Status of Higher Education in Sindh-by Nisar Siddiqui

Status of Higher Education
in Sindh.
Some Points to Ponder
Education

Education & Importance
• Being an educated person means you have access to optimal states of mind
regardless of the situation you are in.
• Pakistan literacy rate 57.7%
• Punjab 59.6%
• Sindh 58.2%
• Sindh rural only 41%
•Only 20% females are educated in rural areas of Sindh. (Source : Pakistan
Bureau of statistics)

Big Picture!
The annual report which assessed school-going
children, aged 3 to 16 years, from six districts of
rural Sindh painted a worrisome picture of learning
outcomes:
32% do not go to school at all.
67% of those who cannot read sentences in Urdu
or Sindhi.
66.5 % cannot read sentences in English.
73 % cannot do two-digit subtraction sums.
Source: The Express Tribune, January 29 th , 2011

Sindh in Educational Perspective
• Universities (Public Sector)
• Gov. of Pakistan 21
• Gov. of Sindh 17
• Gov. of Punjab 18
• Gov. of Balochistan 6
• Gov. of KPK 14
• Gov. of AJK 2
• Total 74
Reference HEC Statistics on website

Sindh in Educational Perspective
Universities (Private Sector)
Gov. of Pakistan 3
Gov. of Sindh 27
Gov. of Punjab 19
Gov. of
Balochistan 2
Gov. of KPK 9
Gov. of AJK 1
Total 56
Reference HEC Statistics on website

Challenges
The Education sector in Sindh is faced with
many challenges:
• Very low enrollment.
• Rural and gender disparity.
• Low level of quality education.
• Poor quality of teachers & managers.
• Only 50% students of age 5-15 are enrolled in
schools.
• Around 70% girls have never attended school.
• Situation is grave for Mathematics and Science
subjects.
6

Current Scenario of Higher Education
•Top 1000 universities ranking- only university of Karachi is included.
•Sindh economy is agricultural based. There is only one agriculture university in
entire sindh but the performance and outcomes of this university are not
encouraging.
•Total spending on higher education is 2.3% of GDP.
• The age group of 17-23, who are eligible for access in higher education only 5.1
% can access the higher education, where as in Sindh only 4.7% join the
universities. (If we take out the urban centers Karachi and Hyderabad, this number
will come around 2%).
•The number of girls accessing higher education in Sindh is much less.
•Over all research output of universities of Sindh is less.

Research Output
Sindh University
Punjab
University
KPK University
95 356 153
Agriculture University
Tandojam
Agriculture Uni.
Faisalabad
KPK Agriculture
University
11 412 106
Mehran Engg Uni UET, Lahore UET, KPK NED
08 78 15 15

Teachers Professional Education and
Development

Human Development Index
Ranking
Country
(Regional/Global)
2010
Iran 1/89
Sri Lanka 2/122
India 3/129
Nepal 4/140
Bangladesh 5/142
Maldives 6/143
Pakistan 7/148
Afghanistan 8/159
Bhutan 9/177
Source: http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/trends/
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Human Development in South and West Asia
(Source: Human Development Report 2007-08, and UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009)
Country HDI Ranking Public
expenditure on
Education
as % of GNP
Literacy Rate
15+ (%)
India 128 3.3 65
Iran 94 5.2 84
Pakistan 136 2.7 54
Sri Lanka 99 5.4 91
Maldives 100 8.3 97
Nepal 142 3.2 55
Bangladesh 140 2.8 52