International Literacy Day is being observed the world over on September 8 (today). The theme this year, as arranged by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is “The Power of Literacy”, with an aim to create a literate world for all.
While the literacy rate in Pakistan has been slowly increasing since 1951, the number of illiterates has also been rising due to rapid population growth. According to a UN report, about 44 per cent of the adult population in Pakistan cannot read and write, mainly due to the inability of the formal education system to meet the learning needs of all new born children in the country.
The reason behind the theme set this year, according to the UN, is the fact that “one in five adults is still not literate, and two-thirds of them are women, while 75 million children are out of school”. Out of those 55-60 per cent children lucky enough to have been enrolled in primary schools, one third of them drop out before completing grade five, and most of them ultimately join the group of illiterates.
Perhaps a major reason for illiteracy in the country is that Pakistan has not been spending enough on basic education. In 1962, Pakistan signed an international declaration to increase its education budget up to 4 per cent of GNP by 1980. However, budget for the education sector has remained low – on average, less than one per cent of the education budget was allocated or spent for adult literacy and Non Formal Basic Education (NFBE) programmes.
The UN report further stated that absence of a proper organisational structure at various levels, low quality due to weak professional base and leadership gap or indifference of political leaders to patronise literacy movement in their areas were some other reasons of high illiteracy in the country. “Education is the responsibility of the provincial governments; however, the federal government ought to support critical areas, which are neglected or underdeveloped.
“By signing Education for All Declaration, Pakistan has committed to achieve the target of 86 per cent literacy by 2015. However, an analysis of the past trends shows that Pakistan will not be able to achieve this target unless existing pace is accelerated and country-wide programmes of adult literacy and NFBE are launched with energy and under a stronger leadership of parliamentarians, community leaders and social workers,” the report said.
Sindh Education and Literacy Minister Pir Mazharul Haq has said that the government is providing facilities for education, and had taken measures in this regard.
He said that the government is distributing textbooks free of cost, selecting teachers on merit, and making provisions for buildings to schools without shelters, while computer labs in schools and colleges of the province are also being built.
“We have provided one billion rupees for repairing schools under the Sindh Educational Reformer Programme,” he said, adding that 1,000 private schools had been established and 1,400 closed schools had reopened.s
Education Budget in Pakistan
(1995-96 to 2008-09) – - Year % of GDP
1995-96 – - 2.00
1996-97 – - 2.62
1997-98 – - 2.34
1998-99 – - 2.40
1999-00 – - 1.70
2000-01 – - 1.82
2001-02 – - 1.79
2002-03 – - 1.86
2003-04 – - 2.20
2004-05 – - 2.15
2005-06 – - 2.24
2006-07 – - 2.50
2007-08 – - 2.47
2008-09 – - 2.10
Source: Economic Survey (2002-2003, 2005-06, and 2008-09, Finance Division, Government of Pakistan. The news
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