Youth at the Center: Reimagining Education for Skills, Voice, and Equity

Pakistan's youth make up two-thirds of its population, yet remain largely sidelined from the policymaking that shapes their futures. This dialogue set out to change that, creating a platform where students shared their real experiences directly with officials, not to be heard and thanked, but to have their words converted into actionable policy. Zehra Arshad (National Coordinator, PCE) opened by naming the core failure plainly: "Pakistan is a youth bulge country, yet our current education system fails to equip young people with the skills needed for productive work," and urged the young participants to seize a rare space: "There are very few forums in Pakistan where youth can truly speak. When the opportunity comes, grab it, speak with heart, passion, and commitment."

The chief guest, Syeda Amna Batool (MNA and Focal Person for the Prime Minister's Youth Programme), pressed young people to own the initiatives built for them, saying "Positive initiatives need your voice. Until you own them, their impact will remain limited," and listened to each participant's demands, committing to carry them to the Prime Minister.

Sabeeha Shaheen (Focal Person for the National Adolescent and Youth Policy) introduced the policy's 4Es model (Education, Employment, Engagement, and Empowerment), insisting that "youth are not just the future but the present," and that they "do not need direction; they need facilitation."

Malik Rauf Awan (Focal Person, Prime Minister's Youth Programme) framed reform as "unlocking the potential of millions of young Pakistanis to dream, create, and lead." 

Urwa Naeem (Program Coordinator, PCE) then anchored the youth dialogue in a framework of four Ps for education transformation:

• Purpose: what education is actually for. Participants argued the system has reduced education to certification and employment: "Education should not be reduced to a stamp on a CV. Its true purpose is to shape citizens: people who think, speak, and act with responsibility, not factory-produced graduates who only know how to pass exams."

• Pedagogy: how students are taught. Participants critiqued a rote, exam-driven model in which teachers are often assigned subjects beyond their expertise: "Teachers cannot teach what they have not been taught." They pressed for learner-centred inquiry and warned that the Single National Curriculum risks erasing local context, calling for localisation and mother-tongue learning.

• Power: the dynamics between public and private, students and policymakers: "Who decides what counts as valuable knowledge? When private privilege sets the standard, public schools and the children who attend them lose voice, dignity, and opportunity." Young people asked to be brought into decision-making, not consulted as tokens.

• Positioning: how education shapes identity, civic voice, and belonging: "Vocabulary is power. Teaching children how to speak, argue, and name their feelings gives them access to public life." Digital and emotional literacy were named as central.

Demands from the youth included:

• Integrate skills-based education (practical, digital, and financial literacy) into the core curriculum through real-life problem-solving, delivered via curriculum boards, schools, and EdTech partners.

• Move from rigid exams and grading to authentic assessment: portfolios, presentations, and project-based evaluation.

• Decentralise the curriculum so provinces and districts can adapt national frameworks to local realities.

• Invest heavily in subject-specialist teacher training and continuous professional development before rolling out new pedagogies.

• Make social-emotional learning and digital safeguarding compulsory, monitored by schools, psychologists, and child-protection agencies.

• Provide modern, resource-rich learning environments: labs, libraries, and practical resources, with accountability for their use.

• Promote mother-tongue instruction in early grades, with remedial English support and bilingual materials.

• Build compulsory civic and community-engagement modules: volunteering, service-learning, and civic projects.

• Close the industry and academia gap through employer partnerships, internships, and mentorships.

• Institutionalise youth participation in policymaking through youth councils, consultative forums, and feedback mechanisms that are meaningful. 

Amna Batool recorded the demands and committed to conveying them to the Prime Minister, assuring participants their voices would be acted on.