Article 25A of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973 states that all Pakistani citizens, aged between five and sixteen year have the right to free and compulsory education.
In addition, Pakistan is a signatory to the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 26 of the UDHR requires all signatory member states to provide free education to children.
Despite this, Pakistan’s educational landscape remains bleak and the statistics are depressing. At the moment Pakistan ranks second in the global ranking of countries with the highest number of out-of-school children. That is an estimated 25 million Pakistani children of school-going age who are not attending primary or secondary schools. Worldwide, one out of every ten children, of primary school going age, who does not go to primary school lives in Pakistan.
At the secondary school level the picture is bleaker as an abysmally low 32% of Pakistani children are enrolled in secondary schools.
In contrast, at least 34 countries that are poorer than Pakistan spend a higher percentage of their GDP on education.
PILAP intends to pursue the issue legally and we also hope to start a campaign to create awareness and put pressure on the government to tackle this education emergency.