THE estimated number of children between the ages of five to 16 who are not in school is 25 million. This means that a huge chunk of our upcoming generation will be illiterate and unskilled and will not be a part of any mainstream professional groups. This is alarming.

The question that comes to mind is: how will the government mobilise them when they reach adulthood?

Pakistan is currently caught up in a socio-economic crisis. We are a dependent country because we borrow money as well as expertise from other countries. It is the government’s constitutional obligation to educate its people who in return serve the country and actively participate in economic activities with greater spending power. How will these 25 million children do this without an education?

Our external debts too high. The dollar is strengthening against the rupee, there is a massive balance of payment, oil dependency, unregulated markets and high inflation, commodity prices have surged by 100 per cent within this decade. Illiteracy has led to extremism and militancy, making our country internally insecure which deter foreign investors.

It is time the government multiplied its effort by making education and literacy a top priority because literacy is directly proportional to economic prosperity.

If economic sovereignty is lost, all sovereignties are lost.

Therefore, policy makers should realise that the cost of not educating people is greater than the cost of educating them today.

Shahzaman Siyal
Karachi

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2018