The education ministry has presented alarming statistics in the National Assembly, revealing that 26,206,520 children are currently out of school across the country.

Among these, 10,774,890 children aged five to nine years are not attending school. Additionally, 4,972,949 boys are also missing out on education, along with 5,801,941 girls who are deprived of schooling.

For children aged 10 to 12 years, 4,935,484 are without middle school education, including 2,106,672 boys and 2,828,812 girls.

A total of 4,545,537 students are missing high school education, comprising 2,306,882 boys and 2,238,655 girls.

At the higher secondary level, 5,950,609 students are out of education, with 2,992,570 boys and 2,958,049 girls affected.

Pakistan is home to 71 million children aged five to 16. An estimated 36 per cent, or 25.3 million, of these children are out of school, according to a report by The Missing Third of Pakistan. Among the out-of-school children, 53 per cent are girls and 47% are boys.

On Sunday, PM Shehbaz declared an education emergency across the country calling on the private sector and civil organisations to join hands with the government.

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Unesco has highlighted that the lack of access to education remains a significant barrier, as three out of four children in developing countries cannot read or comprehend a basic text by the age of 10, and there are still 754 million illiterate adults globally, two-thirds of whom are women.

Last month, the premier vowed to get around 26 million out-of-school children enrolled and promote literacy.

“Today, with iron conviction, and the support of provinces, we will handle the challenge of 26m out-of-school children. We will bring them back to school…I declare from this moment an Emergency in Education all over Pakistan…The way we did it in Punjab, we will do it in Pakistan,” the prime minister said addressing the National Conference on Education Emergency in May.