South Asia

==Education==
[[File:Durbar High School 6.jpg|thumb|[[Durbar High School]], oldest secondary school of [[Nepal]], established in 1854 CE]]
[[File:Sri Lanka Photo159.jpg|thumb|Lower class school in Sri Lanka]]
[[File:College of Natural Resources, Royal University of Bhutan-min.jpg|thumb|College of Natural Resources, Royal University of Bhutan]]

One of the key challenges in assessing the quality of education in South Asia is the vast range of contextual difference across the region, complicating any attempt to compare between countries.<ref name=SZ13>Suzana Brinkmann, [https://www.unicef.org/rosa/media/6991/file/Improving%20Education%20Quality%20in%20South%20Asia%20(I)_30Aug_019_Web.pdf.pdf Improving Education Quality in South Asia] (I), page 13, United Nations Children's Fund, Regional Office for South Asia, Nepal, 2018</ref> In 2018, 11.3&nbsp;million children at the primary level and 20.6&nbsp;million children at the lower secondary level were out-of-school in South Asia, while millions of children completed primary education without mastering the foundational skills of basic numeracy and literacy.<ref name=ESAFS>[https://www.unicef.org/rosa/what-we-do/education#:~:text=Education%20is%20a%20basic%20human,are%20out%2Dof%2Dschool. Education: South Asia], UNICEF</ref>

According to UNESCO, 241 million children between six and fourteen years or 81 percent of the total were not learning in Southern and Central Asia in 2017. Only sub-Saharan Africa had a higher rate of children not learning. Two-thirds of these children were in school, sitting in classrooms. Only 19% of children attending primary and lower secondary schools attain a minimum proficiency level in reading and mathematics.<ref name=MoreT>[http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/fs46-more-than-half-children-not-learning-en-2017.pdf ''More than One-Half of Children and Adolescents are not learning worldwide''], Fact Sheet No.46, UNESCO Institute for Statistics September 2017</ref><ref name=SZ3>Suzana Brinkmann, [https://www.unicef.org/rosa/media/6991/file/Improving%20Education%20Quality%20in%20South%20Asia%20(I)_30Aug_019_Web.pdf.pdf Improving Education Quality in South Asia] (I), page 3, United Nations Children's Fund, Regional Office for South Asia, Nepal, 2018</ref> According to a citizen-led assessment, only 48% in Indian public schools and 46% of children in Pakistan public schools could read a class two level text by the time they reached class five.<ref>[http://aserpakistan.org/report ASER Pakistan] (2015). Annual Status of Education Report (Facilitated by SAFED). ASER Centre<br />[http://www.asercentre.org//p/289.html ASER India] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200903005918/http://www.asercentre.org//p/289.html |date=3 September 2020 }} (2016). Annual Status of Education Report (Facilitated by Pratham). ASER Centre</ref><ref name=SZ3/> This poor quality of education in turn has contributed to some of the highest drop-out rates in the world, while over half of the students complete secondary school with acquiring requisite skills.<ref name=SZ3/>

In South Asia, classrooms are teacher-centred and rote-based, while children are often subjected to corporal punishment and discrimination.<ref name=ESAFS/> Different South Asian countries have different education structures. While by 2018 India and Pakistan has two of the most developed and increasingly decentralised education systems, Bangladesh still had a highly centralised system, and Nepal is in a state of transition from a centralized to a decentralized system.<ref name=SZ13/> In most South Asian countries children's education is theoretically free; the exceptions are the Maldives, where there is no constitutionally guaranteed free education, as well as Bhutan and Nepal, where fees are charged by primary schools. But parents are still faced with unmanageable secondary financial demands, including private tuition to make up for the inadequacies of the education system.<ref name=Oxfam4>[https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/120598/pi-girls%27-education-south-asia-192305-en.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Girls' Education in South Asia], page 4, Education and Gender Equality Series, Programme Insights, Oxfam GB. February 2006</ref>

The larger and poorer countries in the region, like India and Bangladesh, struggle financially to get sufficient resources to sustain an education system required for their vast populations, with an added challenge of getting large numbers of out-of-school children enrolled into schools.<ref name=SZ13/> Their capacity to deliver inclusive and equitable quality education is limited by low levels of public finance for education,<ref name=ESAFS/> while the smaller emerging middle-income countries like Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan have been able to achieve universal primary school completion, and are in a better position to focus on quality of education.<ref name=SZ13/>

Children's education in the region is also adversely affected by natural and human-made crises including natural hazards, political instability, rising extremism and civil strife that makes it difficult to deliver educational services.<ref name=ESAFS/> Afghanistan and India are among the top ten countries with the highest number of reported disasters due to natural hazards and conflict. The precarious security situation in Afghanistan is a big barrier in rolling out education programmes on a national scale.<ref name=SZ13/>

According to UNICEF, girls face incredible hurdles to pursue their education in the region,<ref name=ESAFS/> while UNESCO estimated in 2005 that 24 million girls of primary-school age in the region were not receiving any formal education.<ref>[https://en.unesco.org/gem-report/report/2006/literacy-life Global Monitoring Report 2006: Literacy for Life], UNESCO, Paris</ref><ref>[https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/120598/pi-girls%27-education-south-asia-192305-en.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Girls' Education in South Asia], page 1, Education and Gender Equality Series, Programme Insights, Oxfam GB. February 2006</ref> Between 1900 and 2005, most of the countries in the region had shown progress in girls' education with Sri Lanka and the Maldives significantly ahead of the others, while the gender gap in education has widened in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Bangladesh made the greatest progress in the region in the period increasing girls' secondary school enrolment from 13 percent to 56 percent in ten years.<ref name=ERC>{{cite book |last1=Unterhalter |first1=Elaine |last2=Rajagopalan |first2=Rajee |last3=Challender |first3=Chloe |year=2005 |title=A Scorecard on gender equality and girls' education in Asia 1990–2000 |publisher=UNESCO |location=Bangkok |isbn=92-9223-041-7}}</ref><ref name=Oxfam2>[https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/120598/pi-girls%27-education-south-asia-192305-en.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Girls' Education in South Asia], page 2, Education and Gender Equality Series, Programme Insights, Oxfam GB. February 2006</ref>

With about 21 million students in 700 universities and 40 thousand colleges India had one of the largest higher education systems in the world in 2011, accounting for 86 percent of all higher-level students in South Asia. Bangladesh (two million) and Pakistan (1.8&nbsp;million) stood at distant second and third positions in the region. In Nepal (390 thousand) and Sri Lanka (230 thousand) the numbers were much smaller. Bhutan with only one university and Maldives with none hardly had between them about 7000 students in higher education in 2011. The gross enrolment ratio in 2011 ranged from about 10 percent in Pakistan and Afghanistan to above 20 percent in India, much below the global average of 31 percent.<ref name=Tilak>Jandhyala B.G. Tilak, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/24372963?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Higher Education in South Asia: Crisis and Challenges], page 5, Social Scientist, Vol. 43, No. 1/2 (January–February 2015)</ref>
[[File:IOE,Central Campus.jpg|thumb|244x244px|I[[Institute of Engineering]], [[Pulchowk Campus]], [[Nepal]]]]
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2"| Parameters
!Afghanistan|| Bangladesh|| Bhutan || India || Maldives || Nepal || Pakistan || Sri Lanka
|-
| colspan="2" |Primary School Enrollment<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.NENR|title=School enrollment, primary (% net) {{!}} Data|website=World Bank|access-date=26 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701185547/http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.NENR|archive-date=1 July 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>
|29%||90%||85%||92%||94%||96%||73%||98%
|-
| colspan="2" |Secondary School Enrollment<ref>{{cite web|url=http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.SEC.ENRR/countries|title=Gross enrolment ratio, secondary, both sexes (%) – Data|website=World Bank|access-date=3 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150516152545/http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.SEC.ENRR/countries|archive-date=16 May 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>
|49%||54%||78%||68%||N/A||72%||45%||96%
|}