Education in Balochistan
Balochistan is the richest province of Pakistan, which covers 47% of landmasses. Balochistan is rich enough in the source of producing minerals, but too suffers from multiple problems such as unemployment, gas shortage, especially education which is one of the biggest problems in Balochistan. The overall literacy rate of Balochistan is 46 percent. Out of 3.6 million, 1.3 million children are out of school. The students’ dreams are at a high level, but due to many problems, their dreams are being destroyed. Besides this, the absenteeism of teachers is at the highest peak in the province, which has damaged and harmed the education badly. There is no record of 150,000 teachers. In governmental schools, 84%of students are getting their education while 16% in private institutions. The poor parents can’t send their children to private schools due to high fees. They are so compelled to send their children to work as labor instead of sending them to school. Because in the province, 50% of people live below the poverty line. According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2019, the literacy rate in Balochistan has increased from 54.3% to 55.5%. This indeed is a positive change. But, as a matter of fact, the education system in Balochistan is still facing problems. Similarly, Punjab’s literacy rate is 59%, Sindh 56% and KP 49%. According to UNO, at least 4.5% of the budget should be spent on Education while the country spends 2.2% of the budget. However, many schools do not have any facilities, no toilets, no boundaries, no restroom, no classrooms and no clean drinking water. As there are 36% of schools deprived of water, 56% of schools have no electricity. This means that the government has totally ignored education in the province. It is the responsibility of the concerned authorities to pay attention to these few problems so that the education system in the province may develop and bring changes in the entire province.