ISLAMABAD: More than 26.2 million children are out of school in Pakistan, according to a report submitted to the National Assembly.
The report prepared by the federal education ministry stated that the total number of out-of-school children across the country was 20,626,520.
The report added that 17 million boys and girls aged between 5 and 9 were out of school and 4.9 million children between the age of 10 and 12 are deprived of middle education.
Among them, 2.16 million are boys and 2.8 million girls. A total of 4.5 million male and female students are deprived of high school education.
The number of male students is 2.3 million and female 2.23 million. A total of 5.9 million higher secondary students are deprived of education, of whom 2.99 million are male and 2.95 million female.
This is quite alarming scenario in terms of human development efforts in the country. A research would be useful to determine the causes as to why parents didn’t enroll their children in school. The following could be some of the reasons for this dismal situation:
1 Extreme poverty of the parents. If a family couldn’t afford two meals a day; how can he avail the luxury of sending children to school
2. Distrust in the current system of education. Parents are not hopeful about economic return from the education with certainty. If an education fails both in the provision of skill and employment and in the development of ethical and moral values then spending years in schooling looks just waste of time and resources
Poor parents think that it’s better if their children help them in earning in whatever capacity it would be better both for the children and family in the long run
Quality and cost of education. There are at least three tier of educational systems currently running in Pakistan. Public sector system. Ordinary – type English medium and high quality English medium ‘A’ and O level certification system. Parents are likely not satisfied with the quality and output of the first two systems because of rising unemployment; while the high quality education provided by private sector is gradually become a business which poor parents can’t afford. In addition education has never been a serious priority of any government during our 77- year history and this news of out-of- school children is not a new phenomena..
Mir Wazir Khan
Awi, Upper Chitral