PESHAWAR: Poverty and parents’ lack of interest to enrol their children in schools are the main factors that are leading children to the workplace instead of schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to officials.

Both factors are cited to be the reasons for 0.75 million children not attending schools. “It is 50 per cent of the total 1.5 million out-of-school children in the province,” said officials of the Elementary and Secondary Education Department while quoting a recently-conducted survey by the education department.

They said that of the total out-of-school children 26 per cent were due to lack of interest by parents and 24 per cent due to poverty.

Official hints at starting non-formal education system for children above age 10

Asked why the parents and their children would have no interest in education, an educationist told this correspondent that most of the parents sent their children to the educational institutions so they could get a reasonable job after completing education.

“Now, if the parents think that their children cannot secure a job even after having degrees, they send their children to the workplace instead of schools,” said the educationist who works on an important position in the education department.

He said that the parents didn’t think that the education was not for getting the government job only, but it also has a good impact on the society.

A large number of the jobless educated youth roaming in the streets are also one of the reasons for people’s disinterest in education, he said.

A child labourer brings Rs200 to Rs300 from the workplace for the parents at the end of the day, he said, adding the parents having three or four children at the workplace could collectively bring a reasonable amount.

“If an educated youth has no government job than he is of no use in our society because our education system doesn’t produce market-oriented educated people,” he said.

Similarly, 160,085 (11 per cent) school age children are out-of-school due to unavailability of the transport and location of schools far away from their residences, the officials said while referring to the survey. Also, 106,881 children (7 per cent) are not going to school because of unavailability of the school in the required distance.

Disability, no benefits of education, health issues, lack of school facilities, closed schools and teachers’ unavailability contribute one per cent each to the mix that had been keeping children away from schools.

Likewise, 331,174 children or 22 per cent of the total out-of-school children are not going to school due to social constraints, harsh behaviour of teachers, unfavorable environment in the school, etc.

Of the total out-of-school children, one million are girls and 0.5 million boys aged between five and 16.

An official said that social constraints, taboos and marriage were the main reasons for the high number of out-of-school girls compared to the boys.

When contacted, E&SE Department director Rafiq Khattak said that 0.6 million children between five and 10 years of age and 0.9 million between 11 and 16 years were not going to school.

He said that children under 10 years would be enrolled in the schools while non-formal education system would be introduced for the children above 10 years of age.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2017