Rights group says millions of girls deprived of education
NATION HAS NEARLY 22.5M CHILDREN OUT OF SCHOOL, THE MAJORITY OF THEM GIRLS
Millions of girls in Pakistan are still out of school, mostly because the government spends less money on education, a leading international rights group said yesterday — a dire warning that follows Prime Minister Imran Khan’s promises to offer education to all children.
With a population of about 207 million, including an estimated 80 million school-age children, Pakistan has nearly 22.5 million children out of school, the majority of them girls, according to a new report released by Human Rights Watch.
Shortage of schools
Pakistani girls are deprived of education for multiple reasons, including a shortage of government schools, the New York-based watchdog said in the 111-page report, entitled Shall I Feed My Daughter, or Educate Her?: Barriers to Girls’ Education in Pakistan.
The Pakistani government’s “failure to educate children is having a devastating impact on millions of girls,” said Liesl Gerntholtz, women’s rights director at HRW.
For the report, HRW said it interviewed 209 people — including many girls who never attended school or were unable to complete their education and their families — in all four provinces in the country.
Human Rights Watch said that along with the government’s under-investment in schools, overall lack of schools and prohibitive school fees and related costs, issues such as corporal punishment and a failure to enforce compulsory education are also contributing factors.
Pakistan spent less than 2.8 per cent of its GDP on education in 2017, the group said.
New Prime Minister Khan has assigned Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood to reform the education system.
“Our main focus will be to bring the 25 million outof-school children back to schools,” Mahmood said.