President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday termed as ‘alarming’ the country’s 22.8 million children not attending schools and said the challenge needed broad-based efforts, both at the government and individual levels.
The president said the serious situation meant half of the child population aged five to 16 was at risk of engaging in labour or begging. Addressing a seminar on out-of-school children in Pakistan, the president said education was the right of every child guaranteed by the religion and the country’s constitution.
The seminar organized by the Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services (PIPS) and Pakistan Teachers Forum (PTF) discussed the issues and way forward to address the challenge of out-of-school children.
President Alvi pointed out that with only 68 percent of children in the category of primary education, the country lagged far behind the other South Asian nations including 100 percent in India, 99 percent in Sri Lanka and 98 percent in Bangladesh.
He stressed that it was the collective responsibility of the government, legislators, elite, civil society and the general public to take steps at their ends for the promotion of education.
