Pakistan’s out-of-school children are often discussed as a statistic, but they are better understood as a governance test. When a child is not in school, it rarely reflects a single parental choice; it reflects a chain of institutional failures, including poverty that pushes children into work, schools that are too far or too unsafe, hidden costs that punish the poorest, and a system that enrolls children in bursts but loses them quietly over time. In that sense, “non-school-going children” are not outside the system; they are the system’s blind spot.
That is why the Federal Steering Committee of ICT on Out-of-School Children (OOSC) meeting held in Islamabad on 23 February 2026 matters. Chaired by Federal Secretary Nadeem Mahbub at the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, the Committee’s first sitting did something Pakistan has often struggled to do: it shifted the conversation from aspiration to delivery. The Committee set the direction for implementing the Federal Action Plan for OOSC 2025–2030 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), explicitly prioritizing faster enrolment, stronger retention, and tighter coordination across institutions.
The most promising signal is the immediate rollout package, which targets three weak joints where education reforms usually fracture: identification, targeting, and follow-through. The plan includes GIS-based hotspot mapping, a household survey across all urban and rural Union Councils 125 (previously 36), UC-wise micro-plans, and integration with the NFEMIS live dashboard for real-time tracking and quarterly reviews. This is not just a technical detail; it is the architecture of accountability. When the state can locate children, disaggregate barriers, and track enrolment and retention in near real time, it becomes harder for “progress” to remain a press release and easier for it to become a measurable outcome.
Equally important is who sat at the table. Education cannot fix OOSC alone because the drivers sit across social protection and public health. The Committee’s notified representation from BISP, the Ministry of National Health Services, the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety, and the ICT Administration, alongside education delivery institutions and the private education regulator, and with partners like UNICEF, JICA, and UNESCO, signals a whole-of-system intent. But intent must become interoperability through shared data rules, aligned incentives, and clear referral pathways so that a child identified by a survey can be linked to cash support, health services, and a school seat without administrative dead ends.
The announced enrolment campaign, “No Child Left Behind,” scheduled for Wednesday, 25 February 2026, under the declared education emergency, can create the urgency Pakistan needs. Yet campaigns succeed only when they treat retention as the core metric rather than an afterthought. Enrolling a child is the easiest win; keeping that child learning through the school year is the real test. Micro-plans should therefore include early-warning triggers such as attendance drops, seasonal labour shortages, and migration, followed by rapid responses through transport support, conditional cash nudges, and catch-up learning.
ICT has an opportunity to prove that Pakistan can move from slogans to systems. If hotspot mapping, household verification, and dashboard governance work here, the country gains more than enrolled children; it gains a replicable model of state capacity.
About the Author
Dr. Shahbaz Tariq is a strategic leader and researcher based in Islamabad with 15+ years of experience in NGOs, diplomatic missions, and academia. He is Head of Research at Freedom Gate Prosperity and Adjunct Faculty at Hamdard University.
Contact: +92 333 7473003 | shahbaz.tariq@fgp.org.pk
