I remember standing by the window of my childhood home, watching children walk to school with satchels slung over their shoulders. Their laughter filled the air, their futures quietly unfolding with every step toward the classroom. But what about those whose feet never touched a schoolyard? What about the silent one-third — the forgotten children of Pakistan — who have never even seen the inside of a classroom?
According to the latest reports by UNICEF and Pakistan’s Ministry of Education, over 22.8 million children aged 5-16 are out of school. That means nearly one out of every three children in Pakistan is being denied the fundamental right to education. These are not mere numbers; these are living, breathing futures — wasted, dimmed, silenced.
Why does this happen? The reasons are many, but the most heartbreaking are the ones that come from poverty and ignorance. I’ve spoken to parents in remote villages who say, “What will school bring when food is scarce?” I’ve seen young girls kept at home because educating a daughter is seen as ‘useless’ in some conservative corners. I’ve seen flood-ravaged districts where the very buildings meant to be schools are in ruins — promises broken by disasters and government neglect.
Even in cities, where schools stand tall, the invisible walls of poverty block the way. Can a child who labors at a mechanic shop all day dare to dream of books and blackboards? Can a girl, married at fourteen, imagine sitting in a classroom?
The consequences of this neglect are not distant or abstract. They live among us — in the illiterate youth unable to find decent work, in the cycles of poverty that choke generations, in the extremist ideologies that prey on the uneducated. When one-third of our children are left behind, the whole nation suffers. We are building a future on sand, not stone.
But this darkness is not inevitable.
When communities come together to build village schools, when teachers volunteer in slums, when organizations like The Citizens Foundation (TCF) open their doors to the poorest — change happens. In my own city, I’ve seen government schools revived by the efforts of ordinary citizens. One such school, once empty and crumbling, is now alive with students who recite poetry and solve math problems with shy pride.
It is no longer enough to shrug and say “this is how it is.” If we remain silent, complicit in this theft of childhood, we fail not only these children but ourselves.
I dream of a Pakistan where no child is turned away from education — where the laughter of children on their way to school fills every street, from Karachi to Khyber.
But dreams require action. It’s time for leaders, parents, teachers — all of us — to fight for the one-third that has been forgotten for too long.
Because a nation that leaves a third of its children behind can never truly move forward.
Sharaf Abdul Majeed
From SFA Family