Islamabad (TDI): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday called upon the international and local organizations, philanthropists and entrepreneurs to join hands in creating scalable and sustainable opportunities for ensuring education to women.
Addressing a two-day International Conference on “Girls’ Education in Muslim Communities: Challenges and Opportunities,” as a chief guest, PM Shehbaz emphasized that millions of young girls would enter the jobs market in the next decade, bringing significant opportunities for social and economic prosperity.
“Their entry not only has the potential to not just lift themselves, their families and the nation out of the poverty but also to contribute to the world economy, create new markets and develop innovative solutions to their common challenges,” he said.
The prime minister emphasized that they should assure the womenfolk that their rights should be respected and their ambitions be met, besides, no cultural or social obstacle stood in the way of achieving their dreams.
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He said despite their rich legacy, the Islamic world, including Pakistan, was facing multiple challenges in ensuring actable access to education for girls, adding that denying education to women, amounted to denying their rights and denying them their right to prosperous future.
In Pakistan, the prime minister stated, the women made half of the total population, yet the female literacy rate stood at 49% only, while alarmingly around 22.8 million children, with age bracket of 5 to 8 years, were out of schools, including a proportionate number of girls.
The inadequate infrastructure, safety concerns, as well as deeply entrenched social norms further exacerbated the problem, creating a cycle of deprivation, spanning over spans of generations, the premier regretted.
The prime minister said Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a strong advocate for women’s role in the national building.
Danish Schools System
The prime minister said that one of the major steps to addressing the educational disparities in the country was the establishment of Danish schools during his tenure as chief minister Punjab.
It was a unique initiative to provide quality education to the deprived segments and to the unprivileged students in the under-developed rural areas. Without this opportunity, their talent would have been wasted in the dusty streets of their remote villages, he added.
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The PM said this initiative was now replicated in different far-flung areas of the country, paving way for a promising and bright future.
The prime minister said through the youth programmes, the incumbent government was committed to providing quality education and creating jobs, as well as offering meaningful opportunities which included vocational training, scholarships, and demand driven skills in AI, data and cyber security etc; as well as, provision of free laptops to the high achievers.
