QUETTA: Balochistan Education Minister Raheela Hameed Khan Durrani said Monday that the province faces its “biggest challenge” from the massive number of out-of-school children and the lack of reliable data to address high dropout rates.
Speaking at a policy roundtable, she said policymakers must strengthen their capacity through deep analysis to confront the crisis. She added that her ministry is committed to reducing the dropout rate, particularly among girls, by adopting effective new tools.
The roundtable, convened by the Data and Research in Education-Research Consortium (DARE-RC), aimed to align its research with Balochistan’s education policies.
“I am grateful to DARE-RC for approaching us, and we hope its work will help us achieve this goal,” Durrani said.
Representatives from government, academia, and development partners attended the event to discuss emerging evidence and integrate research into provincial priorities.
DARE-RC is a partnership between Oxford Policy Management (OPM), the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED), and Sightsavers, with support from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Officials and researchers stressed the need to promote a culture of data use in education to improve access and quality for all children.
Salim Salamah, education policy adviser at the British High Commission, said Pakistan must build a bridge between research and reform. “There is a lot of valuable research by Pakistani academics, and there are concerned policymakers working to advance reforms, especially for out-of-school children,” he said.
Asfandyar Khan Kakar, secretary of the Balochistan School Education Department, said such dialogues are vital to link government work with academic insights. “Research isn’t generally encouraged in the public sector, and this gap must be bridged. I encourage promoting research in our work and using Balochistan’s local resources to drive change,” he said.
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DARE-RC program director Saima Anwer said the consortium’s mission is to make academic work relevant for officials. “The spirit of DARE-RC is to bridge the gap between research and policymaking so that research in universities becomes useful for government priorities,” she said.
