Perspective - Page 19

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.…

Reforming Seminaries

Religious schools, or madrasas, have been integral to the cultural and educational landscape of the subcontinent and the broader Muslim world for centuries. At the time of the independence, around 250 madrasas existed in Pakistan. Since then, these religious institutions have experienced exponential growth, with tens of thousands of them…

Rape And Low Conviction

Pakistan’s low conviction rates for sexual assault highlight the urgent need for legal reform and victim protection. Sexual assault remains a massive problem in Pakistan, where a worryingly high offence rate pairs with an abysmal conviction rate, creating a recipe for disaster. Reliable data on sexual assault and related crimes…

Transport For Schooling

A JUDGE at the Lahore High Court recently ordered that schools should arrange for and organise transport for schoolchildren by the end of the winter break. The order came in the hearings on the case about smog in Lahore. The use of public transport for schooling is expected to reduce vehicular traffic…

Child Abuse At Work

Child workers in Pakistan face abuse, exploitation, and neglect. Stricter laws and actions are essential The suffering of child workers, especially in domestic households, is a harsh reminder of society’s failure to protect its most vulnerable members. In Pakistan, many children face severe physical and mental abuse, with their pain…

Karachi’s Missing Children

The Karachi police have no leads in at least 230 cases of children that have gone missing since January 2023. Meanwhile, a total of 2,066 cases relating to missing or kidnapped children have been registered since January 2023, with 1,828 of them being recovered safely. Data shared at a top-level…

Smog and Schooling

WHETHER schools are open or closed, it is not going to have much of an impact on smog levels across Punjab. The decision about closing schools has more to do with some notion that children will be less exposed to the smog if they stay at home than if they…

Water, Sanitation A Dream For Public School Students

LAHORE. Despite a billion-rupee budget, schools across the province have no clean bathrooms or drinking water available for students For students spending nearly six to seven hours away from home each day, the school premises become almost like a second home. Yet for the hapless students stuck in public schools,…

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…