- News>
- Asia
US to give Pakistan 100 million dollars for education
Islamabad, June 05: The United States will give Pakistan 100 million dollars for education over the next five years, US Ambassador Nancy Powell announced today.
Islamabad, June 05: The United States will give Pakistan 100 million dollars for education over the next five years, US Ambassador Nancy Powell announced today.
Making the pledge at a seminar in Islamabad on child labour, Powell cited Government figures that showed 51 per cent of Pakistani children over 10 years old have never attended school.
"Many of these children are toiling right now, enduring backbreaking labour and criminally unhealthy conditions," Powell said.
In 2002, 15.4 per cent of all children between 10 and 14 years old in Pakistan were working, according to International Labour Organisation estimates.
Some 3.3 million children, aged between five and 14, were involved in child labour in 1996, according to a joint ILO-Pakistan government survey.
"The persistence of bonded and trafficked labour in Pakistan is perhaps the most troubling aspect of the child labour crisis," Powell said.
"These practices also undermine Pakistan's long-term prospects for economic development."
Education spending in Pakistan last year was as low as 2.2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product.
The Government's social welfare advisor, Neelofur Bakhiar, told the seminar that almost seven million Pakistani school-age children are not in school.
"About 15 percent of boys and 50 percent of girls do not enter school," Bakhtiar said.
Bureau Report
"Many of these children are toiling right now, enduring backbreaking labour and criminally unhealthy conditions," Powell said.
In 2002, 15.4 per cent of all children between 10 and 14 years old in Pakistan were working, according to International Labour Organisation estimates.
Some 3.3 million children, aged between five and 14, were involved in child labour in 1996, according to a joint ILO-Pakistan government survey.
"The persistence of bonded and trafficked labour in Pakistan is perhaps the most troubling aspect of the child labour crisis," Powell said.
"These practices also undermine Pakistan's long-term prospects for economic development."
Education spending in Pakistan last year was as low as 2.2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product.
The Government's social welfare advisor, Neelofur Bakhiar, told the seminar that almost seven million Pakistani school-age children are not in school.
"About 15 percent of boys and 50 percent of girls do not enter school," Bakhtiar said.
Bureau Report