Islamabad: As many as 31 per cent of basic education students attend private schools, it is therefore important that up-to-date information be made available on this sub-sector, to ensure that policy development is based on knowledge of the entire education system not just the public sector alone.
The official data available with the Ministry of Education and Training pointed out that Pakistan’s performance is weak on the education related elements of competitiveness, when compared with other countries in the region like India, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
The public sector is serving 26.63 million students to complete their education while the remaining 13.96 million students are in private sector of education.A Unesco report stated that Pakistan is still a long way from achieving universal primary enrolment.
As indicated by the primary Net Enrolment Rate (NER)’s estimate of 62%, over 35% of the population 5 to 9 years of age is not in school. Given a population of 5 to 9 years old of some 19.5 million, this means that about 7 million children aged 5 to 9 are out of the education system.An official said some new measures would be taken to ensure coordination with
the provincial educational departments to collect and compile more in-depth data about students especially those studying in the private schools.