More than 70% of children in Balochistan are still out of school, the federal government of Pakistan has admitted in a report. The natural resources-rich region, which provides large proportion of energy needs of Pakistan, is even worse than remote FATA, where 58% children do not go to schools.
These bitter facts were revealed in the Pakistan Education Statistic 2016-17 launched by the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) – a subsidiary of the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, on Thursday.
Majority of the schools in Balochistan are also run by a single teacher, the report confirmed.
The report painted a gloomy picture, confirming that out of the total 51.53 million children in Pakistan between the ages of five to 16, 28.69 million are in school, whereas 44 per cent children or 22.84 million between are still out-of-school.
The report revealed that more girls are out-of-school than boys with 49 per cent girls as compared to 40 percent boys.
“As many as 70pc children in Balochistan, 58pc in Fata, 52 in Sindh, 47% in GB and AJK, 40% in Punjab, 34 % in KP, while 12 per cent in ICT are out-of-school,” the report says.
Balochistan has worst social and economic conditions in the region. According to UNDP, 56% population of Balochistan is categorized ‘multi-dimensionally poor’ (United Nations Development Programme 2012). The illiteracy rate for females aged more than 10 years stands at alarming rate of 72.94% whereas nearly 48% of males of same age are also illiterate. 59.32% of girls and 52.72% of boys aged 5 to 10 years remain out of school. Out of 1000 children 89 die before they reach the age of 5. Alarmingly 785 out of 100,000 mothers die during pregnancy.