LAHORE:
Around 10 million children in Punjab are out of school, has revealed an information sheet issued by a non -profit organization, urging the provincial government to create educational opportunities for them.
The report published by the Population Council cited shortage of facilities, infrastructure, inflation and unemployment as the main reasons for a high relationship of abandonment of children in schools.
He pointed out that 19,000 more schools were required in the province by 2040 to serve the millions of children in the future.
The educators said there was a great need for the government to frame a strategy to control population growth and meet their needs in the future.
At a time when the Punjab government is dedicated to the subcontracting and privatization of public sector schools, the last report published by the Population Council emphasized that the number of children outside the school was alarming.
The report for the first quarter of the year continuous year shed light on the last situation with respect to the population in the provinces and its impact on the related sectors, especially education.
He highlighted the abandonment relationship of the students, the lack of infrastructure and the shortage of government schools in Punjab.
According to the facts and figures shared in the report, the percentage of girls from the school aged five to 16 is higher than boys. The data showed that 28 percent of the girls in the age group are outside schools, while the percentage of boys is 26.
The information sheet revealed that there are 25 million children outside the school in the country, of which 10 million area in Punjab, eight million in Sindh, five million in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and three million in Baluchistan.
He showed that 57,000 more public schools are required to educate all children from all over the country, including 19,000 in Punjab, 5,700 in Baluchistan, 19,000 in Sindh and 12,000 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa for 2040.
The information sheet also indicated that after the increase in the population of Punjab, there is also a great need to create employment opportunities for young people.
It is necessary to create 59 million new jobs for young people by 2040, he added.
The director of the Population Council, Ali Mazhar, said: “A rapid growth population means increasing demands of jobs, educational institutions, health and infrastructure facilities, and it is necessary to consider the challenges of futures and prepare ourselves to counteract them.”
A leader of a teacher union, Rana Liaqat Ali, said that Punjab school teachers had been protesting during the past year against the privatization of government schools.
He said that teachers opposed the measure because it would result in increasing the abandonment relationship because the poor could not pay a expensive education.
He said that international organizations and population experts asked to build more schools, but local political leaders outsource institutions, leaving less options for people who lack financial resources to educate their children.
The senior director of the Population Council, Dr. Ali Mir, said that the enormous growth of the population was a great obstacle in the country’s progress and it was time for the government to play its role to deal with future challenges.
“Especially the challenges in the fields of health, education, jobs and infrastructure will be serious in the future and it is necessary that our political leaders have the situation and take appropriate measures,” he added.
