Over 6.5 mln children not getting primary education: report

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Despite achievements in the education sector, over 6.5 million children are still not enrolled in primary education and another 2.7 million are not enrolled at lower secondary level stated a report.

The Out of School Children in Pakistan Report was prepared by the government, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics.

The report provides an analysis of out-of-school children and complements the on-going work in all provinces to scale up evidence-based educational activities and ensure that all children get access to quality education.

It also highlights the need for better data to help policy-makers and education experts to better address challenges and bottlenecks in the education system.

Lack of reliable data and its underutilisation is a serious constraint in framing policies and plans for focused and targeted interventions.

Ministry of Education, Training and Standards in Higher Education Additional Secretary Khalid Hanif said, “The UN International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) Out-of-School Children Study fills these information gaps by providing socio-economic reasons of exclusion of the out-of-school children.”

The study confirms that more girls than boys are out of school; 38.9 percent of primary school-age girls are not attending school, whereas the rate is 30.2 percent for boys.

Children from poor households are proportionally more out of school-49.2 percent compared to 17.5 percent in the richest quintile. The highest dropout rate is in grade 5 (42.8 percent) indicates that many children do not get lower secondary education and therefore do not complete basic education.

UNICEF Representative in Pakistan Dan Rohrmann said, “The time is ripe to address issues of quality and access to education as commitment to the issue is being expressed at the highest level of government and also in the public and private sector.”

Out-of-school children often face discrimination due to gender, poverty and child labour as well as lack of school facilities and learning and teaching materials.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Whenever we try to read about education and literacy rate in Pakistan, its always alarming and eye opening.. In all these disappointing circumstances we can hope for best class result and bright future for education in the country

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