Fact-check: Have 35,000 children dropped out of schools due to inflation in Quetta?

Social media users have shared posts with a false claim that as per a United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report, inflation in Pakistan has forced 35,000 children out of schools in Quetta, Balochistan.

Claim

On July 13, a user wrote on Facebook that due to inflation, in Quetta alone over 35,000 children have been taken out of schools by their parents to work, according to a UNICEF report.

This post had been shared 21 times and liked over 100 times, at the time of writing.

Similar claims have also been published by other Facebook users and on Twitter as well.

Fact

The US-based UNICEF has not compiled or published any such data, finding or report in recent months.

“I have double-checked with our Quetta office as well and frankly speaking UNICEF has not published any such report,” Abdul Sami Malik, the communication specialist at UNICEF in Islamabad, told Geo Fact Check, “However, we are working on a survey with the education department of the government of Balochistan to calculate how many children have dropped out [of schools] during this period in the province.”

He added that nothing is final as yet and the data will only be published after the government of Balochistan verifies the findings of UNICEF.

“This figure of 35,000 children dropping out in Quetta doesn’t look likely or authentic,” Sami said, “But we are still working on this.”

As per the official data so far, 22.8 million children aged between 5-16 years do not attend schools in Pakistan.

— Additional reporting by Fayyaz Hussain.

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