IN a country where the young have hardly anything to look forward to, where ministers and advisers on youth affairs are not really in their ‘youth’, and where the state has continuously disappointed the aspirations of some of nation’s brightest minds, it is very difficult to find inspiration from within.

With each passing day, Pakistan’s most talented and educated young women and men are increasingly making the difficult decision to leave the country. They don’t just depart but take with them the very skills, ideas, passion, commitment, empathy, and optimism that could have transformed our collective future. Since the beginning of 2022, reportedly over a million highly qualified professionals have left the country, perhaps after trying everything they could. But what makes this crisis even harder to bear is the truth that, in their departure, they are not abandoning Pakistan, but are, in fact, calling out for all of us to reflect, to act, and to change.

Despite a wrecked economy, fragile security, and suppressed free speech rights, we still have individuals and organisations investing in Pakistan’s future and the generations to come. Most of these agents of change are deeply invested in the youth and in a Pakistan that values talent, integrity, and potential. Education is one such area that can give this nation some hope.

Pakistan’s education system has remained in a state of perpetual crisis. The official number for out-of-school children is 26.2m (40 per cent of the total school-going population of 66m children). This means that out of every 100 children, 36 are never enrolled in primary school; and from those who do get a chance to begin their academic journeys, only 55pc are able to complete Grade 5 — the state fails 65 of every 100 children within the first 10 years of their lives in this 77-year-old country.

With the second lowest literacy rate in the region, the world’s fifth most populous nation spends 1.5pc of its GDP on education — a drop from 2.4pc. These numbers tell us the trajectory of this country’s fate in the coming years; evidence and decade-long economic research show that none of the world’s nations has really progressed without investing in its people and developing its human capital.

We still have individuals and organisations investing in Pakistan’s future.

Everyday phrases — ‘no one cares’; ‘this country will stay as it is’; ‘there isn’t anything that we can do’; ‘the powers that be won’t allow this country to grow’; ‘we’re corrupt to the core’; ‘the government doesn’t do anything’; ‘the establishment plays its games’; ‘our votes get stolen; and ‘the state doesn’t honour its commitment to citizens’ — won’t do any good to the people of this country. In fact, whatever little hope is left for the ones who are destined to stay and survive in Pakistan will also vanish.

For a stronger civic response to the challenges we face, it is in the best interest of all of Pakistan’s citizens — within and outside of the country — to champion the right of fundamental education for the youngest members of Pakistan society and not only become their voice but also act on their behalf when they can.

One such example and an inspiration for young and old in this country is 27-year-old Wall Street-based financial analyst Tabarak Rehman. On Nov 3, Tabarak embarked on a journey to become the first-ever person to run 1,600 kilometres across Pakistan. He is doing this to create awareness and make an impact on the education of 7,000 Pakistani children who might have otherwise remained out of school.

With his run, he is trying to raise $1m for the education non-profit The Ci-tizens Foun­da­t­ion. We have ob­­served across so­­cial media plat-forms that Taba­rak’s venture has initiated a disc­o­urse on ‘what and how’ to do something for the most marginalised chi-ldren of our nat­­­ion.

Such ventures have the potential to bring society onto one platform for a single cause, with college- and university-going students, young professionals, corporate leaders, civil servants, philan-thropists, and industrialists within and outside Pakistan discussing the educational crisis in the country.

Discussion itself is the starting point of overcoming such a grave challenge and leads to further responsive civic activism.

If Pakistan is to find its way forward, it will be because we collectively recognise the power of this new generation — their struggles, their dreams, and their resilience.

The question is not whether we can afford to listen and respond to these young voices but whether we can afford not to.

Nadeem Hussain is the co-author of Agents of Change and The Economy of Modern Sindh.

Jawad Ahmed is a Fulbright scholar at the Northeastern University in Boston.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2024