A Case Study of Pakistan Determinants of Female Labour Force in South Asia 5. Women and Education This chapter gives an overall picture of the education scenario in South Asia in general and Pakistan in particular. As the main emphasis of this study is on educational attainment and how it affects the FLFP, this chapter gives a brief overview of education followed by an explanation of factors behind low education in South Asia. This chapter prepares the background for moving onto the methodology chapter. 5.1. Regional Outlook Girls’ education has become a global civil rights issue. Yet, despite numerous international bodies like UNICEF, World Bank, and many national governments strategically highlighting this issue as a fundamental human right, around the world, 132 million girls are out of school(Girls’ Education| UNICEF, n.d.). For decades, newspaper headiness report barriers to girls’ education, for instance“poverty, child marriages and gender-based violence” but have we made any positive difference? In South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, girl’s education falls behind boys’ education most dramatically. Be it any indicator i-e measures of literacy, dropout rates, enrolment rates, and years of schooling, women lag behind men substantially(S. R. Khan, 1993a, p. 176). Though there has been progress in closing the gender gaps in education in South Asia from 20% in 2006 to 6% in 2020 however, the absolute educational attainment levels are still deficient. The main issue is that of literacy. Though the definition of literacy evolves and varies between countries and even between different data sources, UNESCO recommended a uniform definition for international comparisons. Moving beyond the conventional definition of people who could read and write a short statement, literacy is now explained as“ a means of identification, understanding, interpretation, creation, and communication in an increasingly digital, text-mediated, information­rich and fast-changing world ”(Literacy, n.d.). As of 2020, only 46% of women are literate compared with 71% of men in Pakistan(World Economic Forum, 2020). 29