Amongst these rights, the main focus has been placed on the provision of quality education to children with disabilities, to promote inclusion and to undertake evidence-based policymaking with respect to children with disabilities. Time and again, federal and provincial governments have highlighted their allegiance to Article 25-A of the Constitution and SDG4 to ensure that ALL children are educated. While it is heartening to see such a response from all relevant stakeholders, the right to education of differently-abled children has mostly been sidelined and has only been restricted to the discussions pertaining to ‘special’ education. This year, it has collected information on the disability status of over 119,000 children (3-16 years) from Punjab, K-P, FATA and Islamabad. Therefore, it is imperative to take these differentials into account and to use the evidence put forward by the non-public sources while drafting the education sector plans instead of shunning these sources away.

Source: The Express Tribune February 28, 2019 05:03 UTC