Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:
The Key to Escape from Poverty
157
Trends in Access to Schooling
To assess trends in access to schooling in Pakistan, this chapter relies mainly on primary data
from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) as well as administrative data as reported by
Pakistan Education Statistics415
Gross Enrolment Rates and Select Administrative Data
Improving trends (UNESCO and Administrative data): In Pakistan, Gross Enrolment Rates
(GER) have been increasing steadily over the past 10-15 years, with steeper increases for lower
secondary and particularly upper secondary. Comparing 2003, 2012 and 2015 (se an
, primary GER increased by 17% (2003 to 2012) and 9% (2012 to 2015). For lower
secondary GERs, they increased by 45%and 29%. For upper secondary GER, the increase is 120%
(2003 to 2012) and 52% (2012 to 2015).
Table 24 Gross Enrolment Rates for 2003, 2012 and 2015416
2003 2012 2015
Primary (%) 78.2 91.4 92.7
Lower Secondary
(%) 35.2 51.1 56.6
Upper Secondary
(%) 13.0 28.6 35.4
Source: UNESCO Institute of Statistics Database
Great disparities: In 2015, the Gender Parity Index417 is 0.86 for primary GER and 0.81 for
secondary GER418 , in favour of male pupils. In addition, stark disparities can be noted between the
different schooling cycles’ GERs, with drastic reductions in enrolment for secondary cycles versus
the primary one. In 2012419, primary GER is 91.4%, lower secondary GER is 51.1% (i.e. only a little
over half of primary GER) and upper secondary GER is 28.6% (less than a third of primary GER).
Disparities in enrolment are not only significant between schooling cycles but also between the
different regions/province. Looking at the four main (and most populous) provinces, the primary
Gross Enrolment Rates range from a low 62.2% in the less densely populated province of
Balochistan to a high 104.1% in KP with Sindh (76.4%) and Punjab (88.5%) in the middle420.
415 Published by NEMIS (National Education Management Information System), managed by the Academy of Educational
Planning and Management (AEPAM) under the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training
416 UIS/UNESCO dataset
417 Ratio of female to male values of a given indicator
418 AEPAM (2017) p.25
419 The same year as the last Demographic Health Survey
420 Source: AEPAM (2015)