More than 9 million children are out of schools in Punjab, which is Pakistan’s biggest province in terms of population.
Out of those 9.2 million children, about 5.03 million of them are girls and the remaining 4.17 million are boys. Instead of ensuring that their future is secured, the government has prioritized spending money on Metro Bus and Orange Line projects instead.
These numbers are embarrassing for Pakistan, which now sits at the second spot in UNICEF rankings for having the most out-of-school children worldwide. If that wasn’t enough, Punjab is now considered as the province with the most out-of-school children worldwide. Only Nigeria has more children out-of-schools than Pakistan.
The alarming statistics were revealed by UNESCO education specialist Rubina Nadeem in a seminar on “Equity in Education Financing, Inferences, Moot Points and Policy Asks.”
Senior Research Fellow Ahmed Ali told that 47% of the children between 5-16 years of age are out of schools in Rahim Yar Khan alone.
ALSO READ
Public Spending on Education Sector Declines as Literacy Level Drops in Pakistan
Current Situation
Currently, 11.5 million children go to public schools in Punjab, according to the Chairman Eng Qamarul Islam Raja of Punjab Education Foundation (PEF). Apart from that, another 3 million children study at the schools supported by PEF.
Given these numbers, around 40% of the children in the province are deprived of basic educational needs. To improve this abysmal state of affairs, Islam Raja added that the government will allocate Rs 400 billion in the upcoming budget for education.
ALSO READ
Poverty Rate Declines By 26% in 10 Years
Rubina Nadeem told that poverty is one of the biggest factors behind this huge number. Punjab’s poverty ‘headcount ratio’ currently stands at 31%. She added that the government is facing challenges like gender inequality, ethnicity, geographical location etc which is further making it difficult to educate children in Pakistan’s most populous province.
We are not only spending on motorways and roads, but we are spending billion on Islamabad and new Lahore airports which really is not necessary as both existing airports remain vacant 20 hours a day.
Maal-e-muft
Dil-e-be-raham
Govt. Of Pakistan
Army propaganda is so good that people ignore the massive amount spent on defence and start criticizing infrastructure development expenditure. Infrastructure is required. Education and health is required. A grand army that does nothing but suck up resources and breed terrorists is not required.
And what would u care about 9 million out of school children who are “Punjabis”? You people always pose the wrong questions. The problem is not with the resources or budget. The problem’s with the people themselves. Army is not made up of people from Yogoslavia. They are all Pakistanis, including people from FATA and Balochistan. And, since Pakistanis are corrupt, the effects show up everywhere: Military, Law Enforcement, Government, Media and Sports.
This is an obsolete narrative now. Try hooking up across the border. New pathetic arguments are up for sale.
We should setup more madersas for these children to be indoctrinated in. Inshallah Pakistan will be the leading producers of jihadis in the world!
Thank You PPP….. bhi nahi keh sakte yahan to. I wonder what new Manjan Punjagis will be introducing now to curb this news nugget….
unfortunately, we are not willing to address these alarming conditions rather we are interested in irrelevant activities