FARHAN did not want to go to his madressah. He refused, for a few days, and told his family that he was afraid. His family believed the best course of action was to send him back to a place where they felt he would learn enough to serve
Pakistani children aren’t safe. That’s not opinion or exaggeration. It’s the bleak, burning truth we keep looking away from. They’re ignored, exploited, brutalised and abandoned on every possible front. But don’t think for a second the numbers in this piece tell the whole story. For every reported case,
The savage beating to death of a madrassa student in a Swat village, followed by a ridiculous attempt at covering it up, is a reminder of the pathetic state of education in much of the country, as unqualified teachers sadistically punish children for common negative behaviors. In the
UNICEF Pakistan: 2024 Annual Report Highlights In 2024, UNICEF Pakistan continued to advance the rights and wellbeing of children and women across the country, despite persistent humanitarian, economic, and climate-related challenges. The following are some key programmatic areas covered in the report: Key Results Achieved in 2024: 45
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
The LaNA 2023 Linking Study is an international education assessment report that measures basic literacy and numeracy skills of primary school students. It was conducted in six countries: Pakistan, Egypt, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Senegal, and the Palestinian National Authority. The goal was to evaluate student performance using easier
ISLAMABAD: Across Pakistan, children are growing up with questions they don’t know how to ask — and when they do ask, they’re often met with silence, nervous laughter, or a quick change of subject. Some questions are whispered among friends in school corridors. Some are typed quietly into
WE just saw the release of the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024-25 and the presentation of the budget for 2025-26. There is a lot that can be said about the economy and the budget, but in this article I want to focus on education and what the Survey and
The Pakistan Education Statistics Report 2023–24 offers an in-depth analysis of the country’s education system, aligning its findings with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for inclusive and equitable quality education. Primarily based on public school data for children aged 5–16, the report examines trends in access, equity, financing,
This will have a profound impact on long-term outcomes It is not just flooding or other disasters that are taking a toll on our schoolchildren. Increasing extreme weather events are making school a dangerous place to be for several weeks out of the year. The searing classrooms of
IDIOMS and proverbs are said to be a reflection of society, and they provide valuable insight into the shared wisdom and ways of thinking in a particular culture. Let’s take a look at two sayings from two different cultures on the topic of play and sports to try
In Pakistan, we have witnessed several episodes of violence, harassment, repression and even murder of several women across the various layers of our economic strata. From the affluent Noor Mukaddam to the totally unknown little Zainab, we have seen countless girls and women of all age groups suffer