Perspective - Page 12

Insights From the 2023 Census Report

The 2023 Census conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics released its complete report in July 2024 indicates that the total population of Pakistan is 240 million out of which the population of children under 18 is 112 Million (47% of the total population). Children Population (under 18) Population under 18 Total Male Female Transgender Pakistan 112,472,700 58,099,978 54,370,121 2,601…

Grace Marks by Sindh Government

In a move as surprising as it is contentious, the Sindh provincial government has decreed a generous 15% grace mark for students who faltered in their class XI examinations last year. The decision, prompted by an investigative committee report on the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi’s controversial results, comes as…

Juvenile Offenders in Punjab

The total number of convicted and undertrial juveniles imprisoned in various borstal…

deficiencies in Pakistan's education system

The Impact of Pakistan’s Education System

What PM Shehbaz Sharif blurted out recently isn’t quite a national secret.…

Importance of Classroom

The child learning in the classroom is a subject of great importance. While some argue that traditional classroom settings are outdated and ineffective, others firmly believe that they remain primary for a child’s intellectual, social, and emotional development. Let’s examine how. One of the primary advantages of child learning in…

Protecting Our Children

Violence against children remains a widely prevalent scourge in Pakistan, despite the best efforts of activists and NGOs and several government interventions. While the country has a reasonable legal framework to safeguard children’s rights, local ‘culture’ and ‘traditions’ mean it is not uncommon to see well-kept child workers in the…

Mothers In Prison

INCARCERATED mothers constitute a rapidly increasing segment of the prison population in Punjab. According to data released by Punjab Prisons, as of last month, the total number of female prisoners stood at 1,218. Of these, 137 are mothers with children and 104 are under trial. The total number of children…

Mastung Bombing

INSTABILITY continues to haunt Balochistan, as Friday morning’s bombing in Mastung has shown. At least nine fatalities have been confirmed — mostly children — while at the time of writing no group had claimed responsibility for this atrocity. Considering Balochistan’s complex vortex of violence, both separatist militants or religiously inspired…

Take School To The Child

PAKISTAN is in the midst of a critical education crisis, with over 22.8 million children aged five to 16 years out of school, placing it second only to Nigeria in this context. The situation is especially dire for girls, with 53 percent out of school as compared to 43pc of…

Ghost Employees

The Sindh government has stopped the salaries of almost 1,400 absent teachers, and other employees in the education department. Such employees are referred to as ghost employees – a euphemism for the absentees. The issue is chronic in the province’s education department, in particular. According to the District Education Performance…

Teachers’ Needs

AT the launching ceremony of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) project to be implemented in Sindh a couple of years ago, I asked the then leader of the initiative whether they had conducted any assessment of teachers’ needs. His response was typical: “We know their needs.” This has been a…

Countering Cybercrime

THE new National Cyber Crime & Investigation Authority appears to have landed in limbo, with the authorities apparently unsure about what purpose they expect to see it fulfil. According to a news report in this paper, the government has formally repealed the rules devised to govern the body, leaving its…

Ending Polio

WITH polio cases in Pakistan rising sharply in recent weeks, the government has unveiled the National Emergency Action Plan for Polio 2024-25. The country has already reported 39 cases this year, compared to just six in 2023. The spike has raised concerns about our ability to eradicate the virus, with…

Classroom Change

AS the world gets smaller, with knowledge-sharing across borders, the growth of AI and easy access to free learning platforms, teachers find newer ways of teaching. Many schools have addressed the need for change, collaborating within their teams to design better lesson plans, cater to students’ changing learning styles, and…