The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is home to more than 255 million people (2026), making it the fifth-largest population in the world, 63% of which is rural. With a 600-mile coastline on the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman, Pakistan borders four different countries—India, China, Afghanistan and Iran.

More than two-thirds of Pakistan’s population is under 30, making it one of the largest youth populations in the world. Since youth are the future of any country, this statistic highlights the critical role of education for Pakistan. As of the beginning of 2026, a third of Pakistan was illiterate, the lowest in South Asia, but youth literacy (ages 15-24 years old) was at 77%, which is a good sign. Here is more information about education and education challenges in Pakistan.

Structure of the Education System

Pakistan’s free compulsory education system for children ages 5-16 follows the typical structure: primary (grades 1-5), middle school (6-8), matriculation/lower secondary (9-10) and intermediate/upper secondary (11-12). A largely decentralized system has been replaced by a new Single National Curriculum that was introduced in 2020, to be implemented in phases over the next several years. The SNC was introduced to reduce educational disparities through a uniform, inclusive and high-quality curriculum, but its effectiveness remains debated due to concerns that its strong emphasis on Islamic content may not fully reflect Pakistan’s ethnic and religious diversity.

Education Challenges

On the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality Education, Pakistan is assessed as having major challenges remaining for all indicators: pre-primary organized learning participation, net primary enrollment, literacy rate and lower secondary completion, with the latter noted as stagnating or improving by less than 50% of the required rate. Here are some of the education challenges in Pakistan.

• Children Not in School: UNESCO’s 2026 GEM (Global Education Monitoring) Report indicates that Pakistan has one of the largest numbers of out-of-school children (OOSC). But the report also notes Pakistan’s national efforts at improvement, such as large-scale enrollment campaigns, expansion of nonformal education centers and reforms to curricula and teacher development.
• Learning Poverty: The World Bank notes the high level of Learning Poverty in Pakistan, the inability to read and understand a short, age-appropriate text by age 10. Pakistan’s 75% Learning Poverty rate was exacerbated by COVID-19 and the 2022 floods that devastated a third of the country and disrupted the education of 3.5 million children. In 2022, 77% of late primary-age children were in Learning Poverty (reading proficiency), while 65% suffered from Learning Deprivation (end of primary school proficiency) and 34% from Schooling Deprivation (not in school). Learning Poverty was 18.3 percentage points higher than the South Asian average. Learning Poverty was highest for the poorest children and those in rural areas, but also for girls and secondary school-age children. Barriers included outdated teaching methods, quality and availability of materials, and teacher shortages, plus poverty, poor nutrition and distance from schools.
• Inadequate Financing: Historically, the financing of education in Pakistan has been around 1.5% of GDP. The Pakistan Economic Survey 2024-25 reported a “record low” of 0.8%, far below the UNESCO and SDG-4 benchmark of 4-6%. Funding allocations are primarily for teacher salaries, with limits for infrastructure, materials, teacher development and system strengthening.

In April 2026, one observation of the Pakistan Education Statistics Report 2023-24 was that Pakistan was “investing least where returns matter most and producing steep attrition at every stage.” The claim was that there was insufficient teacher distribution to primary schools, which build the basic skills of literacy, numeracy and cognition, and that primary schools educated more than half of all students but received barely 20% of the teaching workforce. It was noted that only 9.2 million of 20.8 million primary students reach middle school, only 4.7 million reach high school and 2.8 million make it to higher secondary. The teacher-student ratio was calculated at 1:7 for higher education (universities and colleges) and 1:52 across multiple grades simultaneously at the primary level.

The Future for Education in Pakistan

In January 2026, UNESCO and the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training conducted a forum for reform that brought students into the discussion of national educational policy. Education was seen as a “matter of life and death” for Pakistan. 

Gains have occurred, but challenges remain. Online learning platforms and short courses have grown, as have digital classrooms in urban schools. But rural areas have limited internet access and weak infrastructure, although community-based schooling models and local initiatives show promise. Girls’ enrollment has grown in some provinces, but secondary school retention among girls remains low. Teacher-training initiatives exist alongside teacher shortages. More schools include inclusive programs for the disabled, but funding is limited, and logistical challenges remain. 

A Continuing Education Emergency

In June 2026, Pakistan again declared an education emergency. There were 26 million out-of-school children—10% of the global total of OOSC, although Pakistan has only 3% of the world’s population. GDP financing was estimated at only 1%. But spending too little on education can lead to spending heavily on the consequences of a lack of education, e.g., poverty management and other social protection. 

Schools 2030

A promising approach for the country is Schools 2030, a program of the Aga Khan Foundation U.K.: a “global movement for holistic learning and teacher leadership.” Schools 2030 is currently working with 60 Pakistani schools (100 classrooms) in two remote villages. The teachers attend design workshops, followed by implementing change, followed by testing and analysis to see whether the desired impact has been achieved. In 2023, 177 teachers developed and tested 102 prototypes across three levels of schooling: preprimary, primary and secondary. Said one participant, “I have unique solutions. Others cannot always solve what I can. I understand that I am the one who can lead the change.”

– Staff Reports

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