Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said over 22 million children are out of schools in Pakistan, as he emphasised the urgent need for Muslim countries to prioritise girls’ education, state media reported.
Opening the two-day ‘International Conference on Girls’ Education in Muslim Communities: Challenges and Opportunities’ in Islamabad, the premier said the Muslim world faces significant challenges in ensuring equitable access to education for girls.
PM Shehbaz said millions of young girls will enter the job market over the next decade, emphasising that they “have the potential not just to lift themselves, their families and nations out of poverty but also to enrich the global economy.”
He pointed out that in Pakistan, women make up more than half of the total population, yet the female literacy rate stands at only 49 per cent. “Alarmingly, around 22.8 million children in the age bracket of five to 16 years are out of school, with a disproportionate number being girls.
