In what could be a nod to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's prestigious ULLAS programme, Pakistan was told by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to adopt the model to fix its education system.
Pakistan approached the Manila-based lender requesting aid to support its dysfunctional education system. As per UNICEF, Pakistan has the world's second-highest number of out-of-school children with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 not attending school. This comes to 44 per cent of the total population in this age group.
It was in this context that Pakistan's education secretary Mohyundin Wani approached ADB to develop a mechanism for a central education scheme.
However, ADB advised Pakistan to follow the ULLAS (Understanding of Lifelong Learning for All in Society) programme. The scheme, launched last year, targets citizens aged 15 and above who missed the opportunity to attend school. The objective is to impart not only foundational literacy but also critical life skills, including financial and digital literacy.
According to the ADB, the ULLAS scheme stressed on the joint involvement of both central and state governments to collaborate to provide quality education and this can be replicated in Pakistan as well.
ADB's advice to Pakistan comes just days before ADB president, Masatsugu Asakawa is set to visit Pakistan.
Paksitan has a underdeveloped education system and as per statistics, none of Pakistan's 134 districts could get the rating of high performing in the education sector. Out of 134 districts, 133 fell in the category of medium to low.
Many schools lack trained teachers and basic facilities such as clean drinking water, electricity, and proper classrooms. The lessons are outdates and does not meet the current educational and market needs. A significant number of children, especially girls, do not attend school. The dropout rates are very high.
The recent floods also contributed to an increase in drop out rate. Many schools, including in Sindh Province, were affected by floods and 40% of schools in disrepair.