Foundation for Rehabilitation and Education of Special Children (FRESH) Secretary General Ashba Kamran has said corporal punishment is the prime reason children dropout from school at the primary level in public sector schools. She said Pakistan had a 50 percent literacy rate, while Pakistan was ranked at 31 out of the 35 countries in the Muslim world in terms of literacy, according to the National Education Policy, and 134th out of 180 countries around the globe.
Ashba added that about 25 percent of children in Pakistan never enrolled in primary schools, while 50 percent of those enrolled dropped out before completing primary education. She said this abnormally high dropout rate was one of the major contributing factors to the dismal state of education in Pakistan and should be cause for concern for the civil society, policymakers and the teaching community of Pakistan. She said the education of 3.8 million illiterate children through the remedial education system could reduce the number of school dropouts over the next 10 years.
‘Corporal punishment leads to high dropout rate’
