Pakistan to take measures to address out-of-school children crisis: ministry

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan would take special measures to address the issue of out-of-school children and maximize the enrollment of school-age children across the country, according to the Ministry of Planning and Development. With an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 years out of school, Pakistan is among the countries with the highest numbers of out-of-school children in the world, the ministry said in a statement. It said that Pakistan has made considerable progress in providing access to education to its school-age population over the years, but the pace of improvement has been slow compared to other developing countries, highlighting that federal and provincial governments have decided to develop a national action plan to address the issue. A Universal Enrollment Pilot Project will be launched in the capital to ensure that there are no out-of-school children, the ministry statement said, adding that the project may be replicated to produce similar results in other areas across the country. Also, a national out-of-school children fund will be created to provide performance-based cash grants to provincial governments for improving education outcomes in the most affected districts. Additionally, to reduce dropout rates, the government will launch a comprehensive virtual schooling system.