Missing campuses of Sindh: Where the path to a degree has ended.
In Sindh, a child’s education can end long before the gate of the university is seen.
On paper, the school system is vast. Officials say the province has more than 41,000 public schools and between 12,000 and 13,000 private schools, serving about 9 million students, yet about 7.6 million children are out of the system overall.
The damage starts early. In the 2024 briefing, the Education Minister told the Chief Minister that over 4.1 million children are out of school after primary, as the province has only 4,730 middle and secondary schools. The dropout rate after the primary was 54 percent.
School leavers get a narrow door. The College Education Department lists 343 active public colleges for the province with a population of over 50 million.
Budget reflects priorities. For 2026/27, Sindh has allocated Rs 446.958 billion for school education, Rs 41.414 billion for colleges and Rs 9.417 billion for universities and boards. As against the total of Rs 497.789 billion, simple math puts colleges at around 8 per cent and universities and boards less than 2 per cent. Only 3.5 billion rupees have been earmarked for the development projects of the college. Other reports put education overall higher, depending on what is counted.
The loudest announcements are about school buildings. Officials say that out of the planned 838 schools, 257 will be ready by December and 611 by June. Schools matter, but a girl passing class 12 this year has no comparable program at the next level.
This gap is most pronounced in the Southeast. The University of Thar has a proposed campus at Mithi, and students from Tharparkar and Umarkot go to Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas for higher education. Sindh University has said that out of an estimated 6,000 school dropouts in Mirpurkhas and surrounding districts, including Thar, Umarkot and Sanghar, barely 1,000 make it to the big centres.
Census data shows who is left behind. The female literacy rate is 16.77% in Jati Tehsil of Sajawal and 19.63% in Chhachru Tehsil of Tharparkar. In both places, less than one in five women can read and write.
Draw a picture of a girl in Chhacharu who has just completed Intermediate. This is an example, not a designated case, but the math is real for many families. Set in Hyderabad or Mirpurkhas means rent, transport and relative’s house. His brother may be sent. She will, in many homes, be told to wait, and waiting becomes marriage. An incomplete degree becomes another statistic no one counts.
Responsibility is not diffused. The Chief Minister presented the budget in which about 8 percent of the educational expenditure was given to the colleges. The education minister told them in 2024 that very few middle and secondary schools are dropping out, so leadership knows where the pipeline breaks. The College Education Department and the Universities and Boards Department held college and university lines, and the Assembly approved the budget. There is still no public district by district map for the missing colleges and universities, and there are no historic plans to close the gap.
Sindh needs this map, seat count against dropouts, and budget for minimum districts. Until then, every promise about admission stops at the school gate.
Even after 18 years in power, Sindh is facing fundamental challenges of governance.
The post Missing campuses of Sindh: Where the path to a degree ends appeared first on Daily Pakistan English News.
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