Half of Pakistan’s children – 24m of them – are still out of school
Girls' education, Teachers and learning
Pakistani children taught outdoors at a makeshift school in Lahore
The stark reality of Pakistan鈥檚 education problems has been laid bare in a government report that reveals huge out-of-school numbers, high dropout rates, inadequate staffing levels and woeful facilities.
A staggering 47% 鈥 or 24 million 鈥 of the country鈥檚 children and youth aged five to 16 are not in school. 听
And 78% of those 鈥 that鈥檚 18.6 million young people 鈥 have NEVER been enrolled in school.
The statistics were contained in听the annual , which showed the out-of-school number had fallen by one million from the 2013 figure.
Mosharraf Zaidi, campaign director for the education non-profit organisation , said the findings showed Pakistan鈥檚 public education system is a 鈥渃omplete failure鈥.
But he praised the release of the report and its honesty, saying it was 鈥渋mportant for government documents to reflect reality鈥.
Among the findings were:
- Gender: of the children not in school,听12.8 million are girls and 11.2 million boys 鈥 in听Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, 52% of girls are out of school compared to 21% of boys
- Enrolment: 72% at primary level, 47% at middle school level and 31% at high school
- Dropout rates: of those who start primary school, only 66% complete fifth year and 28% their 10th year of education
- Resources: 9% of schools听have no buildings,听18% of schools have only one classroom and 29% of government schools have just one teacher
- Facilities:听44% of schools have no electricity, 34% (or 45,000 schools) have听no drinkable water, 30% no boundary walls and 28% no bathroom facilities
- Literacy rates: 60% for children 10 and over and 72% for ages 15 to 24
Balochistan province has the highest number of out-of-school children 鈥 70% or 1.8 million. Next come the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on 60% and Sindh on 56%.
At the report鈥檚 launch Muhammad Baligh-Ur-Rehman, State Minister for Education and Professional Training Baligur Rehman, said: 鈥淭he OSCs (out-of-school children) decreased from 25 million to 24 million and all federal and provincial governments are making their best efforts to decrease this figure.鈥
He added: 鈥淲e are not scared of accepting our flaws and as per our duty we will address them. The beauty of this report is that it publishes the good and bad news side by side 鈥 this ensures a holistic approach to the question of data and evidence on education.鈥
He insisted that by 2030 all children will be in school because the government is committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of universal quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Mr Ailaan said: 鈥淭his is an important moment for the children of Pakistan. Now that the government is focusing on enrolment, more attention is needed on the collection and dissemination of metrics on education quality and learning outcomes in the government schools.鈥
More news
