Across Pakistan, many children of parents with disabilities carry responsibilities far beyond their age. Some help a parent move around the home. Some collect medicine before school. Some look after younger siblings. Some stay home because a parent cannot manage alone.
To a school, it may look like absence. To the child, it is survival.
Pakistan already faces one of the world’s largest education challenges. According to UNICEF Pakistan, an estimated 25.1 million children aged 5 to 16 are out of school, representing 35 percent of children in that age group. Poverty, distance, school costs, school-related expenses, and lack of facilities are often discussed as major reasons. But one hidden barrier is still rarely discussed: children whose education suffers because a parent lives with a disability.
This issue is important because disability does not affect only one person in a household. When a parent has limited mobility, vision loss, hearing impairment, or another disability, the whole family can be affected. Income may fall. Medical expenses may rise. Transport can become difficult. Daily routines can become heavier. In many low-income families, children quietly begin filling the gaps left by weak support systems.
For these children, the barrier is not always the school gate. Sometimes, it is what happens before they reach it.
A child may wake up early to help a parent move from bed to chair. A daughter may prepare meals before class. A son may miss school to accompany a parent to hospital. A sibling may stay home because there is no one else to care for younger children.
Girls are often affected more deeply. In many households, daughters are expected to manage caregiving, cooking, cleaning, and sibling care. When money is short or a parent needs daily assistance, a girl’s education may be the first to suffer. The problem is not that parents with disabilities do not value education. Many value it deeply because they understand exclusion, dependence, and limited opportunity. They want their children to study, grow, and live with dignity.
The problem is that many families are left to manage without enough support.
The World Health Organization estimates that 1.3 billion people worldwide experience significant disability. This is equal to 16 percent of the global population, or 1 in 6 people. The World Bank also notes that persons with disabilities are more likely to face difficult social and economic conditions, including less access to education, poorer health, fewer job opportunities, and higher poverty rates.
These global figures help explain why disability, poverty, and education are closely connected in countries like Pakistan. When a parent has a disability and the family lacks support, children can be pushed into adult roles too early.
This creates a gap that is often missed in both education and disability discussions.
Most education programmes focus on enrollment, school fees, books, uniforms, and classroom access. These are important, but they may not be enough for a child whose daily life is shaped by a parent’s disability. At the same time, disability support often focuses on the person with a disability, without fully addressing how the lack of support affects children in the household.
As a result, children of parents with disabilities can fall between two systems. They may not be seen as direct beneficiaries of disability support, even though their education is affected by disability-related challenges at home. They may also not be fully reached by mainstream education programmes, because the reason for their absence is not only poverty or school access. It may also be caregiving pressure, household instability, transport difficulty, medical needs, or the lack of family support.
A more effective response must therefore look beyond the classroom.
For many children of parents with disabilities, education cannot be protected only by paying school fees. A child may need books, but the family may also need transport. A child may need a uniform, but the parent may also need healthcare, mobility support, rehabilitation, or help managing daily life. A scholarship alone may not be enough if the child is still carrying adult responsibilities at home.
This is why a family-centred approach is needed.
Such an approach recognises that supporting a child’s education also means understanding the home environment. It asks whether the parent has mobility assistance, healthcare access, rehabilitation, income stability, and support for daily living. It also asks whether the child has school supplies, mentorship, transport support, and protection from excessive caregiving responsibilities.
When this wider support is provided, the benefit does not stop with one individual. It can help the whole household. It can reduce a child’s caregiving burden. It can protect school attendance. It can give a family the stability needed to keep education alive.
This is the kind of gap that specialised social enterprises and community-based models, like Niaz Support, can help address. By working at the intersection of disability, poverty, family care, and education, such initiatives can support the child without ignoring the household conditions that affect school attendance. A Centreline report described Niaz Support as one of the first global initiatives of its kind, focused on supporting non-disabled children whose parents live with disabilities. Through managed scholarship gift cards, mentorship, health support, school-related assistance, and community care, its model shows why education support must also consider the family behind the child.
This matters because children of parents with disabilities are often overlooked in both education and disability conversations. Education programmes usually focus on children with disabilities or children who are out of school because of poverty. Disability programmes usually focus on adults or individuals with disabilities. But the children of parents with disabilities also need attention, because their education can be affected by the responsibilities they carry at home.
Pakistan’s education crisis cannot be understood only through school buildings and enrollment numbers. It must also be understood through the homes where children are quietly carrying adult responsibilities.
A child should not have to choose between caring for a parent and going to school.
If Pakistan wants to bring more children back into classrooms, the country must look at the families behind the absences. When parents with disabilities are supported with dignity, their children have a stronger chance to stay in school, learn with confidence, and build a future beyond hardship.
