Illiteracy In Pakistan Part 1

1. Introduction
2. Meaning of illiteracy
3. Importance of literacy
4. Benefits of high literacy rate
5. Criteria for determining the literacy status
6. How to raise the literacy rate
7. Education in Pakistan
8. Literacy rate, population and GDP growth
9. Gender education
10. National education policy 1998-2010
11. Ten year development plan
12. Private sector educational institutions
13. Higher education
14. Information technology
15. Education Sector Reforms (ESR)
16. Education for All (EFA)
17. Causes of illiteracy in Pakistan
18. Effects of illiteracy
19. Education planning; some considerations
20. Suggestions
21. Conclusion

It is now universally recognized fact that mass education is a pre requisite for the development and prosperity of a country. The main priority of developing countries, in recent years, has been to foster the development and renewal of primary education and to eliminate illiteracy. Pakistan, unfortunately, like the other under developed countries, has made little progress in this aspect. Since independence, she continues to remain in the group of countries with the lowest literacy rate.

For an adult, illiteracy means primitive manual labour in agriculture and industry, uncertain employment opportunities and low wages, life-long miserable living conditions, and humiliating dependence on the literates of the community for day-to-day civic and business interaction and deprivation in aa walks of life. For adults, illiteracy also mean exclusion from most of economic, social and culture activities.

For the out-of-school children, illiteracy means forced labour, vagrancy, sickness and slavery. For women, literacy is a survival kit and symbol of status. It mean emancipation, participation in the decision making of he family and equality.

Literacy is a small pane in a large window, opening into the world of knowledge based; on reading and writing as one of the earliest cultural activities of mankind. Discoveries of written parchment and materials of ancient times reveal that people bad the capability to record and exchange information in writing as early as five thousand years ago. Mankind’s civilization, and its accumulation, sharing and transmission of knowledge over the centuries has been made possible by written and readable words. Every Muslim knows that the first command revealed by Allah to the Holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH) was ‘READ’. The great Persian Poet Saadi declared that an illiterate person is incapable of comprehending God’s ways. We may agree to call a person, who can read and write with understanding and ease in any language, a literate, and literacy may be termed as the threshold of opportunity for learning. The present century of the atom space and communication is the grand inheritor of the wisdom and knowledge enshrined in books from times immemorial. The oncoming 21St century will be the century in which only the literate could survive.

Literacy, over the centuries, has become the lever of human progress and the leveler of social and economic conditions. It is a basic human need, and a human right to knowledge. Literacy has meaning only when it leads to further participation in cultural and social activities, to change of life styles, and to equal sharing of social, economic and political rights and privileges. Literacy is empowerment, which means ability to make decisions ‘and control affairs of one’s own life, economically, socially and politically. It is the first step in a life long learning process of men and women, from cradle to grave, which opens the doors of entering and enjoying the fascinating world of books. Illiteracy is a brake on human development, and maps of illiteracy- poverty, underdevelopment, social discrimination disease are always coincident. It is a challenge to human dignity and imposes a second class status on a person in all societies. Life without literacy is life without hope, security and freedom.

In our country, a large number of people are unaware of the implications of its literacy. It must be understood by everyone that our huge illiteracy rate continues to severely hamper the development of the country and the well-being of the bulk of its population. Developing countries with high literacy rate have shown that literate women can bear healthy children, reduce infant and maternal mortality rates, resist early marriage and exploitation, lower the birth and fertility rates, and actively participate in the income-generating activities for the family as well as for the na

Literacy is the foundation of all skills and a prerequisite for economic development but not a sufficient condition for sustaining livelihood. We know that the standard of living of a fully literate family is higher than that of an illiterate or semi-literate household. All developed countries of the world have almost 100 per cent literacy rate. Even countries like Korea and Sri Lanka have more than 70 per cent literacy rate.

The literacy status of a country is determined by:- (I)The existing level of literacy (ii) The rate of increment of new literates which should be, at the minimum, clearly higher than the annual addition to the population. (iii)The volume of education system’s output at the first level, and (iv) The demographic factors engage structure, mortality and birth rate Countries have succeeded in raising their Iiteracy rates by:- (i) Universalisation of primary education (ii) Providing non-formal primary education facilities for out of school youth and drop-outs (iii) Launching country wide programme for adults backed by political leadership (iv) Broad involvement of various social groups, institutions, public and voluntary organizations, local communities and commercial enterprises. A strategy which attracts widespread support and involvement is thus much more likely to stimulate popular participation, Particularly for successful adult literacy programmes and to generate the human and material necessary to provide feasible structures for planning and implementation at all levels, to encourage broad involvement and to ensure the relevance of activities to particular needs and environments, efficient planning, management, training, curriculum’ and materials development.

Education is an essential tool for Human Resource Development and a necessary ingredient for sustainable socioeconomic growth. Pakistan started with a very low education profile but today a lot has been achieved. Literacy rate, counted by number of people ‘who could read only’ in 1951, was 16% has now been calculated on the basis of those ‘who are able to read with understanding and can write a short statement’ is 51.6% in 2003. The number of primary schools increased from about 8000 in 1947 to around 170000 in 2003. Gross enrolment at this level increased from 0.77 million to about 20 million. The number of elementary/secondary schools, colleges and universities has correspondingly increased. However, there is still lot to be done in order to make Pakistan a prosperous country. The challenges of the 21st Century could be faced through. identifying issues, developing strategies and operational programmes in Education sector.

Ten Year Perspective Development Plan 2001-11 and Three Year Development Programme 2001-04 have been prepared in this context. Expansion of education is dependent on fiscal resources. During the last decade of the outgoing millennium however, adverse macroeconomic conditions and keen inter-sectoral competition for public funds seriously impaired the government’s ability to continue expanding education. At the highest policy level within the government, t is readily conceded that investment in education contributes to the accumulation of human capital which is essential for higher incomes and sustained economic growth. Education, especially basic (primary and lower-secondary) education helps reduce poverty by increasing the productivity of the poor, by reducing fertility and improving health, and by equipping people with the skill they need to participate fully in the society. More generally, education helps strengthen civil institutions and build national capacity and good governance in the implementation of sound economic and social policies. Despite this awareness, major challenges remain to increase access to education, to improve equity, to improve quality, and to commit resources for educational reform. Delays in reforming the education system to keep pace with economic structure will most likely hinder Pakistan’s economic prosperity. Conversely, timely reforms can pay off in terms of economic growth and poverty reduction, as is evident from the experience of East Asian countries who have generally invested heavily in basic human capital, both male and female.

Education has a positive impact on individual earnings and also yields substantial externalities: parents education and mothers literacy and education are associated with low infant mortality rates, higher enrolment and achievement rates of children and less gender differences in enrolment of children. Pakistan is facing the challenges of coverage and quality in education. The gender-gap has narrowed slightly due partly to decline in male enrolment at secondary level en public sector schools who have shifted into private options. There are also significant differences across provinces with decline in enrolment in Sindh and Baluchistan in public sector education.