According to a survey conducted recently by the elementary and secondary education department along with the school teachers of KPK, about 1.5 million children are not attending school in the province.

The survey was conducted by all the stakeholders who wanted to ascertain the number of students that were not in going to school in KPK.

The reports suggested that about 1.5 million students, ranging from as young as 5 year olds to 16 year olds, were out of school.

The school teachers visited about four million houses all across KPK to collect data about the students for this purpose.

The final report of the census is due to be published next month.

The main purpose of the survey was to obtain the exact number and location of the students who weren’t attending their classes. Further more it also hoped to find the reasons behind this phenomenon so that appropriate steps can be taken by all stakeholders involved.

According to informed sources, the exact number of out of school children was not available, therefore a decision was made to undertake a survey and check the facts.

The data would serve to be beneficial for provincial education department so that it can devise plans to overcome this problem and promote quality education.

About 40000 primary school teachers were hired as enumerators and 7500 teachers as supervisors for conducting the survey. The enumerators were asked to visit 100 houses of children who were not attending schools.

Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan states: The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such a manner as may be determined by law.

An official disclosed that all five to ten year old children, who are not enrolled in school, will be admitted in government primary schools immediately. In case the schools run out of seats then the provincial government may get them enrolled in private schools at their own expense.

“For children aged 11 to 16 years, an accelerated learning programme is also under consideration since they cannot be enrolled in primary schools”, the official added.