Over 83,000 out-of-school children in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Over 83 thousand children are out of school in only Islamabad. Whereas in Pakistan, over 25 million children are out of school roaming on streets doing nothing at all, and the number is rising every day under the current economic situation in the country.

The data shared by Junior Jinnah Trust (JJT), an NGO working in collaboration with the capital’s administration, states that in the 5-9 age group in Pakistan, over 5 million children are not enrolled in schools and after primary-school age, the number of out of school children doubles, with 11.4 million adolescents between the ages of 10-14 not receiving formal education.

Their research reflected that nearly 10.7 million boys and 8.6 million girls are enrolled at the primary level and this drops to 3.6 million boys and 2.8 million girls at the lower secondary level, The News has learnt.

According to another report by UNICEF, disparities based on gender, socio-economic status, and geography are significant; in Sindh, 52 percent of the poorest children (58 percent girls) are out of school, and in Balochistan, 78 percent of girls are out of school.

JJT started working in 2016 and till now it has managed to enroll over 2000 children in 15 campuses established in different parts of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

According to the data shared with this correspondent by JJT, it has established campuses in Burma Town, Sanam Chowk, Waheedabad, Pindorian, Jaba Teli, Khanna Dak, Shareefabad, Jhangi Syedan, Sector G8, Barakahu and Dheri Hassan Abad in Rawalpindi. JJT is currently implementing six modes of education including Digital Micro-Schools and Smartphone Literacy Project.

JJT also aims on providing ALP Primary education to children going to madrassa and masjids for memorisation of the Holy Quran.

JJT has also established a Digital Skills Lab in Burma Town for these OOSC (especially for those who are at Grade-8) and introduced two skills of Graphic Designing and Freelancing with actual earning in 03 months period. Their objective is to reach up to 5000 enrolled students by 2025.

JJT was part of ‘Zero Out of School Children’ campaign in ICT and facilitated MoFEPT in establishing of 05 model UC level zones to reach every OOSC.

JJT has also started working with Deputy Commissioner ICT, Federal Directorate of Education, BECS, JICA and partnered with some other charities too for educating OOSC in Islamabad.

JJT started working in Islamabad in 2016 with its first campus established in Burma Town with 100 enrolled Out-Of-School Children (OOSC) has now successfully managed to enroll more than 2000 out of school children.

Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of OOSC, counting 22.8 million children between the ages of 5 and 16, and representing 44 percent of children not attending schools.

Actually, there are two kinds of OOSC. The first is the child, who never attends the school in an earlier age group and the rest of life too and the second kind of OOSC is the child who attends school in earlier classes and drops out very soon. Of the children who never attend the school, The PIDE report discovered new data “Pakistan has never provided a chance approximately to 1 in 4 (23.45%) children of ever attending school while around 7% had enrolled and dropped out every year.”

Of the children who get dropped after enrolment, data shows, “The dropouts start to happen between 9 and 11 years of age, after primary school age. The reasons are limited access to middle and high schools causing rising opportunity cost.

Comparing the four provinces of Pakistan, Balochistan is performing the worst as far as OOSC go, with 44 percent of the total. According to the report, in Balochistan, 64 percent of all OOSC aged 16 years have never attended school and the ratio of dropping out gradually increases in proportion with age.

Balochistan reports 50 percent OOSC in 17 out of 28 districts and the district Shaheed Sikandarabad reported the highest number of OOSC at 76 percent and the following district (Sherani) recorded them at 70 percent.