Education for Sustainable Development: Challenges in Pakistan

Abstract

Education for sustainable development must be seen in the context of Pakistan. According to (UNESCO 2012) Education for All Global Monitoring Report released in 2012, Pakistan has the world’s second highest number of children out of school. Among these, number of girls out of school is higher (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002175/217509E.pdf. Accessed on November 21, 2014). The high rate of illiteracy is one of the major hurdles for the country in path of development while poverty creates another hindrance to a lack of budget availability to be spent on education. On the other hand the country has a large expenditure on security to maintain the army in the border area. Illiteracy coupled with poverty is leading to inequality in terms of access to resources and also hampering pace of development. The majority of the population is dependent on natural resources resulting into uncontrolled use and environmental deterioration. Education leading to environment conservation and sustainable development needs to be addressed. This poses challenge for curriculum developers and policy makers as they seek to match the target of numeracy and literacy of people while at the same time building consciousness for following a path of sustainability.