Call to restore chapter on out-of-school children in PESR

Islamabad : The Education Champion Network has demanded an immediate restoration of the chapter on out-of-school children in Pakistan Education Statistics Report (PESR) published by the public sector Academy of Educational Planning & Management (AEPAM).

“For over 25 years, the government through the AEPAM has published the Pakistan Education Statistics Report. This document is largely viewed as the single most important source of comprehensive and valuable data on Pakistan’s performance in the realm of education. For more than a quarter of a century, it has served to provide key insights to policymakers and education activists around the country and even beyond,” National Coordinator of Blue Veins Qamar Naseem told reporters here.

He, however, regretted that the latest PESR published in January 2021 was not only released after an unprecedented delay of three years but also had the glaring absence of the chapter on out-of-school children.

Zehra Arshad, national coordinator at Pakistan Coalition for Education said with one of the largest numbers of out-of-school children in the world, it was imperative that Pakistan’s performance with regard to bringing more children into schools be put forth for public review.

“As per the Pakistan Education Statistics Report 2016-2017, an estimated 22.8 million children in the country were out-of-school with the majority of these children being girls,” said Madiha Rahman of AzCorp Entertainment. Lalah Rukh Fazalur Rahman, founder of ScienceFuse, said following the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, it was feared that an additional estimated one million children had permanently dropped out.

"Under such dispiriting circumstances, the need to account for the most marginalised children is all the more important,” she said. Asserting the importance of restoring the chapter on out-of-school children, Partab Shivani, executive director of Thar Education Alliance said the data of out-of-school children in Pakistan was perhaps the most important indicator reflecting the country's success or failure in living up to its constitutional promise of ensuring free, compulsory and quality education for every child.

"In the absence of this data, it is impossible to ascertain if any substantial progress has been made or even if we’re headed in the right direction.”

Education activist Moiz Hussain said Pakistan was a signatory to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and had also adopted the 2030 Agenda as part of its national development effort.