12.3 million children out of school in Pakistan

Sindh’s percentage is almost close to that of Balochistan

ISLAMABAD: A series of research studies have revealed that the number of out-of-school children of primary school age has reached 12.3 million with an overall percentage of 58.88 among all primary school age children.

The studies titled: ‘Population of Pakistan: An analysis of NSER 2010-11’ launched on Friday. It paints a gloomy picture of child education, youth unemployment, disability and living condition of people across the country.

The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) in collaboration with Unicef carried out these studies for the National Socio-Economic Registry (NSER) 2010-2011.



These reports highlight six themes at national and regional levels with comparative analysis: population dynamics, poverty profile, child education, youth and employment participation, disabled population and housing conditions that would further help design appropriate policies at the national level.



The rationale of the study is to give a precise image of the state of population in the country because no such data is available.

According to the study, only 41.1% of primary-school age children are attending school in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, respective percentages of out-of-school children for male and female children among primary-school age children are 55.7 and 60.2, respectively. Showing that female dropout rates are higher for all ages.

It is estimated that more than 8.6 million children of the primary-school age will never enter school.

“In other words, 47.5% of girls as compared to 41.1% of boys will never enter school.”

The studies further reveal that only 18.2% of primary-school age children belonging to poor families are enrolled in primary schooling as compared to 52.5% of their non-poor counterparts. While comparing the rate of enrolment in provinces, the studies reveal that Punjab is doing relatively better than other provinces.



Similarly, the data related to Sindh has shown some astonishing results as its percentage of out-of-school children is almost close to that of Balochistan.

The studies found 25 districts of the country as ‘least poor’ out of which 13 are in Punjab, while only one district, Karachi, is in Sindh.

Pakistan is a young country with half the population aged less than 20 years. And two-thirds of the youth is working as self-employed with the proportion being higher for females.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2016.