ISLAMABAD: To increase educational access, Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training on Tuesday directed the implementation of the Action Plan for out-of-school children (OOSC) 2025-2030.

Besides, Federal Education Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui will launch a campaign titled ‘No Child Left Behind’ on Wednesday (today), aiming to bring out-of-school children to schools.

The Federal Steering Committee of ICT on OOSC held its first meeting on Tuesday, with Federal Secretary of Education Nadeem Mahbub in the chair.

According to a spokesperson for the education ministry, the meeting reviewed the immediate rollout package, including GIS-based hotspot mapping, a household survey across all urban and rural union councils, i.e., 125 (old 36), UC-wise micro-plans, and integration into the NFEMIS live dashboard for real-time tracking and quarterly reviews.

“The committee brings together core stakeholders across education and social sectors, with notified representation from Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, and ICT Administration, alongside education delivery institutions and the private education regulator. The meeting also included development partners, including Unicef, JICA and Unesco,” the spokesperson said.

According to the education ministry, as part of the government’s declared education emergency, the enrolment campaign titled is being announced.

It is relevant to note here that Pakistan has an alarming number of over 26 million out-of-school children, while its capital city also has thousands of such children, whom the education ministry wants to target in the said campaign to be launched on Wednesday.

Interestingly, in February 2024, the management of the education ministry and Pakistan Institute of Education (PIE) had astounded everyone by stating that there were zero out-of-school children in Islamabad. “Either that report was bogus or new sets of targets were unrealistic,” said an official, stating that, apparently it seems, that finding of that report was question marks.

PIE, in its report in 2024, had claimed more than 70,941 children have been enrolled in schools across Islamabad, bringing the number of out-of-school children in the capital to zero.

The report was based on the 2023 campaign, “launched by the education ministry in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica). Though the said institute claimed there were zero out-of-school children in the federal capital, that claim stands in contrast to reality, as a significant number of children could be seen in the capital doing labour, when the report was being launched.

“There is still confusion about the said report and education minister, while launching a new campaign ‘No Child Left Behind’, should also talk about the findings of that report to end confusion. If that report was bogus, then action should be taken against those involved, and if that report was factual, then action should be taken against those who could not control the figure after February 2024, when the education ministry and PIE enrolled all children to make the capital city with zero out-of-school children,” said an official source.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2026