Federal Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Rana Tanveer Hussain has said that Pakistan was facing two fundamental education challenges i.e around 22.8 million out of school children and too many children who are in school are not learning.
He was addressing the Virtual Arab Region and Western Asia Regional Consultation for the Transforming Education Summit, hosted by the State of Qatar on Tuesday.
The Summit arranged by the State of Qatar is in pursuance of Transforming Education Summit which will be organized by HE Mr. Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations in New York in September, 2022.
The purpose of the Virtual Regional Consultation was to discuss the region’s priority action areas in the lead-up to the Transforming Education Summit.
Tanveer Hussain while addressing the summit said that Pakistan faces two fundamental educational challenges: First, too many children are out of school, the figure roughly stands at 22.8 million. Secondly, too many children who are in school are not learning (4 out of 5 children cannot read by age 10). He continued that in future, Pakistan’s educational challenges include: Financing of education amid global economic challenges, Challenge of educating marginalised groups, including girls, disabled and children in poverty.
Rana Tanveer Hussain said that Pakistan’s high population growth is 2% a year which implies that the enrolment must increase by 1.6% each year to enrol all children in school by 2050. Additionally, Pakistan is the 8th most climate vulnerable country in the world making education vulnerable to disruption.
