ISLAMABAD
Around 78 percent of children aged 5-16 years were enrolled in schools in rural Pakistan during 2014, showing the same percentage of last year.
According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) for 2014, there was a constant gender gap among out-of-school children with more girls than boys not enrolled or dropped out of school during the year.
In 2014 and 2013, among the 22 percent out-of-school children, 10 percent were boys and 12 percent girls.
The ASER is the largest household based learning survey mostly in all rural and selected urban areas. It is conducted each year across the country, which measures learning levels of children 5-16 years, the same age group identified for compulsory education in Article 25-A of Constitution.
The ASER further revealed that in 2014, 21 percent of children (age 6-16) were reported to be out-of-school and 15 percent children have never been enrolled in a school and 6 percent have dropped out of school for various reasons.
Furthermore, 79 percent of all school-aged children within an age bracket of 6-16 years were enrolled in schools.
Among them, 70 percent of children were enrolled in government schools whereas 30 percent of children were going to non-state educational institutions (27 percent private schools, two percent madrassa and one percent others).
Significant shift was witnessed in terms of enrolment from government to private schools. In 2014, 70 percent of enrolled children were seen to be going to government schools while 30 percent were going to private schools.
Similar trend was witnessed in rest of the provinces where the private sector was observed to be growing. With regard to pre-school enrollment (3-5 years), it was 39 percent in 2014 as compared to 41 percent in 2013. Around 61 percent children of age 3-5 were not enrolled in any early childhood schooling. The highest enrollment in this age group was 76 percent in Islamabad and the lowest in Balochistan with 28
percent. In urban areas, it was 58 percent.