page_title: Education in Pakistan
section_title: Primary education
hierarchical_section_title: Education in Pakistan / Stages of formal education / Primary education
caption_attribution_description: Mohsin Junejo (front centre) is back in school in Nawan Juneja village, in Pakistan's Sindh province, but his family still live in a tent following last summer’s flood. Their village was completely underwater for months following the devastating floods in Pakistan last year. UK aid has helped restore the local primary school to a better standard than it was before the floods. The school now has clean drinking water and the only toilet in the village. Mohsin’s dad said “Our house vanished in the flood. Some loose bricks are all we had left. We went to Sukkur for 15 days, then came back to Shikapur for 25 days, then to a camp in Wazirabad, then came back to the village, but it was still flooded so we camped on the road outside the village. "In March the flood water receded and we moved back in to the village, but our brick house was destroyed and we’re now in a tent. We don’t have money to rebuild it, but we’re happy to be back in the village so our son can go to school. He wasn’t in school for five to six months because of the floods.” To find out more about how the UK is helping in Pakistan, please visit: &lt;a href="http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Media-Room/Features/2011/Pakistan-floods---one-year-on/" rel="nofollow"&gt;www.dfid.gov.uk/Media-Room/Features/2011/Pakistan-floods-...&lt;/a&gt; Image credit: Vicki Francis/Department for International Development Terms of use This image is posted under a &lt;a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/" rel="nofollow"&gt;Creative Commons - Attribution Licence&lt;/a&gt;, in accordance with the &lt;a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/" rel="nofollow"&gt;Open Government Licence&lt;/a&gt;. You are free to embed, download or otherwise re-use it, as long as you credit the source as 'Vicki Francis/Department for International Development'.
context_page_description: Education in Pakistan is overseen by the Federal Ministry of Education and the provincial governments, whereas the federal government mostly assists in curriculum development, accreditation and in the financing of research and development. Article 25-A of Constitution of Pakistan obligates the state to provide free and compulsory quality education to children of the age group 5 to 16 years. "The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such a manner as may be determined by law".
  The education system in Pakistan is generally divided into six levels: preschool, primary, middle, high, intermediate, and university programs leading to undergraduate and graduate degrees.
  The literacy rate ranges from 85% in Islamabad to 23% in the Torghar District. Literacy rates vary regionally, particularly by sex. In tribal areas female literacy is 9.5%., while Azad Jammu & Kashmir has a literacy rate of 74%. Moreover, English is fast spreading in Pakistan, with more than 92 million Pakistanis having a command over the English language.
context_section_description: Only 68% of Pakistani children finish primary school education. The standard national system of education is mainly inspired from the English educational system. Pre-school education is designed for 3–5 years old and usually consists of three stages: Play Group, Nursery and Kindergarten (also called 'KG' or 'Prep'). After pre-school education, students go through junior school from grades 1 to 5. This is followed by middle school from grades 6 to 8. At middle school, single-sex education is usually preferred by the community, but co-education is also common in urban cities. The curriculum is usually subject to the institution. The eight commonly examined disciplines are:
  Arts
  Computer Studies and ICT
  General Science (including Physics, Chemistry and Biology)
  Modern languages with literature i.e. Urdu and English
  Mathematics
  Religious Education i.e. Islamic Studies
  Social Studies (including Civics, Geography, History, Economics, Sociology and sometimes elements of law, politics and PHSE)
  Most schools also offer drama studies, music and physical education but these are usually not examined or marked. Home economics is sometimes taught to female students, whereas topics related to astronomy, environmental management and psychology are frequently included in textbooks of general science. Sometimes archaeology and anthropology are extensively taught in textbooks of social studies. SRE is not taught at most schools in Pakistan although this trend is being rebuked by some urban schools. Provincial and regional languages such as Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto and others may be taught in their respective provinces, particularly in language-medium schools. Some institutes give instruction in foreign languages such as German, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, French and Chinese. The language of instruction depends on the nature of the institution itself, whether it is an English-medium school or an Urdu-medium school.
  As of 2009, Pakistan faces a net primary school attendance rate for both sexes of 66 percent: a figure below estimated world average of 90 percent.
  Pakistan's poor performance in the education sector is mainly caused by the low level of public investment. As of 2007, public expenditure on education was 2.2 percent of GNPs, a marginal increase from 2 percent before 1984-85. In addition, the allocation of government funds is skewed towards higher education, allowing the upper income class to reap the majority of the benefits of public subsidy on education. Lower education institutions such as primary schools suffer under such conditions as the lower income classes are unable to enjoy subsidies and quality education. As a result, Pakistan has one of the lowest rates of literacy in the world and the lowest among countries of comparative resources and socio-economic situations.
caption: A primary school in a village in the Sindh region
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