• Sibi, South Waziristan tehsils have over 90pc children who skip school
• Rawalpindi, Abbottabad and Lower Chitral tehsils among top performers

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan struggles to enrol millions of out-of-school children, a study by the Pakistan Alliance for Maths and Science has revealed that more than 25pc of non-enrolled children are concentrated in merely 45 tehsils across the country, urging the government to intervene at the tehsil level to reduce the number of children who do not go to schools.

“Pakistan has 25.3 million children between the ages five and 16, who are not in school; 79pc of whom have never been to school and 21pc drop out at various stages. The highest proportions of children who have never been to school belong to age 5-9 years, threatening Pakistan’s future literacy rates,” the study, yet to be officially released, said.

The report based on the 2023 census is labelled the ‘The Missing Third of Pakistan’ and undertakes a tehsil-level analysis, identifying the top 10 and bottom 10 tehsils with respect to the out-of-school children.

Education Secretary Mohyuddin Ahmad Wani told Dawn that the federal government had already started working to tackle the issue.

“Findings of this report will be placed before the Education Task Force to set new targets. The federal government and provinces are on the same page to resolve this issue,” he said while commenting on the study about the out-of-school children.

In light of merely 45 tehsils accounting for one-fourth of the children who are out of school, the study directed the attention of the policymakers to the provincial capitals that have yet to address the issue.

The report highlighted the bottom 10 tehsils in Pakistan in terms of the highest proportion of out-of-school children.

According to the study, Kot Mandal in Sibi tops the category with 91.62 per cent children out of school.

Tol Khulla of South Waziristan district has 90.8pc children who do not go to school. Sanni tehsil of Kacchi has 89.1pc, Battaria of Kolai Palas Kohistan has 88.4pc, Gichk of Panjgur has 88.3pc, Talao of Duki has 87.9pc, and Kharo Chan of Sujawal district in Sindh has 87.8pc out-of-school children.

Kandla tehsil in Upper Kohistan, Keti Bunder in Thatta, and Chattar tehsil in Nasirabad district in Balochistan each have 87pc out-of-school children.

The report highlighted 45 lagging tehsils, which account for 26pc of out-of-school children — basically one-fourth of the total children in the country.

Muzaffargarh tehsil has 610,831 out of school children, i.e. 42.25pc. Lahore City tehsil has 1,049,80 such children (21.68 pc), followed by Rahim Yar Khan tehsil with 538,667 (41.81) children who do not go to school.

Similarly, Dera Ghazi Khan tehsil has 462,285 OOSC (46.79pc) and Sadiqabad tehsil has 430,131 out of school children (48.55pc). Peshawar tehsil is in 10th position while the rest of the tehsils in the category belong to Punjab.

On the other hand, the tehsils of Rawalpindi, Jehlum, and Abbottabad, and Upper Chitral districts are among the top performers with the lowest number of children who do not go to school.

Kahuta (7.66pc), Kotli Sattian (8.52 pc), Murree (9.13pc), Kallar Syedan (9.76pc) are in Rawalpindi where the percentage of out-of-school children is under 10pc. Mastut in Upper Chitral has merely 1.46pc children who do not go to school.

Dina and Sohawa of Jhelum, Lora and Lower Tanawal of Abbottabad, and Abbottabad tehsil itself are also among the top performing tehsils with the lowest number of out-of-school children.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2024