ISLAMABAD: Pakistan ranks at 113 out of 124 countries in the ‘Human Capital Index’ because of its poor performance on educational outcomes, says the Human Capital Report 2015 issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

India at the 100th rank is among other poor performers such as Nepal and Myanmar.

Best performing countries in Asia and the Pacific region are Japan at the rank of 5, New Zealand at 9, and Australia at 13.

China and Indonesia come in the middle range of the index ranking 64 and 69, respectively.

The index is dominated by European countries with two countries from the Asia and Pacific region and one from the North America region also making it into the top 10.

The leaders of the index are high-income economies that have placed importance on high educational attainment and a correspondingly large share of high-skilled employment.

Scores for the Asia-Pacific region’s under-15 age group pillar are much higher compared to other pillars, reflecting the region’s remarkable progress between generations. Over half of the countries in the region have achieved near-universal primary school enrolment rates yet, on average, over 20 per cent of the region’s under-15 age group is not enrolled in secondary education. Among its 25–54 age group core working population, the average labour force participation rate is 81 per cent.

The index reveals several trends and challenges in the current education, skills and jobs agenda and the future outlook for major economies.

According to the report, many of education systems are disconnected from the skills needed to function in today’s labour markets and the exponential rate of technological and economic change is further increasing the gap between education and labour markets.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2015

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