KARACHI: Despite over 17 years of continuous governance by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Sindh continues to face a severe education crisis, with urban areas especially Karachi bearing the brunt of neglect.
According to the Sindh Education and Literacy Department, out of 40,978 government schools across the province, 37,159 are in rural Sindh while urban Sindh, home to a larger share of the population, has just 3,819 schools. This leaves only 13 government schools per 100,000 people in urban Sindh, compared to 145 schools per 100,000 people in rural areas. Karachi presents the direst case, offering merely two schools for every 100,000 residents.
Population figures underscore the imbalance: urban Sindh hosts around 30.57 million people (54% of the province’s population), while rural Sindh has 25.64 million (46%). Yet, rural Sindh enjoys far better school coverage.
The crisis is reflected in the staggering number of out of school children. Rural Sindh records 5.12 million (65%) out of school children, while urban Sindh reports 2.7 million (35%), despite its smaller school network.
This persistent disparity has drawn criticism from education experts and civil society groups, who warn that without urgent reforms, the education gap between urban and rural Sindh will continue to widen, deepening socioeconomic inequalities in Pakistan’s second largest province.
