4.5mn children out of schools in Sindh: Sardar Shah

KARACHI: Sindh Education Minister Syed Sardar Shah on Friday said that there were 4.5 million children out of school in the province and blamed politicians for the destruction of education system, ARY NEWS reported.

Syed Sardar Shah who took over reins of education department from Saeed Ghani recently said that the most of the children were unable to continue with their academics after class five owing to their poverty.

He lamented that private schools are being built on 80-square-yard structures and further said that there are 11,000 schools which are built in a single room.

In a 2018 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), nearly 22.5 million of Pakistan’s children are out of school with the majority of them girls.

The 111-page report titled “Shall I Freed My Daughter, or Educate Her?: Barriers to Girls’ Education in Pakistan” concluded that many children have no access to education, including because of shortage of government schools, especially for girls.

The report said thirty-two percent of primary school age girls are out of school in Pakistan, compared with 21 percent of boys as by ninth grade, only 13 percent of girls are still in school.

“The Pakistan government’s failure to educate children is having a devastating impact on millions of girls,” said Liesl Gerntholtz, women’s rights director at Human Rights Watch.   “Many of the girls we interviewed are desperate to study, but instead are growing up without the education that would help them have options for their future.”

The Pakistan government has consistently invested far less in education than is recommended by international standards. As of 2017, Pakistan was spending less than 2.8 percent of its gross domestic product on education – far below the recommended 4 to 6 percent – leaving the government’s education system severely under-funded.

Government schools are in such short supply that even in Pakistan’s major cities, many children cannot reach a school on foot safely in a reasonable amount of time. The situation is far worse in rural areas. And there are many more schools for boys than for girls.