Earlier this month, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared an education emergency across Pakistan, adding he would personally oversee the initiative and meet chief ministers of all provinces for the sake of the future of Pakistani children.
While laudable, this is easier said than done. According to UNICEF Pakistan, the country currently has the second-highest number of out-of-school children in the world at 26.2 million, comprising 11.73 million in Punjab; 7.63 million in Sindh; 3.63 million in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; and 3.13 million in Balochistan.
The issue is compounded by the prevailing economic crisis, significantly reducing the general public’s purchasing power, with several reports citing a lack of funds as the primary reason for parents pulling their children out of school. Unsurprisingly, the impact is felt the worst in the “smaller” provinces, with underdeveloped Balochistan suffering the most. While out of school children in urban centers have access to alternative mediums for some degree of education, those in rural areas do not even have access to internet connections, much less schools that can impart quality education aimed at improving their socioeconomic prospects. Cultural norms render this a special problem for girls, with experts repeatedly urging the government to dedicate resources for girls’ education to ensure they are not left behind boys, who many families prefer to educate amidst the paucity of funds.
If the prime minister is truly serious about his vow, he must walk the talk and increase allocations for education in the upcoming budget beyond the 2 percent of GDP they have stagnated at for decades. Western nations tend to annually invest over 6 percent of their GDP in education, but even Pakistan’s regional neighbors have consistently outperformed the country in terms of public investment in education. Justifying this funding requires a critical rethink of education as a driver of the economy that requires long-term investment and focuses on gender parity to encourage across-the-board development. This process could also be facilitated through local governments by empowering communities to devise solutions aligned with their unique contexts, rather than relying on federal or provincial level initiatives that offer inefficient “one size fits all” solutions.