Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan and known as the City of Lights, has a population of 20.3 million, as per the country’s seventh and first-ever digital census announced by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). This marks an increase of 4.3 million over the last five years. The city faces numerous daily challenges, including a lack of proper sewerage systems, inadequate drainage, man-made disasters, high unemployment rates, water shortages, health and hygiene, conflicts between diverse groups, and inflation. These issues disproportionately burden the low-income group. Despite these difficulties, the residents of Karachi, particularly those from the low and middle-income segments, continue to have high hopes and expectations for their children to receive education and improve their family’s standard of living. Unfortunately, after exerting great efforts to provide education to their children, parents often do not receive satisfactory results. In the same way, Pakistan’s government schools only enroll 60% of the country’s students and cater to just 7.3 million students in post-primary schools. This is due to cumulative education expenditures by the Federal and Provincial Governments in FY2022, estimated at 1.7% of GDP, as per the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2022-23. The consequence of low expenditure on education is that 17 million children in the age group of 10-16 remain out of school. While the private sector partially fills this gap, it is far from an adequate alternative to meet the educational needs of Pakistan’s school-going children. The private schooling sector is severely unregulated and often produces equally poor learning outcomes, making it unaffordable for the poorest 40% of the Pakistani population. To better understand the overall situation of the education system of Pakistan, let’s consider an example. Suppose that 40% of children do not even have the opportunity to enroll in schools because the Pakistani government is not financially stable enough to accommodate such a large population. However, the government has the chance to educate 60% of the youth population, which represents our future. Yet, within this 60%, 15% are children from low and middle-income backgrounds may not be serious about education due to a lack of basic facilities and resources at home. Some are forced into the labor force due to a lack of time for studies, while others are not interested by personal choice. This raises the question of why the remaining population, except for a few from low and middle-income groups, struggles to prove themselves in multinational and high-paying jobs, even though they hold the same degrees as those from elite private institutes who secure such jobs with ease. This disparity in access and success in high-paying jobs points to flaws in the education system. Who is responsible for these disparities and education deprivation? Are the students to blame, given the years they dedicate to becoming competitive in the job market? Are parents responsible for sacrificing their own needs and resources to pay their children’s school fees? The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, particularly Goal 4 related to Quality Education, emphasize the importance of inclusive, equitable, and quality education for all. Similarly, Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan also places the responsibility on the state to provide free education to children aged 5 to 16. However, the state fails to fulfill this obligation effectively. To understand the pattern of the education system in Karachi more precisely, the focus is on pre-primary and primary schools. This foundational level of schooling caters to children during early childhood, typically between the ages of 3 to 12, and is pivotal for their cognitive development. According to the UNESCO Report of 2023, investing in Early Childhood Education is essential, as quality early learning and pre-primary education ensure that young children are “ready for school” and have a high positive impact on primary school enrollment, survival, learning, and cost-effectiveness. Another reason for selecting neighborhood-level schools is that many parents prefer enrolling their children in schools closer to their homes, which saves them time and money on commuting and addresses security concerns. This is a primary factor that influence parents to enroll their children in neighborhood-level schools or low-fee private schools that cater to the low and middle-income class. Additionally, Pakistan faces a serious challenge in ensuring that all children, especially the most disadvantaged, attend, stay in, and learn in school. Despite improvements in enrollment and retention rates, progress has been slow in improving education indicators in Pakistan. According to the PSLM 2019-20 report, 32% of children in the country are out of school, with a higher rate of female out-of-school children (37%) than males (27%). Punjab has a 24% out-of-school rate, Sindh 44%, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 32%, and Balochistan 47%. In all provinces, more females are out of school than males. The UNESCO report of 2023 highlights that Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children, with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 not attending school, representing 44% of the total population in this age group. In the 5-9 age group, 5 million children are not enrolled in schools, and after primary-school age, the number of out-of-school children doubles, with 11.4 million adolescents between the ages of 10-14 not receiving formal education. The disparities based on gender, socio-economic status, and geography are significant; in Sindh, 52% of the poorest children (58% girls) are out of school. These statistics illustrate the dire situation in Pakistan regarding the provision of basic childhood education. Now, looking at the situation of primary schools, there are only 157,360 primary schools with 466,451 teachers in Pakistan, as per the Economic Survey of 2010-2011. After the 18th amendment to the constitution, the number of functional primary schools increased to 180,200, with 476,500 corresponding teachers recorded in the country, as per the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2022-2023. Based on enrollment data, pre-primary enrollment was 8.743 million in 2009-10 at the national level, with a difference of 2.65%, reaching 11.4 million in 2020-2021, as per the Economic Survey of 2022-2023. This figure is significantly lower when compared to the annual population growth rate, which is recorded at 2.55% this year. After thoroughly analyzing this data, my personal viewpoint is that we need to first understand early childhood education and need to conduct more authentic and deep-rooted research on educational institutions, both private and public, present at the neighborhood level. This will help us uncover the loopholes and hidden realities of this fragile education system, allowing us to work towards its improvement. The writer is a student of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) at NED University.