The fight against illiteracy in Pakistan is still a long-standing but often overlooked problem, where structural issues, socioeconomic considerations, and restricted access to high-quality education continue to impede advancement, sustaining a cycle of inequality and impeding national development.

Pakistan, a country with enormous potential, is facing precisely this difficulty, with a literacy rate of 62.3. According to UNESCO, illiteracy is defined as the incapacity to read and write fluently in any language, or to effectively use written information in everyday life. Education is the cornerstone of a country's development. It is vital to promoting economic, social, and cultural growth. Education helps a person to enhance his knowledge, skills, and critical thinking abilities necessary to significantly impact their communities and society at large. As Aristotle stated in his book Nichomachean Ethics, Education is the creation of a sound mind in a sound body.
Education has a major role in development, but when it comes to women's education, educating a woman may educate a family. As per Sustainable Development Goal 4, Pakistan offers top-notch education to both boys and girls. Notwithstanding the successes, issues persist, especially concerning educational standards. Despite the importance of women's education in Pakistan, many girls are still unable to attend school due to various factors, including cultural customs and financial constraints. These challenges affect not just the girls but also have an impact on the progress of the entire country.
Girls face particular challenges in acquiring a quality education, which results in their academic underachievement compared to their male peers. Research has shown, that women’s education in Pakistan faces major hurdles. There is a huge gender imbalance in educational access, as indicated by the fact that the net enrolment rate for females is roughly 49 percent lower than that of boys. This gap is particularly obvious in rural regions when girls’ educational opportunities are further limited by societal norms and financial constraints.
Women's roles are typically viewed as being limited to the home in many parts of Pakistan, where girls are expected to handle household chore and caring for younger siblings. Families that uphold this traditional viewpoint discourage their daughters from attending school because they believe that education is not necessary for those responsibilities.
One of the significant obstacles to women’s education is early marriage, Younger women in many areas are married off before completing their education. Early marriages are seen as a way to secure a girl’s future and relieve her family of financial strain, terminating her education and limiting her opportunities in society. Expanding successful public-private partnerships (PPPs), like those in Punjab, and improving the management of public schools in rural areas can greatly increase enrollment. Targeted interventions are needed, such as literacy programs for teenagers who left the system years ago and tailored programs for young children who recently dropped out, as a staggering 12 million girls in Pakistan face barriers to education, surpassing the number of out-of-school boys.
Conventional gender stereotypes are often prioritised in Pakistani culture, which hinders women's access to higher education. To get beyond this barrier, community engagement initiatives that challenge stereotypes and highlight the importance of female education are required.
There are links between education and many aspects of human development, especially for women. Prioritising women education not only improves their position in society but also has a cascading impact on several fronts, such as nutrition, health, community empowerment, and the eradication of child labor and exploitation. Girls in low-income households are 22 percent less likely than boys to attend school, which further widens the gender gap in schooling. Programs for financial assistance, particularly in rural regions, might lessen this difficulty. To bridge these inequalities, conditional cash transfer programs should be expanded and consolidated, with a focus on rural regions and gender differentiation. Security issue is one of the major concerns hindering the educational process of girls on the route to school. Addressing this issue requires enhancing transportation options, particularly for female instructors and girls, and making sure schools are secure by building perimeter walls.
Although enrollment in schools has grown in Pakistan, long-term growth needs a comprehensive strategy. Both targeted and untargeted programs based on cost-effectiveness, scalability, and fresh research insights are required to meet unprecedented problems.
Adequate financing, now at 2.5 percent of GDP, needs to be boosted to 4.5 percent, according to World Bank projections, to overcome educational gaps and provide excellent education for all, especially females. To ensure a better future for all Pakistani students, the path towards educational fairness needs sustained dedication, calculated interventions, and teamwork. Education is a major driver of revolutionary change for Pakistani women, especially in the employment sector. By gaining information and skills, education gives women a role in decision-making processes inside households that have historically been dominated by men. In contrast, this empowerment improves women's status generally and greatly boosts the nation's economy by reducing the influence of males on women's participation in paid employment.
Women's education promotes social progress and acts as a means of individual development. It has a significant impact on individuals' lives as well as social and economic processes. Women's education is a transformational force that can influence many facets of human development; therefore, prioritising it is not only a social justice issue. Comprehensive policy reforms and prompt action are required in places where education is a concern to ensure a better and more equitable future for women and society. HH

The writer specialises in Teacher Training and is qualified with a degree in education from the National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad.

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