GAWE 2024: Bridging the Gap: Transformative Education Through Collective Action and Effective Financing

With more than 26 million children out of school and a national Education Emergency freshly declared by the Prime Minister, PCE built the district arm of its 2024 Global Action Week around the theme Bridging the Gap: Transformative Education Through Collective Action and Effective Financing. Timed to the run-up to the FY 2024-25 budget, the campaign set out to address the education crisis through inclusive, grassroots discussions on the high number of out-of-school children and the budgetary limitations blocking access to quality education, and to push for budget allocations that actually bring children back to school. It rested on a clear argument: that a truly transformative system means rethinking not only teaching approaches and structures but the financial deficiencies underneath them. The activities ran across ten districts, including Ghotki, Rajanpur, Swabi, Buner, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Nankana, Lahore, and Khanewal.

District consultations: Across the districts, PCE members convened consultations to discuss the newly declared Education Emergency and what it meant at the district level; formal and non-formal approaches to reduce dropouts and bring out-of-school children back to school; whether the new district budget was gender-responsive and inclusive of marginalised learners (girls, persons with disabilities, transgender individuals, refugees, ethnic minorities, and children from low-income households); and how that budget could be optimally used to tackle the out-of-school crisis. Crucially, participants revisited the commitments district education officials had made during the previous year's GAWE 2023 discussions, reviewed progress, and pressed for accountability, and they worked to build consensus toward a common Charter of Education, to be signed by political party representatives, advocating for an inclusive, transparent, resilient, and gender-responsive education system.

Poster activity: Alongside the consultations, the campaign engaged children in each district to create posters, paintings, digital art, and crafts depicting their vision of education, closing with a photo session that turned their advocacy into images.