ISLAMABAD: Enrolment in religious seminaries in the country has started declining significantly despite a surge in the number of madressahs.

The ‘Education Statistics 2014-15’ report, which was launched by the Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training on Thursday, also revealed a decline of 18pc in the total enrollment at the postgraduate level in universities against the corresponding year (2013-14).

The report stated that currently there were 15,217 madressahs across the country against 13,405 in the year 2013-14. However, the number of the seminary students significantly decreased during the period - from 1.836 million to 1.711 million.

A comparison of the two reports showed that in 2013-14, there were, on an average, 137 students per seminary while in 2014-15 it declined to 112 students per madressah. Only three per cent of the seminaries were run by the government while 97pc were in the private sector.

Of the total 1.711 million seminary students, 1.091 million were male (64pc). The seminaries have 60,198 teachers - 76pc male and 24pc female.

Report says 97pc of madressahs across the country are run by private sector

The chairman of Pakistan Madressah Education Board, Dr Amir Tahseen, told Dawn that there were two major reasons for the decline in the number of seminary students. “One and the major reason is there is no career counselling for the students in seminaries. Secondly, there are very slim chances of jobs for the students.” He, however, differed with the number of seminaries in the country as quoted by the report. He claimed that at present over 20,000 seminaries associated with five religious boards were functioning in the country.

Number of universities and students

According to the report, the total enrolment in the universities at the postgraduate level was 1.299 million. Out of this, 86pc students were enrolled in the public sector and 14pc in the private sector universities.

As compared to 2013-14, the number of postgraduate students declined by 18pc in 2014-15. The previous report had stated that there were 1.595 million students in the universities.

The report also showed a significant decline in the number of female students. The 2013-14 report had stated that the ratio of male and female students in the universities was 50:50. However, the 2014-15 report put the number of male students at 54pc and that of female students at 46pc.

Asked about the decline in the number of university students, a spokesperson for the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Ayesha Ikram, said the number of students in the universities was rather increasing. “I don’t want to comment on the report you are talking about, but in year 2014-15 we had 1741,318 students,” she said.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2016