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Education has always been a low priority for successive governments in this country even though the Constitution calls for free and compulsory matric-level schooling for all. And so it stays. According to Pakistan Education Statistics 2015-16, recently released by the National Education Management Information System, an auxiliary of the Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training, as many as 22.6 million children between the ages of five and 16 remain out of school. And from the ones who are enrolled only 30 percent stay to up to grade 10. No wonder Pakistan has the unsavoury distinction of having the lowest literacy rate in the whole of South Asia.

Education even in developed countries is a state responsibility. The usual reason cited here for the neglect is budgetary constraints. Indeed, financial difficulties are a limiting factor. That makes it all the more important to get the national priorities right. Construction of multibillion road projects, for instance, can wait and the same funds employed for human resource development. In fact, the problem is not only lack of funds but also misuse and mismanagement of existing resources. Reports are galore about ghost schools, even non-existent teachers in whose names salaries are drawn by those responsible for putting more and more children in schools. The existing ones lack basic facilities that act as a disincentive for both pupil and teacher attendance. The present report notes a long list of missing facilities, such as that 40% of government-run schools function without electricity, 28% without latrines, 25% without boundary walls and 29% without drinking water. If that is not bad enough, 7% of the schools have no building at all, while 43 percent are housed in buildings that are in 'unsatisfactory' conditions. It is worth noting here that in Azad Kashmir, many of the schools destroyed in the 2005 earthquake have still not been reconstructed. Furthermore, 21% of children in primary schools of the country are taught by a single teacher, 14% of them in just one room. It is not difficult to imagine the quality of instruction or learning in such schools. Nor to arrive at the conclusion that the will to popularise education is just not there.

The situation being what it is, the figure of 22.6 million out-of-school children lacks credibility. The number of those deprived of the right to education is much higher. Admittedly, during the last few years, the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has taken various steps to increase enrolment, and the one in Punjab has also shown considerable interest in improving things, but a lot more needs to be done. Sadly, the other two provinces have little to show for their efforts. It is about time all provincial governments declare an education emergency, enhancing access to schools and also raising the quality of education offered at all levels, from primary to higher education. Special emphasis must be laid on science and technology, the building blocks of progress and development.



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