Lahore:
About 10 million children in Punjab are out of school, a fact sheet issued by a nonprofit organization has revealed, calling on the provincial government to create educational opportunities for them.
The report released by the Population Council cited a lack of facilities, infrastructure, inflation and unemployment as the main causes of a high dropout for children from schools.
It pointed out that 19,000 more schools were required in the province by 2040 to accommodate the millions of children in the future.
Educational men said there was a great need for the government to hit a strategy to control population growth and meet its needs in the future.
At a time when the Punjab government is involved in the outsourcing and privatization of schools in the public sector, the latest report released by the population council emphasized that the number of children outside the school was alarming.
The report for the first quarter of the year’s continuous year sheds light on the latest situation with regard to the population of the provinces and its influence on related sectors, especially education.
It highlighted the waiver of students, lack of infrastructure and lack of government schools in Punjab.
According to the facts and figures shared in the report, the percentage of schoolgirls aged five to 16 is higher than boys. The data showed that 28 percent girls in the age group are out of schools, while the percentage of boys is 26.
The fact of the fact revealed that there are 25 million children out of school in the country, of which 10 million areas in Punjab, eight million in Sindh, five million in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and three million in Balochistan.
It showed that 57,000 more public sector schools are obliged to educate all children across the country, including 19,000 in Punjab, 5,700 in Balochistan, 19,000 in Sindh and 12,000 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa by 2040.
The fact also indicated that, after the increase in the population of Punjab, there is also a great need to create employment opportunities for youth.
There is a need to create 59 million new jobs for young people by 2040, it added.
Population Council Director Ali Mazhar said, “A rapidly growing population still means increasing demands for jobs, educational institutions, health facilities and infrastructure, and we need to consider the futures challenges and prepare to counter them.”
A head of a Teachers’ Association, Rana Liaqat Ali, said the school teachers in Punjab had protested the last year against the privatization of government schools.
He said the teachers were against the move because it would result in increasing the dropout rate because the poor people could not afford expensive education.
He said international organizations and population experts called for more schools, but local decision -makers outsourced the institutions, leaving fewer opportunities for the people to lack financial resources to educate their children.
Population Council Senior Director Dr. Ali Mir said that the enormous population growth was a major obstacle to the country’s progress, and it was time for the government to play its role in tackling the future challenges.
“Especially the challenges in health, education, jobs and infrastructure will be serious in the future, and there is a need for our decision makers to understand the situation and take timely steps,” he added.
