Where Is the Will to Fix Pakistan’s Education System?

Ishtiaq Ahmed

Bradford: Education is widely regarded as the foundation for individual success and national development, yet Pakistan continues to face a major challenge in providing quality learning opportunities to millions of children.

Despite constitutional guarantees ensuring free and compulsory education for children aged five to sixteen under Article 25-A, an estimated 22.8 million children remain out of school, placing Pakistan among the countries with the highest number of out-of-school children worldwide.

Experts attribute the education crisis to multiple factors, including poverty, limited access to schools, outdated teaching methods, lack of resources, and the need for children from low-income families to contribute to household earnings.

Over the years, insufficient investment has further widened the gap. Pakistan currently allocates a relatively small share of its GDP to education compared with several regional countries, creating difficulties in improving infrastructure, teacher training, and learning standards.

Political instability has also affected long-term education planning, with frequent changes in governments preventing consistent policies and sustained reforms.

Read More: While Pakistan has several highly regarded educational institutions, these remain inaccessible to a large section of society due to high costs. The biggest challenge, however, lies at the primary education level, where the foundations of learning are often weakest.

Parents today face multiple schooling options, including government schools, private institutions, religious seminaries, and charity-run schools. However, each sector operates with different priorities, resources, and levels of oversight, creating a fragmented education landscape.

Government schools, especially in rural areas, often struggle with inadequate facilities, limited teaching resources, and insufficient monitoring. Meanwhile, private schools have expanded rapidly to meet demand but are frequently criticized for treating education as a commercial enterprise.

Religious seminaries provide education to millions of children but largely operate separately from mainstream education systems, while charity-run schools continue to fill gaps in underserved communities.

The result is an education system marked by inequality, limited coordination, and competing approaches. Observers argue that Pakistan needs a comprehensive strategy that brings all education providers under a common framework while strengthening public-sector schools through greater investment and better management.

A coordinated approach, including common learning standards, improved teacher training, and stronger quality control, could help bridge the divide and ensure that every child receives meaningful education.

The challenge remains not only identifying solutions but developing the political commitment and long-term vision needed to implement them.

The writer is a British citizen of Pakistani origin with keen interest in the Pakistani and international affairs.