45 pc students in Pakistan cannot read single sentence in Urdu, reveals report
Mar 23, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], March 23 : Forty-five per cent of students in Pakistan cannot read a single sentence in Urdu and their regional languages while 44 per cent could not read sentences in English, according to a report highlighting the flawed education system of the country.
This was revealed in a report compiled by Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), which assessed a total of 52,948 children including 59 per cent male 41 per cent female by the age of 16 years in 18,592 households, 937 villages and 901 government schools and 463 private schools, reported Daily Times.
The situation is even worse in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) as out of a total of 52,948 children by the age of 16 years, 86 per cent of children are having language and arithmetic competencies.
ITA report stated that the proportion of out-of-school children has increased as compared to previous years.
"The 27 per cent of children were reported to be out-of-school which has increased when compared to 9 in a short span of time while 14 per cent of children have never been enrolled in a school and 13 per cent have dropped out of school for various reasons," it said.
The report also revealed that the learning levels of children in class 5 and class 3 have declined in all three competencies as 50 per cent of class 5 children could read a class 2 level story in Urdu/Pashto compared to 55 per cent in 2019. 15 per cent of class 3 children could read stories in Urdu/Pashto as compared to 19 per cent in 2019, reported Daily Times.
"English learning levels have declined as 54 per cent class 5 children could read sentences compared to 60 per cent in 2019 while only 15 per cent class 3 children could read class 2 level sentences as compared to 21 per cent in 2019," reads the report.
Likewise, it added, arithmetic learning levels have also declined by 50 per cent, class 5 children being able to do two-digit division as compared to 53 per cent in 2019 and 11 per cent of children enrolled in class 3 could do two-digit division as compared to 16 per cent in 2019.
