Tue, 21-Oct-2025

Over 26 million children out of school in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Education in Pakistan is inundated with challenges — with more than 26 million children currently out of school.

According to the details presented by the Ministry of Education, over 10 million children, from ages 5-9, do not go to school; more than 4.9 million boys and over 5.8 million girls are deprived of education.

The Education Ministry also revealed that more than 4.9 million children aged 10-12 are deprived of middle school education; over 2.1 million are boys and more than 2.8 million are girls.

Additionally, it was reported that over 4.5 million students (~2.3 million male and ~2.2 million female) are deprived of high school education.

The Ministry further informed that over 5.9 million students (~2.9 million male and ~2.9 million female) are deprived of higher secondary education.

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President calls for utilizing mosques to educate out of school children

President
  • President expressed these views while chairing a follow-up meeting.
  • He said imparting education to almost 28m children was huge challenge.
  • He further called for adopting an integrated approach by ministries of health.

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi called for making collaborative efforts with the Masajid to impart education to 28 million out-of-school children and said that Masajid and Madaris could play an important role in promoting ethical values, besides creating awareness about important social and health issues at the grassroots level.

The president expressed these views while chairing a follow-up meeting on Masajid and Madaris, at Aiwan-e-Sadr.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Religious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony Aneeq Ahmad, Chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology Professor Dr Qibla Ayaz, provincial ministers and representatives of the Auqaf and Religious Affairs departments as well as the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training.

Speaking on the occasion, the president said that imparting education to almost 28 million out-of-school children in Pakistan was a huge challenge, which would require thousands of new schools and additional resources. He emphasized the need for innovative and non-traditional solutions and collective efforts by society to provide education to out-of-school children. The authorities of ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training informed the meeting that it had launched an Accelerated Learning Programme to educate out-of-school children.

The president said that Masajid and Madaris could play an instrumental role in reforming society and overcoming social evils by promoting ethical values, brotherhood, tolerance, peace, inter-faith harmony and respect for each other’s rights through the Friday sermons.

He also underscored the need for raising awareness, through mosques, about mental and general health issues, population welfare, inter-faith harmony, women’s rights, and malnutrition at the community level.

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