ISLAMABAD: A report on the performance of the education sector released by the Pakistan Institute of Education – a subsidiary of the education ministry – has revealed a harrowing state of affairs in the sector, particularly the disparity in the availability of essential facilities – such as toilets, potable water, boundary walls – in different regions of the country.

The Pakistan Education Statistics 2021-22 released on Monday underscored a lack of funds, poor pupil-teacher ratio, missing basic facilities as well as 26 million out-of-school children in the country. The report covered 313,418 education institutions, catering to 54,870,964 students with the support of 2,139,631 educators.

The report said there was a pressing need for strategic planning and sustainable investment in critical sectors, particularly education, to build a resilient and inclusive society.

Stark lack of facilities

As per the report, Punjab, the Islamabad Capital Territory, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa fared comparatively better in terms of education facilities.

Alarming number of schools across Pakistan lack toilets, potable water among other basic facilities

Balochistan’s education sector faced significant challenges in the education sector. The report said only 23 per cent of primary schools in the province had access to potable water. Azad Jammu Kashmir has 31pc primary schools with access to drinking water, followed by 61pc in Sindh. Gilgit-Baltistan’s 63pc primary schools have potable water.

The situation is not much better in middle schools either; 40pc schools in Balochistan and 52pc schools in AJK only have access to potable water. According to the report, only 59pc of Sindh’s schools, 39pc in Balochistan, 31pc in AJK, and 61pc in GB have a boundary wall.

Electricity availability also shows significant regional discrepancies. While Punjab and ICT have managed to provide electricity to all primary schools, the figures are lower in other provinces and regions: only 15pc in Balochistan, 21pc in AJK, 38pc in Sindh, and 44pc in Gilgit-Baltistan are powered.

Toilet facility

Toilet facilities are scarce in primary schools. Only 33pc schools in Balochistan, 42pc in AJK, and 57pc in Sindh have access to toilets. It said that 24pc of primary schools across Pakistan do not have toilet facilities for students, adding that 10pc middle and 3pc high schools do not have this basic facility.

In Punjab, 99pc primary schools and all middle and high schools have toilets. But in Sindh, 43pc primary schools do not have this facility and 25pc middle and seven per cent of high schools are also deprived of this facility. In KP, the situation is relatively better. Its 93pc primary schools, 97pc middle schools, and 99pc high schools have the facility available to their students.

In Balochistan, the situation is alarming. 77pc primary schools, 31pc middle schools, and four per cent high schools do not have toilets for students. In Azad Kashmir, 58pc primary, 34pc middle, and 23pc high schools do not have this facility. In Gilgit-Baltistan, 28pc primary and 10pc middle schools do not have this facility.

Number of schools

The school education system encompasses 227,506 institutions, serving 42,576,130 students and employing 1,625,747 teachers. There is a total of 313,418 both public and private schools – including 2,088 other public category – across all levels in the school education system in Pakistan.

According to the report, the teacher-student ratio for primary schools in Pakistan stands at 39, which means there is one instructor for 39 students and the pupil-school ratio across the country is about 162. The report said that the overall survival rate to Grade-V for Pakistan is 77pc.

Education Quality

The results from key assessments conducted by the National Assessment Wing, specifically the Trends in International Mathematics & Science Study (TIMSS) and the National Achievement Test (NAT), highlighted the urgent need to improve learning outcomes among students. The report said that in 2021-22, spending on education remained 1.7pc of GDP.

The number of out-of-school children is 26.21 million – basically, 39pc of children in Pakistan are out of school. The report said 11.73 million of such children are in Punjab, 7.63m in Sindh, 3.63m in KP, 3.13m in Balochistan, and 0.08 million in Islamabad. The percentage of out-of-school children decreased from 44pc in 2016-17 to 39pc in 2021-22.

Speaking at the ceremony in which this report was launched, Education Special Secretary Mohyuddin Ahmad Wani said that this report was a “data bank for policymakers” to improve the education sector. He said that chronic issues, mainly poverty, diseases as well as social and societal problems will have to be addressed to admit more children to schools. PIE Director General Dr Muhammad Shahad Saroya said that the PIE released this report after five years to help bring positive changes to the education sector of the country.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2024