Pakistan will take special measures to address the issue of out-of-school children and maximise the enrollment of school-age children across the country.
The Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives said with an estimated 22.8 million children aged five to 16 years out of school; Pakistan is among countries with the highest numbers of out-of-school children in the world.
It said that Pakistan had made considerable progress in providing access to education to its school-age population over the years but the pace of improvement had been slow compared to other developing countries.
The ministry added that federal and provincial governments had decided to develop a national action plan to address the issue.
It said a Universal Enrollment Pilot Project would be launched in the capital to ensure there were no out-of-school children, adding that the project might be replicated to produce similar results in other areas across the country.
Also, a national out-of-school children fund would be created to provide performance-based cash grants to provincial governments for improving education outcomes in the most affected districts.
Additionally, to reduce dropout rates, the government would launch a comprehensive virtual schooling system. (Xinhua/NAN)
