ISLAMABAD, May 21: The government on Monday said that enrolment rate in government schools at primary level had been showing decline since 1998-99, according to Pakistan Social & Living Standards Measurement (PSLM) survey 2005-06.

“Enrolment rate in government schools at primary level has been showing steady decline since 1998-99,” said a statement issued by statistics division on Monday.

In 2005-06, it is estimated from the survey results, 65 per cent children were enrolled in the government schools, of which, around 75 per cent children in rural areas and 43 per cent in urban areas were still enrolled in government schools.

The statistics division said the full immunisation rate based on recall and record basis has also shown decline from 77 per cent to 71 per cent in 2005-06 as compared to 2004-05.

It said the drop in full immunisation rate was primarily due to the fact that the respondents mixed up routine immunisation with anti-polio campaign, although enumerators were thoroughly trained so that respondents might not mix them up.

It said that about 52 per cent of mothers in 2005-06 had prenatal consultation compared with 50 per cent in 2004-05 during their last pregnancy. There is increasing trend both in urban and rural areas to consult private hospitals which has increased from 42 per cent in 2001-02 to 48 per cent in 2005-06.

Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) has shown increasing trend in all the rounds of Pakistan Integrated Household survey (PIHS) and PSLM surveys. However, CPR reported in 2005-06 for NWFP is 23 per cent.

The statement explained that PSLM Surveys are being conducted from 2004-05 on annual basis. The project is designed to provide social and economic indicators in the alternate years at provincial and district levels for the assessment of development programmes initiated under Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and Medium Term Development Framework. The full report of the survey would be released in August 2007, the statement said.