Report says 20pc children have no access to schools

ISLAMABAD – A survey of 32 districts reveals that twenty percent children living in rural areas of the country have no access to the schools.
Pakistan Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2010 launched here on Monday by South Asian Forum for Education Development said that more than half of the children in the public or private education system could not read even a sentence in proper Urdu. It said that 71 percent children were getting education in government schools, 27 percent in private schools and less than two percent were attending madrassahs.
Special assistant to the prime minister on social sector Shehnaz Wazir Ali, Member National Assembly (MNA) Nafeesa Shah, education experts from Pakistan and India and representatives from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) attended the launching ceremony. The survey revealed that arithmetic achieving was even poorer as only 44 percent children could do two digit subtraction sums.
It added that the ability to read English text was a nightmare for many as only 32 percent children could read sentences in English. According to the survey, 16.7 percent of the total enrolled children were in Class I while it dropped to 15.2 percent at Class II, 14 percent in Class III and enrolment dropped to just 3.3 percent as the students reached Class X. It was recorded that 448 sanctioned teaching positions in government schools were lying vacant while in private schools, the attendance of teachers was slightly higher with 90 percent.