Over 166,000 Students Drop Out of Government Schools in KP

Kohistan, in particular, is alarming, with an astonishing 80 percent of children discontinuing their education before reaching the fifth grade.

Anwar Khan

In a concerning revelation, it has come to light that more than 166,000 students have abandoned government schools in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). Disturbing statistics indicate that this dropout trend primarily affects primary-level education, with 166,000 students exiting the system over the span of five years.

To put this into perspective, in 2017, there were a total of 571,000 students enrolled in government schools. However, only 404,000 students managed to progress to the fifth grade, signifying that a staggering 29 percent of students had discontinued their education by this point over a five-year period.

Delving further into the data, it is revealed that dropout rates are more pronounced among girls, with 37 percent leaving before completing the fifth grade. For boys, the rate stands at 22 percent. Disturbingly, regions such as Kohistan, Torghar, DI Khan, and Tank exhibit the highest dropout rates. Kohistan, in particular, is alarming, with an astonishing 80 percent of children discontinuing their education before reaching the fifth grade.

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Other regions display similarly disconcerting figures, with 58 percent of children in Torghar and 55 percent in Tank failing to reach the fifth grade. In DI Khan, the rate is 47 percent, while Swat sees 38 percent of students drop out before reaching the fifth grade. Shangla and Battagram report 57 and 44 out of 100 students, respectively, making it to the fifth grade.

The statistics also shed light on the capital city, Peshawar, where 34 percent of children have left school before completing the fifth grade in the past five years. Additionally, from the sixth to the tenth standard, a substantial 34 percent of children drop out of government schools. To illustrate this, in 2017, 313,000 students were enrolled in the sixth grade, but only 207,000 managed to reach the tenth grade.

However, despite these alarming figures, the Education Secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mutasim Billah, has refrained from providing an official statement on the matter, claiming to have no information regarding the dropout crisis.