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In Pictures: Pakistan’s education woes

Teacher shortages and low attendance mean fewer than half the students in Pakistan learn the basics.

Sanober is the only teacher in her school. Sanober explains: "There are 110 girls studying in this school; we kept on adding one class per year. It started off as a one-teacher, one-grade school only. Now we have classes up to grade five. Admissions are continuing but I can(***)t manage any more students over 110 or 120."
By Amima Sayeed
Published On 29 Jan 2014

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A report released on January 29 has found that a global learning crisis costs governments $129bn a year. The 11th Education for All Global Monitoring Report, published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, found that 10 percent of global spending on primary education is being lost on poor-quality education that fails to ensure that children learn. 

There are at least 120 million children who don’t spend enough time in school to learn anything, and 130 million more who have spent four years in school yet remain unable to read or write. One in four young people in poor countries are unable to read a single sentence, and one-third of young women in South and West Asia are illiterate.

Pakistan is especially hard-hit: Fewer than half the children there learn the basics, whether they’ve been to school or not. This makes Pakistan one of only four countries outside of sub-Saharan Africa where this is the case.

The report projects that, if current trends continue, it will take until 2072 for all the poorest young female students in developing countries to attain literacy.

Because there are not enough teachers in Pakistan, older pupils are often asked to teach classes. In this photo, Razia, a fifth-grader, supervises a first-grade class while her teacher, Sanobar, teaches other students.
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Many children in Pakistan never attend school. Six-year-old Rozina lives in Sindh province and is one of about 5.5 million Pakistani children out of school.
Other children leave before they have a chance to learn the basics. In Pakistan, many girls are married off at a young age or have to work. Asma, a primary school head teacher shown in this photo, said one of her young female students was married off to a 25-year-old man and stopped attending school shortly thereafter.
In rural Sindh, less than one-fifth of the girls from the poorest families can do basic calculations -compared to more than one-half of the boys from the richest families. This inequality means many youth in Pakistan remain illiterate.
Of the 10 countries needing the most additional primary teachers, Pakistan is the only one outside of sub-Saharan Africa. The EFA Global Monitoring Report predicts that Pakistan will not be able to fill its teacher gap until after 2030 if its past trends in recruiting teachers continue.
To improve the quality of teaching, Pakistan is trying to replace traditional training methods with child-centred pedagogy. Mubarak, a primary school teacher in Punjab, explains the new style: "We have started involving students in the classroom. The role of the teacher has changed into a facilitator and a guide. The rest of it is up to the children. They actively take charge of their learning."
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Hammadur, another teacher at the same primary school, explains the importance of ongoing training. "When I was appointed last year, I attended a one-month training by the Department of Staff Development. Since then, every third month, we have refresher training... This is followed by mentoring support on a fortnightly basis. They observe our classes and then discuss with us the strengths and weaknesses of our lesson planning and teaching methodology."
This school, in Swat, offers catch-up classes for children who have left school and need a second chance at an education.