Every afternoon in Pakistan, a second school day begins. Streets in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and Peshawar clog with uniformed children hurrying not home, but to tuition centres tucked into basements, plazas and living rooms. Parents call it "extra help", but it is, in truth, a second schooling, a parallel system thriving in the shadows because the first one has failed. What was once considered extra help has quietly become a second schooling. This surge is not a sign of ambition, but of institutional failure. Parents are paying twice because the system isn't delivering once.

Pakistan's literacy rate has stubbornly hovered around 62 to 63 per cent for years, placing it near the bottom in South Asia. This is not a mark of ambition. It is an indictment, especially when over 22 million children remain out of school. Even for those who are enrolled, learning outcomes are bleak. The ASER 2023 survey found that fewer than half of........

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