Survey shows about 44 pct of fifth graders unable to read English properly in Pakistan

The report titled, Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) Pakistan, 2021 which is the largest annual citizen-led household survey, was launched here in Islamabad on Thursday.

It pointed out that no serious improvement was noted during the survey and results of the year 2019 and 2021 are almost the same, reports The Dawn.

Student competencies in learning language and arithmetic have declined as only 55 percent of children from grade 5 could read a story in Urdu, Sindhi or Pashto as compared to 59 percent in 2019, the report stated, adding that only 56 percent of the surveyed students could read sentences in English while 55 percent could do digit division, the Pak newspaper reported.

The report pointed out that enrollment and school preparedness figures have indicated some troublesome aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Additionally, the low enrolment districts in all provinces—also highlighted in some of the latest sector plans—should be targeted for increased enrolment," the report read.

"However, this provides limited data on early learning in Pakistan, and particularly with regards to out-of-school children, transition rates, gender, and specific learning environments," it added. "To inform better policy, there is a need to collect data and figures on these themes.”