ACCORDING to a latest study carried out by Pakistan Alliance for Maths and Science, as many as 6.5 million children in Sindh are not attending schools which makes forty four percent of the total children in the provinces between five and sixteen years.
Highlighting reasons for this, the study shows that expenses on education are the basic factor while ninety five percent of the out of school children never attended schools.
This matter is not confined to Sindh province alone but prevalent across the country. Pakistan in fact has the world’s second highest number of out of school children with approximately 22.8 million in the age bracket of five to sixteen years old.
The fact of matter is that the closure of educational institutions due to Covid-19 has further aggravated the situation and also badly affected the education of those going to school.
While rising above lip service, both federal and provincial governments will have to fulfil their responsibilities for education of the young lot who are future of the country.
It is only through imparting quality education that we can uplift the people out of extreme poverty.
There is a dire need to invest heavily in this sector from top to bottom, which will also help take the country forward on path of progress and development.
Federal government recently launched Ehsaas School Stipend programme in order to encourage poor parents send their children to schools.
While this program needs to be further expanded and reach every deserving household, it is also for provincial governments to come up with such scholarship schemes especially for primary and secondary level education.
Most importantly, the federal and provincial governments must primarily focus on improving the quality of education in public sector institutions.
The stories of ghost schools and teachers especially in Sindh keep appearing every now and then.
This issue needs to be checked and authorities concerned must take stern action against teachers not fulfilling their duties.
