The State of School Education in Balochistan
Evidence, meaning and policy impact from the Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES/PSLM) 2024–25 — the ninth provincial round, first conducted fully digitally. A companion to the Legal Framework report. Click any section to expand it · download the full survey report (PDF, 10.9 MB) ↗
1. Executive Summary — the Two-Sided Message
The HIES 2024–25 — covering 32,814 households nationwide between September 2024 and June 2025 — provides the most recent official picture of school education in Balochistan. Its message is two-sided: Balochistan recorded the largest improvements of any province on almost every education indicator since 2018–19 — and yet it still stands last on every one of them.
| Indicator | 2024–25 | 2018–19 | Male | Female | Urban | Rural | Pakistan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ever attended school (10+) | 51% | 39% | 66% | 34% | 63% | 45% | 67% |
| Completed primary or higher (10+) | 42% | 31% | 56% | 27% | 54% | 37% | 57% |
| Literacy (10+) | 49% | 40% | 65% | 31% | 61% | 43% | 63% |
| Youth literacy (15–24) | 60% | 47% | 74% | 44% | 71% | 55% | 77% |
| Adult literacy (15+) | 45% | 37% | 63% | 26% | 58% | 39% | 60% |
| Out-of-school children (5–16) | 45% | 59% | 38% | 52% | 35% | 49% | 28% |
The headline: Balochistan is improving faster than any other province — proof that recent reforms are working — but from so low a base that, at current rates, universal enrolment under Article 25-A remains a distant goal. The evidence argues for accelerating, not merely continuing, present policies.
2. About the Survey and Why It Matters
The HIES/PSLM series, run by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics since 2004, is the official national instrument for measuring social indicators — including all education indicators Pakistan reports against the SDGs. The 2024–25 round is the first fully digital round, enumerated on tablets with real-time monitoring. Findings are representative at provincial level with urban/rural and male/female breakdowns.
For the Department this survey matters for three reasons. It is independent — enrolment and literacy are measured in households, not reported by schools, so it captures children the school system never sees. It is comparable — identical methods across provinces and rounds allow honest benchmarking. It is consequential — these are the figures against which Pakistan reports SDG 4 and against which the province's Sector Plan targets must be judged.
Context: the survey period coincides with the National Education Emergency (May 2024), the Roshan Pakistan National Literacy Drive (Each One Teach One), and the Uraan Pakistan five-year plan. National education expenditure stood at 0.8% of GDP in FY 2024–25 (July–March).
3. Access: Attendance and Out-of-School Children
3.1 Ever Attended School — the Biggest Gain in Pakistan
51% of Balochistan's population aged ten and above has ever attended school, up from 39% in 2018–19 — the largest provincial improvement in Pakistan, driven by female attendance rising 24→34% and male 52→66%. Urban–rural disparity is the country's widest: urban female attendance 48% against just 28% for rural females.
Meaning: a twelve-point gain in six years is direct evidence that access programmes — school reopening, community schools, enrolment drives — are reaching families that had never used the school system. But the level itself means nearly half the population has had no schooling at all. The rural female figure defines the frontier: no provincial target can be met without her.
3.2 Out-of-School Children (5–16) — Sharpest Fall, Still Highest
Out-of-school children fell from 59% to 45% — a fourteen-point drop, the sharpest in Pakistan — yet still the country's highest exclusion: 52% of girls and 38% of boys, against a national average of 28%.
| Region | Never Been to School | Dropped Out | Total Out of School |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balochistan — overall | 40% | 5% | 45% |
| Balochistan — urban | 30% | 5% | 35% |
| Balochistan — rural | 44% | 4% | 49% |
| Pakistan — overall | 20% | 8% | 28% |
Meaning: of the 45 points out of school, 40 are children who never enrolled and only 5 are dropouts. Balochistan's challenge is overwhelmingly an enrolment problem, not a retention problem — the binding constraints are school availability, distance, and demand-side barriers for girls: exactly what the School Attendance Authorities under the 2014 Act were designed to address. And because the dropout share is the lowest in the country, every new enrolment won is likely to endure.
4. Literacy: Overall, Youth and Adult
Literacy (10+) rose from 40 to 49% — male 65, female 31; urban 61, rural 43. Youth literacy (15–24) rose from 47 to 60%. Adult literacy (15+) rose from 37 to 45%. Rural female literacy stands at 25%, and rural female adult literacy at 20%.
Meaning: the thirteen-point jump in youth literacy is the clearest signal in the whole survey — it reflects schooling delivered in the last decade, meaning recent policy is measurably raising the literacy of the generation now entering work and family life. Conversely, a female adult literacy rate of 26% — one woman in four — has compounding effects: maternal literacy is among the strongest predictors of child survival, nutrition and school enrolment, so today's adult literacy gap is tomorrow's enrolment gap unless adult literacy programmes are scaled. Article 37(b) makes the removal of illiteracy an explicit obligation of the State.
5. Enrolment by Level: Primary, Middle and Matric
| Level (age group) | GER 2024–25 | GER 2018–19 | NER 2024–25 | NER 2018–19 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary (6–10, excl. Kachi) | 60% | 57% | 43% | 40% |
| Primary (5–9) | 59% | 56% | 32% | 33% |
| Primary (4–9, incl. Kachi) | 60% | 52% | 37% | 33% |
| Middle (11–13) | 49% | 43% | 25% | 20% |
| Middle (10–12) | 43% | 38% | 13% | 11% |
| Matric (14–15) | 40% | 31% | 15% | 12% |
| Matric (13–14) | 40% | 32% | 5% | 6% |
5.1 Primary — Late Entry, and the ECE Success Story
Primary GER (6–10) improved 57→60% and NER 40→43% — both still the lowest in Pakistan (national: GER 90, NER 68). Kachi's share of total primary enrolment nearly doubled from 9% to 17%.
Meaning: a GER of 60 with an NER of 43 is the signature of late entry — many enrolled children are older than their grade. The near-doubling of Kachi enrolment is among the most encouraging findings: the Early Childhood Education push under BESP 2020–25 is visibly changing behaviour, and children who start at the right age are far likelier to progress on time and complete.
5.2 Middle and Matric — the Narrowing Pipeline
Middle NER (11–13) rose 20→25%; matric NER (14–15) 12→15%. Female middle NER is 16% against male 33%; matric NER for ages 13–14 is 5% — and for rural girls of that age, one per cent.
Meaning: the pipeline narrows brutally: of a hundred children of primary age, forty-three are in primary at the right age; by middle age, twenty-five; by matric age, fifteen. This is where the middle-school transition is lost — particularly for rural girls, for whom the nearest middle or high school is often too distant. The case is for up-gradation of primary schools to middle and middle to high, girls' stipends and transport, and female teacher recruitment in rural districts. A matric NER of 1% for rural girls aged 13–14 is, in practical terms, the absence of secondary education as an option for that population — the single starkest number in the survey.
6. The Gender Dimension — Widest Gaps, Beginning to Close
| Indicator (Balochistan 2024–25) | Male | Female | Gap (points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Literacy (10+) | 65% | 31% | 34 |
| Adult literacy (15+) | 63% | 26% | 37 |
| Youth literacy (15–24) | 74% | 44% | 30 |
| Ever attended school (10+) | 66% | 34% | 32 |
| Completed primary or higher | 56% | 27% | 29 |
| Out-of-school children (5–16) | 38% | 52% | 14 |
| NER Middle (11–13) | 33% | 16% | 17 |
| GER Matric (14–15) | 52% | 26% | 26 |
Meaning: Balochistan's gender gaps are the widest in Pakistan on every indicator — yet the survey also shows them beginning to close: female ever-attended rose ten points, female literacy seven, female youth literacy twelve. The policy impact is unambiguous: gender-targeted interventions — girls' community schools, female teachers, stipends, safe transport, parental engagement — are not a subset of education policy in Balochistan; they are its centre of gravity.
7. Poverty, Wealth and Educational Opportunity
| Consumption quintile | Ever attended school (10+) | Literacy (10+) |
|---|---|---|
| 1st (poorest) | 33% | 30% |
| 2nd | 48% | 46% |
| 3rd | 54% | 52% |
| 4th | 60% | 59% |
| 5th (richest) | 74% | 73% |
Meaning: attendance and literacy climb step-for-step with household consumption — a forty-point spread between the poorest and richest fifths. Education in the province is strongly wealth-determined: the children the Constitution most intends to protect are precisely those least likely to be in school. The case is for demand-side financing — free education genuinely free of hidden costs, stipends and school feeding targeted to the poorest quintiles, and siting new schools in the poorest communities first.
8. Who Provides Schooling
| Type of school | Balochistan | KP | Sindh | Punjab | Pakistan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Government | 69% | 65% | 57% | 53% | 57% |
| Private | 25% | 31% | 36% | 40% | 37% |
| Deeni Madrassa / NGO-Trust / other | 6% | 4% | 7% | 7% | 6% |
Meaning: 69% of enrolled children attend government schools — the heaviest reliance on the public system in Pakistan. The quality of government schooling is effectively the quality of education in Balochistan. Two warning lights: government primary GER (5–9) slipped 44→42% and NER 25→23% — the public system's own share is stagnating even as overall access improves. Investment must flow to government-school functionality, while the 2016 Act framework and BEF community schools remain essential complements.
9. Retention, Dropout and Why Children Leave
Early school leaving (children 10–18 who left before completing primary) fell from 11% to 6% — the sharpest improvement in the country, and the elimination of the gender gap in dropout (male 6, female 6).
| Reason for leaving before completing primary | Boys | Girls |
|---|---|---|
| Had to help with work | 31% | 12% |
| Education not considered useful | 13% | 22% |
| Too expensive | 16% | 13% |
| Parents / elders did not allow | 0% | 19% |
| Too far away | 5% | 7% |
| Child not willing | 11% | 3% |
| Poor teaching / behaviour | 3% | 6% |
| Other (incl. completed, home help) | 21% | 18% |
Meaning: the reasons differ sharply by gender. Boys leave mainly for work — an economic problem answered by stipends, flexible schooling and enforcement of the 2014 Act's protection against employment that prevents schooling. Girls leave mainly because education is judged not useful or because parents and elders do not allow it — a demand-side, social-norms problem that infrastructure alone cannot fix, answered by community engagement, female role models and teachers, and making the usefulness of girls' education visible.
10. Reading the Numbers Responsibly
| Indicator (Balochistan) | Estimate | Std. Error | 95% CI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ever attended school (10+) | 51% | 1.36 | 47.5 – 52.9 |
| Literacy (10+) | 49% | 1.36 | 45.7 – 51.0 |
| GER Primary (6–10) | 60% | 2.66 | 55.0 – 65.4 |
| NER Primary (6–10) | 43% | 1.97 | 39.3 – 47.0 |
| GER Middle (11–13) | 49% | 2.37 | 43.9 – 53.2 |
| NER Middle (11–13) | 25% | 1.57 | 22.2 – 28.4 |
Meaning: Balochistan's estimates carry the largest standard errors of any province — small year-to-year movements should not be over-interpreted. But the major changes reported here — the twelve-point rise in attendance, the fourteen-point fall in out-of-school children — are far larger than the margins of error and statistically solid. The survey measures participation and literacy, not learning outcomes; read it alongside learning assessments (BAEC, ASER) for a complete picture.
11. What It All Means — Eight Policy Conclusions
- Reforms are working — accelerate them. Balochistan leads the country in improvement on attendance, literacy, out-of-school reduction and dropout. Scale what works; don't change course.
- The problem is enrolment, not retention. 40 of the 45 out-of-school points are children who never enrolled. Priority: new access, and activation of School Attendance Authorities under the 2014 Act.
- Rural girls are the frontier. Every worst number — 25% literacy, 28% attendance, 1% rural matric NER — belongs to rural females; every provincial target passes through her.
- Protect the middle-school transition. NER halves from primary to middle. Up-gradation, stipends, transport and female teachers at post-primary level are the highest-leverage investment.
- ECE is paying off — institutionalise it. Kachi enrolment nearly doubled; early entry predicts completion.
- The government school is the system. 69% of enrolment is public and government enrolment rates are slipping — functionality of state schools is the core quality agenda.
- Poverty-target the response. A forty-point attendance gap between richest and poorest quintiles demands stipends, genuinely free schooling and poorest-first school siting.
- Address demand as well as supply. For girls, "not useful" and "not allowed" outweigh distance and cost; community engagement and female role models are as essential as buildings.
Each implication maps directly onto BESP 2020–25's two focus areas — Access & Participation, and Learning — and onto district planning. The HIES 2024–25 baseline should now be written into district education plans as the reference point for the next survey round.
12. Conclusion
The HIES/PSLM 2024–25 gives Balochistan something it has rarely had: statistically solid, independent evidence that its education reforms are producing the fastest improvement in Pakistan — and an equally clear measure of how far the province remains from the guarantee of Article 25-A. Half the population has now been to school; half has not. A third fewer children are out of school than six years ago; yet 45 in every 100 still are. The gender gap is closing; it remains the country's widest.
For the Department, the survey is both vindication and summons: vindication of the direction set by the Compulsory Education Act, the Sector Plan and the data-driven reforms of the past decade; and a summons to concentrate the next phase on the children the numbers single out — the never-enrolled child, the poorest quintile, and above all the rural girl.
13. References — Primary Sources
The primary source for all statistics is the PBS HIES 2024–25 Social Report (Provincial), 9th Provincial Round / 16th Round of the HIES-PSLM series, Ministry of Planning, Development & Special Initiatives, December 2025 (updated January 2026), Education chapter pp. 30–77 — hosted on this site as a full PDF (10.9 MB) ↗ and available at pbs.gov.pk ↗. Specific tables cited: Table 1(a–c) attendance and out-of-school; Table 2.1 composition of out-of-school; Tables 3 & 7 quintiles; Table 5(a–c) literacy; Tables 8–9 primary GER/NER; Table 11 government schools; Table 12 provider type; Table 13 Kachi; Tables 14–17 middle and matric; Tables 2.3 & 18–19 dropout and reasons; CI tables pp. 75–77; SDG indicators pp. 26–29.
- Constitution of Pakistan — Articles 25-A, 37(b); 18th Amendment (2010).
- Balochistan Compulsory Education Act, 2014 (Act No. V of 2014).
- Balochistan Education Sector Plan 2020–25 (with GPE and UNICEF support).
- SED Balochistan — Legal Framework of the School Education Department (companion report, 2026).
- United Nations — SDG 4 (targets 4.1–4.6) and SDG 5.