A careful reading of the Pakistan Economic Survey 2025–26 reveals a striking paradox. While the government celebrates the continued expansion of universities, the same official document quietly records a decline in primary and middle schools, fewer teachers at the primary level, and persistent deficiencies in basic school facilities. These trends raise an important question: are Pakistan's educational priorities becoming increasingly detached from the foundations on which every successful education system is built?

The Pakistan Economic Survey 2025–26 reveals the government's priorities and its vision for the future. According to the Survey, Pakistan now has 278 universities, comprising 163 public and 115 private institutions. At the time of independence in 1947, the country had only two universities. Judged in isolation, this represents an impressive expansion of higher education. But viewed alongside another set of figures from the same Survey, the story takes a very different turn.

The number of primary and middle schools in Pakistan has been steadily declining. Primary schools fell from 168,241 in 2022–23 to 158,713 in 2023–24 and are estimated at 154,964 in 2024–25. Middle schools followed the same trend, declining from 51,033 to 44,426, with a further reduction to an estimated 43,931 over the same period. In just two years, Pakistan lost more than 13,000 primary schools and over 7,000 middle schools, even as the number of universities continued to grow.

The Survey offers no explanation for these declines. Were schools merged with neighbouring institutions? Were primary schools upgraded to middle schools and middle schools upgraded to secondary schools? Were schools closed because of declining enrolment, or were they simply removed from official records? Any of these could represent legitimate policy decisions. The concern is not the possibility of administrative restructuring but the absence of any explanation in the government's principal annual review of the education sector. Without such clarification, readers cannot determine whether the decline reflects reclassification or a genuine contraction of the school system.

The numbers become even more troubling when read together. While the number of primary schools declined, enrolment increased from 24.6 million in 2022–23 to an estimated 25.7 million in 2024–25. At the same time, the number of primary teachers fell from 506,019 to........

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