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PESHAWAR, Jul 08 (APP):Every morning, 14-year-old Mustafa Shah weaves his way through the narrow alleys of inner Peshawar, a handcart of vegetables and fruits straining before him.
His face bears the dust of the street and the fatigue of a man far older than his years in hot weather.
After losing his father to pancreatic cancer, Mustafa abandoned his education to help repay medical loans and support his family of eight in present days of unprecedented price hike in KP.
“My father wanted to see me become a doctor,” he says, eyes brimming with quiet sorrow. “Now I just watch the schoolchildren pass by and think about what could have been as poverty snatched my dreams.”
Mustafa’s story is a haunting echo of a widespread crisis brewing across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)– a steep and silent rise in illiteracy, especially among children from marginalized and low-income families.
Though less visible than a natural disaster or political turmoil, illiteracy has emerged as a powerful saboteur—chipping away at the province’s hopes for sustainable economic growth and social equity.
According to data from the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP) survey, over 3.9 million children in KP are out of school.
The gender disparity is stark as 2.9 million of these children are girls in settled districts. The numbers in the merged tribal districts are equally alarming, where one million children aged 5 to 16 years remain unenrolled.
Some districts present particularly dire figures such as Palas Kolai – 77% out-of-school children, Upper Kohistan 70%, North and South Waziristan 60%, Mohmand and Khyber 51%, Orakzai and Kurram 47%.
In many of these regions, poverty, cultural constraints, lack of infrastructure, and insecurity continue to deprive children especially girls of even the most basic access to education.
“Education is the backbone of any progressive society. Free education is a constitutional right, not a luxury” emphasized Professor Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim, former Director of Education KP.
He warned that rising illiteracy does not just affect individual futures; it stalls economic productivity, fosters dependency, and undermines social stability. Child labour, like in Mustafa’s case, becomes a necessity for survival but at the cost of long-term development.
The harsh realities are visible across KP where many schools without classrooms, toilets, or drinking water as well as boundary walls.
Families who can’t afford school supplies, uniforms, or transport, cultural taboos against girls’ education, particularly in tribal and conservative areas are among factors create a negative cycle of poverty that drives dropouts, unemployment and illiteracy.
Despite the gloom, the KP government insists it is making strides to combat the illiteracy and students dropout crisis.
“We have launched aggressive initiatives to bring out-of-school children back to classrooms,” said KP Education Minister Faisal Khan Tarakai.
He said key initiatives include1,053 second-shift schools (588 for boys, 465 for girls), accommodating 70,000 students, enrollment of 830,000 children in 2025, Rs 364 billion education budget, with Rs 19 billion reserved for development, construction of 500 new classrooms and restoration of 10 historic schools.
To tackle infrastructure and capacity issues, the province is building 41 new primary and 12 secondary schools, upgrading 54 existing ones, and launching smart classrooms and digital attendance systems.
A particularly promising initiative is the Education Card—an integrated solution that offers students access to textbooks, scholarships, stipends, and educational materials.
The teachers licensing program is being introduced to raise teaching standards. Meanwhile, recruitment of 16,500 new teachers and training of 30,000 recent hires is underway.
Special attention is being given to the tribal areas with.Rs 1.5 billion for 50 new schools, Rs 278 million for school boundary walls and sanitation and Rs 470 million for additional classrooms in two-room primary schools.
To address the gender divide, he said that KP is running 3,553 girls’ community schools under the Elementary and Secondary Education Foundation (ESEF), and 14,150 students are benefiting from online education through the Poha Scheme.
Free school bags, stationery, and incentives are being offered to ease the burden on families and encourage enrollment, especially for girls.
While the efforts are commendable and ambitious, the gap between policy and ground realities remains wide in KP.
Experts cautioned that unless these initiatives are implemented with rigorous monitoring and community engagement, they may fall short of stemming the crisis.
“Enrollment drives must be backed by strong retention strategies,” says Dr. Ibrahim. “Building schools is not enough. We must ensure they are functional, staffed, and safe.”
Children like Mustafa represent more than lost opportunities– they are reminders of what’s at stake. Each dropout is a blow to KP’s potential workforce, each illiterate child a missed opportunity for innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
For KP to progress, it must win its war against illiteracy. Otherwise, its economic ambitions may remain trapped in the same stalls and handcarts that have come to define the fate of too many children like Mustafa Shah.