rolling basis without administrative requirements such as identification and birth certificates. Using this benchmark, the government in 2016 determined that about 60 million Pakistanis—6.8 to 7.6 million families—were living in poverty, about 29.5 percent of the country’s population. [176] Human Rights Watch interview with Mariam and Tehreem, Karachi, July 31, 2017. There is no shortage of money in the education system in Sindh, but it is not being used properly.”[117] In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a teacher said that a biometric system for monitoring teacher attendance had been implemented and had significantly improved teacher attendance. “They made us go in the chicken position…. This paper attempts to illustrate the importance of female education, and some factors which support or facilitate female education in Pakistan. [277] Human Rights Watch interview with Naira, Quetta, January 2018. Education is the right of every human but unfortunately in Pakistan women are still deprived of education. “The parents send the kids off to work at young ages because they think what’s the use of studying, because the school is poor quality,” a teacher explained. [195] An NGO staff member working in poor areas of Lahore estimated that 70 percent of children in those neighborhoods are in paid employment, much of it home-based.[196]. “We do worry, but we still send them,” she said. [148] Human Rights Watch interview with principal of a private school (name withheld), Lahore, July 19, 2017. “I think it should be mandatory for girls to study until the 1oth grade. [156], Some teachers forced children to do chores for them. We have used this rate for conversions in the text. Her husband is physically abusive and did not allow Saira to leave the house, but he was away from the home after he found work as a cleaner in a school. “The girls would cry to let them go to school, but their father says he can’t keep arguing with other people.”[217], Farkhunda, 40, and her husband are Afghan immigrants living in Peshawar. My father has to listen to him because he says, ‘If your daughter goes to school, so many boys will follow her, and people will talk about her and no one will marry her.’”[233], Restrictions on the movement of women and girls are sometimes so severe that when girls leave school they become essentially homebound. “In this place, it’s not the type of area [where you can go to school]. [74] Transparency International, “Corruption Perception Index 2017,” https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2017 (accessed September 12, 2018). [41] Andreas Benz, “The Crisis of School Education in Pakistan: Of Government’s Failure and New Hopes in the Growing Private Education Sector,” Internationales Asienforum, 43 (2012), No.3–4, http://crossasia-journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/iaf/article/viewFile/186/181 (accessed September 12, 2018), pp. At private school the teacher used to focus on the students but at government school they didn’t.” After leaving the government school, Busrah joined a madrasa, but left after a year. There are two government schools within walking distance of her home, and she completed 10th grade. [269], This attack was far from isolated, however. Similar gender and regional disparities existed among those who completed primary school: Balochistan:                  19 percent of women, 48 percent of men, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 28 percent of women, 59 percent of men, Sindh:                           43 percent of women; 62 percent of men, Punjab:                         47 percent of women; 61 percent of men[11]. [121] But children and experts said classes are often much larger—50 to 80 students, and sometimes more. Humaira said they were prevented from attending school by their grandfather. [167] A CNIC is a “Computerized National Identification Card,” a card issued by the Pakistan government to adult Pakistan citizens, which citizens living in the country are required to register for. “We always achieved the highest marks at Balochistan’s various universities. 13 of the Covenant), U.N. Doc. Some people simply purchase teaching positions, and others obtain their jobs through political connections. Ayesha arranged for her daughters to be engaged, at the same time, to two brothers who are their relatives, when the girls were ages 17 and 13. When the school re-opened after a year, with female teachers, Yasmina’s father said she was now too old to study. [168] Human Rights Watch interview with Samra and her mother, Karachi, July 31, 2017. [118], Experts and families also had concerns about teachers’ qualifications and motivation. [131] Human Rights Watch interview with headmaster at government primary school (name withheld), Karachi, July 26, 2017. Some said it was so poor that there was no point sending children to school. Article 25-A has been transposed into the local laws of different federal units of Pakistan via the Right to Free and 2012 Compulsory Education Act (for Islamabad), the 2013 Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, the 2014 Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act, and the 2014 Balochistan Compulsory Education Act. But she felt overwhelmed by financial difficulties. [14] E.g. Bushra, a 10th grader, sews to help earn money for her school expenses. “Fifteen and sixteen-year-old girls want admission for sixth grade,” a teacher in Peshawar said. In its 2017-2025 National Education Policy, the government is blunt about its own neglect of the education system, writing: This diagnosis is refreshingly honest. [27] Nadia Siddiqui and Stephen Gorard, “Comparing government and private schools in Pakistan: The way forward for universal education,” International Journal of al Journal of Educational Research, 82 (2017), pp. “He lives at the school, so he is scared for himself…. [309], The Constitution of Pakistan, when adopted in 1973, contained a section under the non-enforceable “principles of state policy” that provided, “The State shall … remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory secondary education within [the] minimum possible period.”[310], In 2010 the 18th Amendment introduced article 25-A in the section containing judicially enforceable “fundamental rights,” which states that “The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by law.”[311]. An “upward bottleneck” exists as children, especially girls, get older. Instruct police officials to work with schools to ensure the safety of students, including monitoring potential threats to students, teachers and schools, and working to prevent harassment of students, especially girls. Female education has a positive relationship with female labour force participation rate. “A lot of times the teacher showed up late or he would not show up at all. Human Rights Watch interview with Eva, Peshawar, August 7, 2017. “There are a lot of schools here and people are generally aware regarding the importance of education.”[34], “Some people say girls should take care of homes, they shouldn’t study,” said a school headmaster in Punjab. [297], Just the fear of harassment sometimes leads to families keeping girls home. Then I did housework instead.”[102], Higher grades are more expensive than lower grades, even in government colleges, in terms of both tuition and associated costs. [319] CESCR, General Comment No. “It corrupts them—they get bad.” Muskaan explained, “In his mindset a girl is going to have affairs if she studies and then will marry whoever she wants.” Muskaan said her uncle fought often with her mother about Muskaan and her sisters going to school. “But if she rebels and sees men and has flings, I’m going to get her married quickly. [276], Naira worries about her teenage daughter, a college student in Quetta. Daughters who marry typically go to live with, and contribute to, their husband’s family, while sons are expected to remain with their parents—so sending sons to school is seen as a better investment in the family’s economic future. [127] Human Rights Watch interview with Maryam, Lahore, July 19, 2017. Poverty, child labor, gender discrimination and harmful social norms, and insecurity and dangers on the way to school create barriers to girls’ education. The family moved back to Karachi again one year before Human Rights Watch interviewed Rania. Government schools are generally more affordable than private education, but they sometimes charge tuition, registration or exam fees, and they almost always require that students’ families foot the bill for associated costs. 13, “The Right to Education (Art. [102] Human Rights Watch interview with Ann, Lahore, July 18, 2017. Even though we wear the veil [niqab—face covering] there is still that insecurity.”[295], Harmful gender norms mean that when girls are sexually harassed, the consequence is often that their movement is restricted, pushing them out of school. “For me a mistake was made. When Maryan’s husband lost his job as an electrician in Saudi Arabia, they could no longer afford the cost of private school, and the children stopped studying. “It was the time of gang violence, so it was difficult to go back and forth to school…. Rehabilitate, build, and establish new schools, especially for girls.