Pakistan’s education system has long suffered from a chronic absence of structured career counselling, forcing students to make life-altering academic choices at the tender age of 14 or 15, often based on parental pressure, peer influence or sheer guesswork. Against this backdrop, the Inter Board Coordination Commission’s decision
Every morning, millions of children walk into schools across Pakistan with hopes, dreams and a desire to learn. Yet, behind these school walls, many face risks that threaten not only their education but their safety, dignity, and emotional well-being. Safeguarding our children in educational institutions is no longer
This year on Universal Children’s Day, as Pakistan prepares for its 2025 review by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, I’m forced to reflect on a 35-year-old promise. In 1990, Pakistan was one of the six initiators of the World Summit for Children, a champion
IN the developing world, teachers have a role that extends well beyond that of educators. The change that teachers bring about not only impacts their students’ academic attainment, it also has ripple effects on their students’ families in many ways. Education is a critical tool of social development
Private education has over the years steadily morphed into a profit-maximising business, overshadowing its core mission of learning and development. This shift has taken such precedence that many schools today consider themselves brands first and educational institutions second — complete with branded uniforms and study packs. It is
Across Pakistan’s towns and cities, families wrestle with agonising choices each month: which bill to pay, which cost to delay and, increasingly, whether to keep paying school fees. After rent and food, little remains. For many households, that scarcity means deciding which child gets to stay in school.
WORLD Children’s Day is upon us, yet countless children are denied even simple rights that should never be in question. This year’s call to “listen to children and stand up for their rights” feels painfully apt. Millions of children wake up each day to fear and uncertainty. In
At some point in their lives, those who call this country home would have had to go through the experience of being outside when nature calls in the full knowledge that there are few, if any, public toilets nearby. While most men would still be able to make
LAHORE: The phrase “climate change” usually brings to mind flooded plains, destroyed crops and lost livelihoods. Yet the true victims of natural calamities are the children whose hopes for the future are washed away by melting glaciers. Fourteen-year-old Ayesha has witnessed climate disasters terrible enough to drain the
Each monsoon in Pakistan heralds less a renewal of life and more a rehearsal for ruin. The 2025 floods, which swept through the vast industrial triangle of Sialkot, Gujrat and Gujranwala and their adjoining areas, were neither the first calamity nor will they be the last. What has
The Gender Parity Report – Islamabad Capital Territory offers a detailed assessment of gender equality across justice, education, economy, health, and governance. While progress is visible in areas like female judicial representation and school enrolment, wide disparities remain in employment, leadership, and healthcare access. The report highlights persistent
In an age where generative artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming industries, the education systems of most developing countries remain trapped in an outdated, industrial-age framework. The model still in use today was designed over two centuries ago, during the Industrial Revolution, to produce compliant workers – clerks, factory