Human Development Centre Pakistan

There are 50 million children not attending primary school in South Asia. Another 40 per cent drop out of school every year. Yet, despite the fact that South Asia has emerged as the most illiterate region in the world, universal primary education for all in the next five years is not a utopian vision but an achievable reality. Police-makers not only can, but must, act now to end the region's shameful neglect of basic education. This is the central message that emerges from the 1998 Report on Human Development in South Asia.