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The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) education specialist, Asif Abrar, said that Pakistan has topped the global list of out-of-school children and it’s government’s duty to convince parents to send their children to schools and increase enrolment.
He made these remarks during an awareness session for rules of business of the Sindh Prohibition of Corporal Punishment Act, 2016, at Begum Nusrat Bhutto Memorial Library in Larkana.
Asif urged parents, teachers, education department officials and members of civil society to contribute to efforts for increasing number of school-going children.
In its data, UNICEF said that an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 are not attending school, representing 44% of the total population in this age group.
In the 5-9 age group, five million children are not enrolled in schools and after primary-school age, the number of OOSC doubles, with 11.4 million adolescents between the ages of 10-14 not receiving formal education.
Disparities based on gender, socio-economic status, and geography are significant; in Sindh, 52% of the poorest children (58% girls) are out of school, and in Balochistan, 78% of girls are out of school.
Nearly 10.7 million boys and 8.6 million girls are enrolled at the primary level and this drops to 3.6 million boys and 2.8 million girls at the lower secondary level.
