Access to quality education for all communities in Pakistan, particularly those that are less privileged, is quite a challenge — and the UNICEF is committed to proposing and implementing solutions to lessen this gap.

The UNICEF has noted improvements in enrollment and retention rates. On the other hand progress in measuring educational growth through relevant indicators has been restricted.

“Currently, Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children (OOSC) with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 not attending school, representing 44 per cent of the total population in this age group” (UNICEF).

It highlights in particular the disparities that stem from “gender, socio-economic status, and geography”.

The barriers that stand in the way of effectively tackling these issues are not quite straightforward. These challenges include: budget constraints; access to educational resources especially in marginalised areas; maintaining and increasing retention rates; employing changes at the systems level, and so on. In spite of the hindrances, there has been a promising increase in education budgets to 2.8 percent of the GDP. This is still short of the targetted 4 percent.

The government is working on developing the education sector and bringing down the number of out-of-school children at pre-primary, primary, and lower secondary levels. To facilitate progress, the UNICEF education programme works on the following solutions: early childhood education (ECE); alternative learning pathways (ALP); and school community linkages.

Early childhood education (ECE) advocates for learning from an early age, so as to prepare young children for school, which would consequently lead to improved enrollment, learning and adaptation at primary school level. While the pre-primary education system in Pakistan may not be very well-developed and have many disparities, it is yet promising to see Pakistan recognizing early education as a policy priority. The UNICEF claims that some provinces have “already developed ECCE policies, plans and standards”.

According to the latest report by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the educated population by level of education below primary levels, for Pakistan, is 18.30 percent, with 22.57 percent in rural areas and 14.06 percent in urban areas. The numbers are, unsurprisingly, higher for primary level; 30.14 percent for Pakistan, with 34.88 percent in rural areas, and 25.45 percent in urban areas.

There are two noticeable factors here. First, the difference in numbers in rural and urban areas demonstrates how much geographical region can make a difference to the level of education one pursues. Second, even if students are dropping out after pre-primary education, it is still encouraging to see a promising percentage of students enrolled at that stage. This indicates that the larger issue looming here is how to maintain retention, which should be an important aim after implementing the ECE. Regardless, there is favourable data to support the claim that Pakistan has adopted early education.

The UNICEF has noted improvements in enrollment and retention rates. On the other hand progress in measuring educational growth through relevant indicators has been restricted.

With regard to ALPs, the problem of OOSC remains at the centre, with the UNICEF attempting to resolve it “through studies, supporting provincial sector plan development, development or review of non-formal education policy and direct programme implementation.”

What ALPs bring to the table is flexibility, which has to be there to meet the educational needs of particular groups and marginalised communities, to whom the formal education system does not reach or apply. The benefits of ALP also come with their shortcomings. For example, if a child belongs to a remote community and does not have access to formal education, ALP provides the flexibility to recruit instructors from the local community to teach the child through an informal curriculum, developed according to the needs and skillset of the child. While this is fruitful, the disadvantages of it can vary from the teacher not having the required skills to the child being deprived of a formal curriculum which would not give him or her the complete educational experience.

Through school-community linkages, the UNICEF aims to address the deprivation of educational resources in marginalised groups, which are steered by social-cultural and economic factors. What further magnifies these hurdles is parental lack of awareness regarding educational factors. This includes being unaware of the benefits of early learning and the significance of punctual enrollment, which leads to many parents putting off the process of enrolling their child as they do not see it as priority. Thus, the UNICEF is paying close attention and time to the hindrances that are impeding timely enrollment, retention and completion of the education programme.

Given the disparity across the country, particularly with regard to the factors mentioned earlier on (i.e. gender, socio-economic status, and geography), equity-based systems in education are a crucial factor. This way, in the presence of equity, groups and communities that are more deprived than others, will not be at as big a disadvantage as they would be if a system based on equity was not being considered. Inadequate delegation of budgets is an obvious drawback, but the UNICEF approaches sector planning in a tactical manner, so as to make the most of decision-making processes on equity issues by influencing dialogue on the topic.

Research data from the ASER 2019 survey supports the idea that socio-economic backgrounds of children are positively correlated with their educational outcomes. This necessitates the need for sufficient resources at the household level as well. The ASER report further suggests that the government can concentrate their efforts on constructing “targetted social security programmes as a mechanism for facilitating equitable, quality and inclusive education” that will be geared towards all students.

While there is still a long way to go for Pakistan to reach its educational targets, the data, and steps being taken to tackle the challenges, are promising. The government’s efforts in this regard and the UNICEF’s international prowess and close investment in reforming Pakistan’s education sector are likely to bring about significant improvement if handled effectively and pragmatically.

The writer is a graduate of LUMS with a minor in sociology and anthropology. She currently works as a content communication specialist at an independent software testing company.