Primary and secondary schools of at least 25 districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have high dropout rates, according to data from the independent monitoring unit of the provincial Education Department. Aaj News obtained the data from its sources within the department.

At least 166,000 students dropped out at the primary level in five years, it showed. In 2017, 404,000 students – out of the total 571,163 enrolled – reached the fifth grade.

When asked, Education Secretary Motasim Billah Shah said the dropout rate said to be quite high but he didn’t know about it.

Twenty nine per cent of students dropped out by fifth grade in five years, showed the document. Moreover, 37 per cent of girls and 22 per cent of boys dropped out before reaching fifth grade.

Kohistan, Torghar, Dera Ismail Khan, and Tank topped the list of districts having high dropout rates. Eighty per cent of children dropped out before fifth grade in Kohistan. Fifty-eight per cent of children in Torghar and 55% in Tank did not reach fifth grade.

In the past five years, 34 per cent of children in Peshawar dropped out before reaching fifth grade. Thirty-four per cent of children from sixth to 10th grade dropped out of public schools.

In 2017, around 313,000 children were enrolled in sixth grade and around 207,000 reached tenth grade.

The education ministry has sought data from the IMU as no evidence was shared for such data, Fakhar e Alam, the communication specialist at the Elementary and Secondary Education in KP, told Aaj News.

Alam did not confirm the data, but mentioned the impact of the coronavirus and flood situation on education.

“There are security concerns in the province. So for many reasons, students have dropped out of the system. Many times students switch schools and enroll in private schools,” he said, “the way enrollment is not the way it has been shown.”