Pakistan's Real Education Emergency | Partab Shivani on Reforms & Out-of-School Children | LUBP Ep 9

Partab Shivani, CEO of Thar Education Alliance, joins Let Us Build Pakistan to discuss why education never becomes the crisis it should be in Pakistan's national conversation - while flour and sugar prices dominate headlines. From founding Thar Education Alliance with zero budget in 2018, to Sindh's 90% primary-only girls' schools, to why community ownership matters more than government funding alone - this is a candid look at what real education reform requires in Pakistan. Subscribe to Let Us Build Pakistan: @LetsBuildPK #Pakistan #LUBP #PartabShivani #Education #Tharparkar 0:00 — Highlights 1:25 — Episode starts: Introduction to Pakistan's most under-reported crisis 2:25 — Introduction: Partab Shivani, CEO of Thar Education Alliance 4:20 — The broader theme of the show: "Thar will change Pakistan" 4:53 — Education is passion, not a business — differentiating in-school vs out-of-school children 5:27 — Starting Thar Education Alliance with zero budget in 2018 6:19 — Thar Science Festival — malnutrition, water scarcity and mega investment context 7:02 — Giving space, not charity — 4,000 children tested in science and mathematics 8:47 — Staying focused only on education, not health, WASH or disaster relief 9:00 — Learning outcomes below 30% — the real crisis behind out-of-school numbers 9:11 — Expanding to Thatta, Badin, Sujawal — districts worse off than Tharparkar 9:54 — The blacksmith's apprentice who won first place at STEAM Youth Science Festival 11:01 — Kabir's philosophy on criticism — "let the critics talk, keep building" 11:26 — USIP-supported Children's Parliament and peace-building initiative 17:53 — Being a minority in Pakistan — Partab's own childhood in Tharparkar 18:30 — Pre-digital vs post-digital life — growing up without connectivity in Malanhore Vena 20:44 — First public speech at 14 — writing speeches without AI, without connectivity 21:36 — His aunt's sand divination — predicting his father's return without any communication 22:15 — Discovering Shah Abdul Latif, Shaikh Ayaz and Kabir through village gatherings 23:56 — How information access has transformed this generation — for better and worse 25:03 — Breaking classroom hierarchy — students no longer required to stand for teachers 27:38 — Sindh's education budget — 88-90% goes to teacher salaries alone 28:36 — Which government allocated Pakistan's largest-ever education budget, and why 29:11 — The 18th Amendment and the education devolution timeline 35:41 — Zero higher secondary schools for girls in parts of Tharparkar 36:43 — 88-90% of girls' schools are primary-only — the real numbers 37:07 — Adopting a boys' school with 80-90 regularly attending girls, but no female teachers 38:01 — The uncomfortable question: why NGOs, corporates and UN agencies can't produce one 100% literacy model village 38:43 — Giving credit to Aga Khan Development Network's work in Hunza 39:51 — A teacher-centered classroom vs a child-centered one — literally observed by height 40:36 — Pakistan's assessment system punishes one bad exam day over years of consistent performance 41:12 — The student who came back years later asking where his "missing marks" went 44:51 — Corporal punishment and why children "walk out" rather than drop out 45:47 — Population control — the elephant in the room nobody addresses directly 48:58 — The 18th Amendment, devolution, and whether reversing it is a real solution 49:54 — Real accountability breakdown — a nominated exam monitor undermined by direct political connections 55:57 — Sindh's female literacy is under 20%, yet voter turnout is 82% 56:52 — MPAs who took real ownership — Ahsan Iqbal's constituency and the "Adopt-a-School" model 1:00:02 — "Man of value, not man of money" — Pakistan's career counseling problem 1:03:06 — Closing thoughts: policies exist, action is what's missing