Gallup poll shows rural girls and students face sharpest barriers despite gains in enrollment and literacy
Almost 28% of children aged 5-16 are not enrolled in school, with girls disproportionately affected as 34% of girls drop out of school compared to 22% of boys. These differences are more pronounced in rural areas, especially for girls, where exclusion from education is much worse, revealing a clear intersection between gender and geography as a predictor of educational disadvantage.
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The HIES survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan highlights that while two-thirds of Pakistanis aged 10 and over have attended school at some point, access to education remains highly unequal across the country. National literacy is at 63% and male literacy is at 73%, while female literacy lags behind at 52%. Urban areas fare better with 77% literacy compared to 56% in rural areas.
While 68% of children are enrolled in elementary school, the number drops sharply at higher levels of education: only 40% go to middle school and about 30% to matriculation. This steep decline in retention highlights the challenges many face in continuing their education, particularly in rural and underprivileged areas, and points to structural barriers such as school distance, safety concerns and increasing opportunity costs as children age, particularly pronounced for rural girls.
According to their analysis, dropout patterns show that the transition from elementary to middle school is a point of attrition. Financial pressure, domestic responsibilities and limited options for post-secondary education contribute to early exit from the education system.
For girls, these challenges are compounded by social expectations and early marriage.
At the provincial level, Punjab leads with the highest literacy rate of 66%, while Sindh stands at 61%, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) at 55% and Balochistan lags far behind at just 43%. This provincial divide further illustrates the unequal distribution of educational opportunities, with Balochistan facing unique challenges such as inadequate infrastructure and lack of available educational resources.
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Gallup Pakistan’s analysis highlights that while progress has been made in increasing school enrolment, the real challenge lies in tackling the persistent and deep-rooted inequalities that continue to shape Pakistan’s education system. These inequalities, linked to gender, geography and economic factors, prevent many children from receiving a quality education. Going forward, policymakers must focus not only on increasing school enrollment, but also on improving retention rates, ensuring gender equality, and reducing the impact of geographic and economic barriers to education.
