Over 1.2m students enrolled in 30,543 non-formal education centres nationwide: report

ISLAMABAD: More than 1.2 million children are currently enrolled in Pakistan’s non-formal education network, according to a report released on Tuesday that highlights the scale of efforts to bring out-of-school children back into classrooms.

Federal Secretary for Education and Professional Training Nadeem Mehboob said the government’s top priority, after declaring a national education emergency, was to reintegrate 25.3 million out-of-school children into the mainstream education system. He was speaking at the launch of the “Annual Statistical Report 2024-25” and the “Federal Non-Formal Education (NFE) Strategy 2025”, the report said.

The Pakistan Institute of Education, working with the Japan International Cooperation Agency, launched the documents to support broader efforts to draw children back into education. The new strategy is intended to create a more unified system that can offer modern technical skills from primary through matric levels, with the aim of helping students contribute to economic growth.

According to the report, 34,256 teachers are teaching 1,238,573 children in 30,543 non-formal education centres across the country. Female teachers make up about 83 to 86 per cent of the workforce, and officials said this has helped raise girls’ enrollment to 55 per cent.

The centres also serve 15,747 refugee children and more than 11,774 children from minority communities. The report said 97 per cent of the institutions focus on primary education, while 3 per cent offer middle and middle-tech learning, and 1 per cent are devoted to adult literacy.

Pakistan Institute of Education Director General Dr Zaigham Qadeer praised the role of female teachers and said a digital monitoring system, including the National Non-Formal Education Management Information System, would be used to maintain records of each child’s progress and support future policy planning.

JICA’s chief representative in Pakistan, Yusuke Shinozaki, said Japan would continue technical and financial support for accelerated learning programmes and teacher training to help expand quality education access for marginalised communities.

Provincial figures in the report show Punjab leading with 20,610 centres and 678,751 students, supported by 17,750 female teachers. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 352,535 students in 5,026 centres, with girls making up 60 per cent of enrollment and 11,537 refugee children included in the system. Sindh has 58,411 students in 1,152 centres, including 8,498 Hindu and 269 Christian children, while Balochistan’s 751 centres are serving 38,115 students, including 2,012 refugees and 54 Hindu children.

The Federal Non-Formal Education Strategy 2025, prepared by the education ministry, introduces pathways from primary to matric level, including 18-month Middle-Tech and Matric-Tech courses in partnership with NAVTTC.

This report is based on a monitored public feed. Source: Dawn Pakistan - https://www.dawn.com/news/2017336/over-12m-students-enrolled-in-30543-non-formal-education-centres-nationwide-report