THE adage ‘desperate times call for desperate measures’ seems apt for the state of Pakistan’s worsening rural-urban education divide. In a country where the education budget is lower than the minimum global standard of 4 per cent of GDP, where 23 million children remain out of school and where the female literacy rate is 52.8pc, the future looks extremely bleak.
Pakistan ranks last on the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Gender Gap Index, largely due to poor political empowerment and performance in education. While there are some steps being taken in the right direction, the momentum needs to be faster, more focused and rigorous. Around 56pc of our population (over 140m) is under 24 years, which implies we have a huge opportunity to educate, train and prepare them to build the economy. Sixty per cent of our youth comprise the rural population. We can no longer allow the urban-rural divide to grow, given the imminently heavy reliance of the economy on the skillset of this young rural population. This segment is also the most wrought with challenges of early marriage, cultural barriers that restrict their learning, and economic pressures. They are also the most vulnerable to climate disasters.
Yet, this young rural population holds the greatest promise that is rife with opportunity and potential. Investing in rural youth can yield a surge in productivity and economic growth. Youth-led microenterprises in crafts, textiles, food and services can stimulate local economies of scale. Building human capital can improve social indicators, including sustainable community development.
Public-private partnership models are needed to invest in schools in rural areas where teachers mostly rely on outdated, lecture-based methods to get students through tests and exams. Teacher turnover is high, amidst teacher and student absenteeism, high student dropout rates and weak school leadership. In fact, now is the time to invest in education if Pakistan is to have any hope of sustainable economic growth.
A large part of the success of Finland’s much-touted education system is the recruitment and training of teachers. Teachers are hired from industry; most have postgraduate qualifications and are generally better compensated in comparison to other developed countries. They also enjoy high societal respect, yearly bonuses, and strong job security. ‘Hire well, pay well’ could be our mantra too, if we want to take strides in education.
If public and private investment could fund placements of rural children in local private schools and track progress through student performance, attendance, and engagement metrics, the return on investment would be obvious and transparent in less than a decade. As rural placements pick up and are scaled, an increasing number of out-of-school children will get absorbed into the mainstream system, increasing their capacity for social mobility.
Stronger policy implementation, data-driven monitoring and collaboration between the centre and provinces are essential, along with private stakeholders. A successful example of this model has been the Kiran Foundation in Lyari, Karachi, where a single venture managed to uplift an entire community. The success of this model was also a consequence of involving mothers, fathers, caregivers and the community as a whole.
In rural areas where digital expertise is lacking, the expertise of urban professional teachers can be leveraged to teach rural students online, with rural teachers learning through shadowing and apprenticeships. Cross-regional teamwork in Pakistan can start addressing the learning divide in an impactful way, if delivered with momentum and monitored through data-driven tracking of progress. Bridging any divide requires lo-oking at the gaps holistically and planning years ahead, as opposed to a few quick measures.
Progress can be monitored through community-based ‘school management committees’ tasked with inspecting schools for required benchmarks, including infrastructure, curriculum design and teaching practices. Through these committees, many successful practices in place in our urban areas can be replicated in the rural regions, albeit with contextual adjustments.
Real-time monitoring, such as by Punjab’s School Education Dashboard, can track essential metrics, including teacher attendance and academic results. Teacher incentives need to be revisited to ensure that pay scales, bonus schemes and performance-based recognition are in line with teaching efforts and student’s academic outcomes. Incentives can also be offered for school community-building efforts by teachers, such as parental engagement events, mentoring programmes and social-emotional well-being initiatives for students.
(Opinion) Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2025
