ISLAMABAD: Ten-year-old Nasia Khan used to watch other children leave for school while she stayed home, kept from classrooms by the distance from her family’s settlement and her laborer father’s fear for her safety on the journey.

Now she walks to a makeshift school in her own neighborhood, Farash Town on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital, where she studies English, mathematics and Urdu.

Khan is among thousands of children being brought into education through non-formal learning centers as authorities try to tackle a problem that persists even in Islamabad, where poverty, migration and lack of nearby schools leave children outside the conventional education system.

A door-to-door survey by the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) has identified 26,916 out-of-school children in Islamabad, with around 18,000 so far enrolled in formal, private or non-formal schools, according to NCHD officials.

“When we came to this settlement, the school was very far away and my father wouldn’t let me go to a distant school, thinking someone might kidnap me,” Khan told Arab News inside the tent school in Farash Town, where dozens of children were taking lessons.

“When this school opened, I joined it and came to this school,” she said. “First, I came, and after that my siblings got admitted. Two sisters study in nursery and one studies in prep.”

Pakistan faces one of the world’s largest out-of-school populations. The country’s 2023 census counted around 25.4 million children aged five to 16 outside school, including 89,127 in Islamabad.

The more recent NCHD survey targeted communities across the capital to identify children currently outside education and find places for them in government and private schools or non-formal centers in underserved areas.

“Islamabad attracts migrants from across Pakistan looking for work or daily labor. They live in rented homes, and if their work shifts from one sector to another, they relocate their entire family,” NCHD Director of Education Habibullah Khan told Arab News. “This inter-district and intra-district migrations are a major factor.”

Poverty compounds the problem. In neighborhoods without government schools, families may be unable to afford private fees or the cost and difficulty of transporting young children elsewhere. Security concerns and cultural restrictions can create additional barriers for girls.

Habibullah said around 55 percent of children enrolled through NCHD’s non-formal education program were girls.

The centers are intended as a bridge into conventional schooling rather than a permanent alternative. Communities provide classroom space and teachers are recruited locally, while the government supplies uniforms, textbooks, notebooks and stationery.

Children work through primary grades before being moved into formal schools when possible, Habibullah said.

For some, the route back to a classroom follows years of disruption.

Abrar Ahmed, 14, moved with his family from the northwestern Waziristan district in 2021 after worsening militancy disrupted schooling in his hometown. After arriving in Islamabad, he remained out of school for another two years.

“When I came here from the village, the conditions were bad there. The school there was closed due to one thing and another thing. I came here to Islamabad; we got home on rent,” Ahmed said.

“I started attending school here. I am in the 5th grade,” said Ahmed, who wants to become a doctor. “If things weren’t bad back then, I would have been in the 8th grade.”

Non-formal centers typically enroll 20 to 30 children, including those who have never attended school and those who dropped out after completing several grades.

“We enrolled some of these children into formal education through Federal Directorate of Education schools, and others into private schools,” Habibullah said.

“However, there were many areas where government schools were non-existent, and parents could not afford private school fees. In those locations, we implemented international best practices through non-formal education.”

For Khan, access to a classroom has already brought three of her younger siblings into school with her.

“When I finish my studies, I will become a teacher,” she said.