70% children out of school in capital’s slums

Human Rights ministry presents findings on out of school children at third meeting of Islamabad Forum


APP May 31, 2018
70% children out of school, says Ministry of Human Rights. PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: The ministry of Human Rights has presented its findings regarding out of school children in katchi abadies (slum areas) of the federal capital in the third meeting of Islamabad Forum on non-formal education (NFE). The report said 2,174 children are out of school which is 70% of the selected sample, the reasons behind it were; poverty, lack of interest, parental care and educational facilities, absence of B-form and birth registration.

The National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) chairperson, former Senator Razina Alam Khan while chairing the meeting said the purpose of constituting the forum is to address the issues of NFE and to work in collaboration with public private partnership to improve and support it.

Out of school children to get non-formal education

She said there is one third out of school children in South Asian countries. Similarly, data shows that 40% out of school children are in Pakistan while the ratio of girls is greater than boys. She claimed that there is a well-organised formal system of education for primary grades, but this system is not sufficient to provide education to 57 million illiterates and 6.4 million children of 10 to 14 years of age. "Existing formal system is adding about 1% literacy rate annually and through the existing pace Pakistan could only achieve 68% literacy rate by 2025", she said.

‘Over 11 million children out of schools in Punjab’

The government has taken a number of supportive steps to improve the education sector but there is a dire need to activate NFE system to complete the unfinished agenda of vision 2025.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Ministry of Human Rights has taken an initiative to bring the out of school children into the mainstream of life at federal level by mapping of existing interventions, enrollment and monitoring through Non Formal Education Management Information System (NF-EMIS).

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31st, 2018.

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