Over 13 million girls are deprived of basic education in Pakistan

Despite a constitutional article guaranteeing the right of every child in Pakistan to a free education more than 13 million girls in Pakistan have never seen inside of a class room, hence depriving them from their basic education.

People often keep their daughters away from school citing different reasons, be that poverty, conservative cultures or low number of educational institutes.

Nearly half of Pakistan’s 53m children aged 5-16 are out of school and 55 per cent of them are girls.

Pakistan has the third largest number of out-of-school girls in the world, a fact made rounds globally in 2012 after Taliban militants shot 14-year-old schoolgirl and education advocate Malala Yousafzai.

As per Reuters report, 73,000 children were enrolled in school due to a joint project launched in 2013 by Alif Ailaan ─ an education reform campaign funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development but run by Pakistanis ─ and local non-profit organization, Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN).

Global evidence suggests that one additional year of schooling can increase a woman’s earning by 10 to 20 pc.