PESHAWAR: As the morning sun rises over the dusty plains of Pabbi area in Nowshera district, 13-year-old Hussain Khan tightens his grip on a worn-out shovel.
His hands, calloused and far too small for the labour he performs, are not turning pages in a textbook; they are digging ditches to help repay the loan his father left behind when he passed away due to pancreatic cancer.
“I wanted to be a teacher but I had to leave school when my father died. There was no one else to help my mother to return the huge loans obtained for his long treatment,” Hussain said with a shy smile.
Hussain is one of the 4.7 million children in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who are currently out of school, a staggering number that poses one of the most urgent and complex challenges for the newly-elected chief minister, Sohail Afridi.
Expert blames issue on poverty, social constraints, lack of infrastructure
According to a Benazir Income Support Programme report, the problem is particularly serious in merged tribal districts, where poverty, cultural barriers and a lack of infrastructure have converged to create education challenges.
The report said that 74.4 percent of girls and 38.5 percent of boys in KP are out of school, with districts like Upper Kohistan, North Waziristan and Bajaur among the worst affected.
“Education is the backbone of any progressive society,” said Dr Mohammad Naeem from the University of Peshawar.
He complained that millions of children were being denied their constitutional right to free education until grade 10 due to poverty, social constraints and a lack of government infrastructure.
In many households across the province, especially in remote areas like Kolai-Palas, Tank and South Waziristan, children are being pulled from classrooms to work in fields, brick kilns, or roadside shops.
For many poor parents, the choice is heartbreaking but simple: put food on the table or send a child to school.
In the absence of functional classrooms, toilets or even drinking water besides a lack of teaching staff, education becomes a distant dream.
For girls, the hurdles are even steeper in many tribal areas; social norms discourage female education, sometimes to the point of danger.
The new CM inherits not just the challenges of illiteracy, but a ticking time bomb. With long-term consequences for the province’s economic growth, social stability and security, experts warn that ignoring the issue could deepen existing inequalities and fuel future unrest.
In response, the education department has announced a slew of initiatives, such as 1,053 schools now operating double shifts, catering to over 70,000 students. This year alone, 830,000 children have been enrolled, including 315,000 girls.
The education budget has increased to Rs364 billion, with Rs19 billion allocated for new development projects, he said, adding 41 new primary and 12 new secondary schools are in the pipeline, along with 500 new classrooms.
Over 16,500 teachers are being recruited, and 30,000 are undergoing training, he said, adding a digital attendance system, smart classrooms, and an Education Card offering access to scholarships and supplies are among the tech-based reforms aimed at increasing transparency and engagement.
In merged tribal districts, where the scars of problems still linger, the KP government has earmarked Rs1.5 billion for 50 new schools, along with millions for washrooms, boundary walls and model campuses.
“We have seen announcements before about education reforms and bringing out of schools children besides abolishing double standards of education,” said Sumbal Bibi, a mother of five in Nowshera district.
“But what we need are qualified teachers who show up, classrooms that don’t leak in the rain, boundary walls for the security of children and toilets for our daughters.”
In a bid to leave no child behind, CM Sohail Afridi’s government needs to focus on non-formal schooling programs and community-led education centers to bring out of schools children under education net.
Education officials said that over 3,500 girls community schools were operating under the Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation, and 14,000 students were enrolled in the Poha digital learning scheme.
Yet for children like Hussain Khan, these programmes remain out of reach of many poor students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“No one came to ask why I left school,” Hussain said with sobbing eyes. “I want to study, but we have debts. I cannot be a burden to my family.”
The question now is whether the newly-elected CM will ensure action on the uniform education policy and protection of KP’s most vulnerable children, according to experts.
They said the tools were there to address the issue urgently.
But the test lies in consistent and community-centred implementation. Education may be a right, but in today’s KP, it remains a privilege for millions of children still out of school. Every passing day is a silent reminder of what is being lost not just in classrooms but in the future as well.
Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2025.
