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Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:

The Key to Escape from Poverty

155

of children under 5 presenting with stunted growth, high infant mortality for children under 5 at

81 per 1,000 live births, and large numbers of out of school children and high illiteracy rates.

Pakistan has been spending around 2.5-2.7% of its GDP on education over the last decades and

the delivery of its education services has been impacted in recent years by economic and social

challenges. For example, Table 1 shows that Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) in primary education has

actually worsened and increased from 41.1 in 1990 to 46.3 in 2015, therefore factors such as

teacher recruitment and/or number of classrooms in schools have not kept up with the increasing

enrolment rates over time.

Administration:

The administrative units of Pakistan consist of four provinces (Balochistan,

Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), one federal capital territory (Islamabad), two autonomous

and disputed territories (autonomous Gilgit-Baltistan and disputed/autonomous Azad Jammu

and Kashmir). There are 6 tiers of government in Pakistan (1 Federal Government, 7

Provinces/Territories, 34 Division, 149 Districts, 588 Tehsil/Towns and finally several thousand

Union Councils).

Punjab is Pakistan's most populated province, with 56% of the country's population (over 90

million people) and a number of important cities. The province also has high levels of illiteracy

with over 3.8 million illiterates

412

. Sindh is the second most populous province which together

with Balochistan are the two poorest provinces. Balochistan contains a desert and a mountainous

region, making it the least densely populated province (see

Table 23)

with implications for the

supply of schools. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the 3

rd

most populous province and has experienced

significant security threats affecting the education sector.

Table 23 Main regional administrative division in Pakistan

(population

413

, area, density)

Population

Area (km

2

)

Density

(per km

2

)

ICT

Islamabad Capital Territory

(federal)

1,151,868

906

1,271.38

BN

Balochistan (province)

13,162,222

347,190

37.91

KP

Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa

(province)

26,896,829

74,521

360.93

PB

Punjab (province)

91,379,615

205,344

445.01

SD

Sindh (province)

55,245,497

140,914

392.05

FATA

Federally Administrative Tribal

Areas

3,930,419

27,220

144.39

GB

Gilgit-Baltistan (autonomous)

1,441,523

72,971

19.75

AJK

Azad Jammu & Kashmir

(autonomous)

2,972,501

13,298

223.55

Source: Wikipedia “Administrative Units of Pakistan”

412

Rehman et al. (2013)

413

Year 2011