Alight Enrolls 637,000 Children in School in Pakistan

In 2019, Alight and its partners in Pakistan enrolled 637,000 children – previously not in school – into Pakistan’s formal education system. And we’re on track to put one million Pakistani children into school before the end of 2020.

Pakistan has one of the highest rates of children out-of-school in the world. In 2018, one quarter of school-aged children in Pakistan were not enrolled in the country’s formal education system. And girls are disproportionately affected – 31% of Pakistani primary school-aged girls are not in school.

Through grassroots outreach at the community and family level, Alight has made a big impact on the future prospects for Pakistani young people across the country – from Punjab to Balochistan to Sindh. In addition to getting hundreds of thousands of kids into classrooms, Alight has been working to improve their educational experience.

Our Pakistan team has made renovations to hundreds of schools and classrooms, including: improving water and sanitation facilities; delivering electricity through solar solutions; providing books and school supplies to families unable to afford them; and providing ongoing professional training to teachers.

“It’s a really big deal, changing the future for Pakistan and for 1 million children,” said Alight CEO Daniel Wordsworth. “Our promise as an organization is to unleash the abundance in every person, and there are few better ways to do that than educating a child.”

“It’s an incredible thing,” said Cyma Ashraf, Roving Global Support Officer. “When a little girl – who never thought she’d have the chance – first learns that she’ll be going to school. To witness that thousands of times over has been unbelievable.”

Alight’s campaign to enroll 1 million kids in school is run in partnership with the Government of Pakistan and Education Above All Qatar, under the latter’s Educate-A-Child program.