Balochistan’s Education Minister Rahila Hameed Khan Durrani has voiced serious concern over the province’s alarmingly high number of out-of-school children and the absence of credible education data, warning that both issues are obstructing efforts to tackle the student dropout crisis.
Speaking at a policy roundtable organised by the Data and Research in Education-Research Consortium (DARE-RC), the minister underlined that strengthening policymakers’ analytical capacity was essential for long-term reforms. She reaffirmed the government’s commitment to lowering dropout rates, particularly among girls, by adopting evidence-based tools.
The event brought together provincial officials, academics and development partners to deliberate on how data-driven insights could be mainstreamed into Balochistan’s education policies. A recurring theme was the urgent need to cultivate a culture of data use within the education sector to expand access and improve quality.
Salim Salamah, education policy adviser at the British High Commission, said bridging the gap between research and reform was vital, lauding the contributions of local academics and policymakers.
Balochistan’s School Education Secretary, Asfandyar Khan Kakar, admitted that research had seldom been prioritised in the public sector. “This gap between academia and government needs to be bridged with the help of such dialogues,” he remarked, calling for greater involvement of local institutions in shaping reforms.
The DARE-RC is a partnership between Oxford Policy Management, Aga Khan University and Sightsavers, funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Program director Saima Anwer said the initiative’s spirit lay in making research more relevant to policymaking.
Education in Balochistan faces entrenched challenges, including a literacy rate of just 42 per cent (Economic Survey 2024-25), acute gender disparities, and a shortage of trained teachers. According to the Balochistan Education Statistics 2022-23 report, more than one-fifth of schools in the province — 22.1pc — remain non-functional, pointing to serious infrastructure gaps.
The crisis is compounded by the staggering number of out-of-school children. Official estimates in June 2024 put the figure at over three million. Gender gaps remain pronounced: in 2022, female literacy stood at only 33pc compared to 46pc for males.
Despite these challenges, initiatives such as the Balochistan Education Sector Plan (BESP) 2020-25, the Balochistan Basic Education Programme and the Balochistan Education Foundation continue to aim at improving education quality and management across the province’s vast, largely primary-level system.
