ISLAMABAD: An international rights group says millions of girls in Pakistan are still out of school, mostly because the government spends less money on education.
Human Rights Watch says they are deprived of an education for multiple reasons, including a shortage of government schools.
The New York-based watchdog says the country — which has a population of about 207 million, including an estimated 80 million school-age children — has nearly 22.5 million children that are out of school. The majority of them are girls.
The 111-page report was released on Tuesday. It is entitled “Shall I Feed My Daughter, or Educate Her?: Barriers to Girls’ Education in Pakistan.”
In 2017, Pakistan spent less than 2.8 percent of its GDP on education — far below the recommended standards of 4 to 6 percent.
Watchdog: Millions of Pakistani girls deprived of education
Watchdog: Millions of Pakistani girls deprived of education
- Human Rights Watch says they are deprived of an education for multiple reasons, including a shortage of government schools
- The watchdog says the country has nearly 22.5 million children that are out of school. The majority of them are girls
Pakistan and Italy mark 70 years of archaeological cooperation in Swat
- Founded in 1955, Italy’s Swat mission has led excavations and conservation work at major Gandhara sites
- Italian archaeologists have also contributed to training Pakistani researchers and museum development
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Italy marked 70 years of archaeological cooperation, said an official statement on Sunday, with officials highlighting decades of joint work in preserving ancient sites in the country’s northwest, where Italian researchers have played a central role in documenting and conserving remnants of the Gandhara civilization.
The Italian Archaeological Mission in Swat was established in 1955 by Italian scholar Giuseppe Tucci, a leading expert on Asian art and religions, with the aim of studying, excavating and preserving Buddhist and pre-Islamic sites in what is now Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Over the decades, the mission has become one of the longest-running foreign archaeological projects in the country, working closely with Pakistani authorities and academic institutions.
“Pakistan is committed to advancing archaeological research, conservation and education, and looks forward to deepening cooperation with Italy in both scope and dimension,” Pakistan’s Minister for National Heritage and Culture Aurangzeb Khan Khichi said while addressing a ceremony in Rome marking the mission’s anniversary.
The event was organized by Italy’s International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies (ISMEO), with support from the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and the University of Venice, and was attended by Pakistani and Italian academics, diplomats and cultural officials.
The Italian mission was originally conceived to systematically document Buddhist sites in the Swat Valley, once a major center of the ancient Gandhara civilization, which flourished from around the first century BCE and became a crossroads of South Asian, Central Asian and Hellenistic influences.
Since its inception, the mission has led or supported excavations and conservation work at several key sites, including Barikot, believed to be ancient Bazira mentioned by classical sources, as well as Butkara and Saidu Sharif, helping establish chronologies, preserve stupas and monasteries and train generations of Pakistani archaeologists.
Italian researchers have also worked with local authorities on site protection, museum development and post-conflict rehabilitation, particularly after natural disasters and periods of unrest that threatened archaeological heritage in the region.
The anniversary program featured sessions on the history of the mission, its collaboration with the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and future research areas such as archaeobotany, epigraphy and geoarchaeology.
The event was moderated by Professor Luca Maria Olivieri of the University of Venice, who has been associated with archaeological fieldwork in Pakistan for nearly four decades and was awarded Pakistan’s Sitara-e-Imtiaz for his contributions to heritage preservation.
Officials said the mission’s longevity reflected a rare continuity in international cultural cooperation and underscored Pakistan’s efforts to protect its archaeological legacy through partnerships with foreign institutions.
