Experts question impact of education initiatives

Country’s literacy rate has dropped to 58% from 60%

LAHORE: Perturbed over latest statistics showing a decline in the national literacy rate, experts have urged the government to get its priorities right and focus on the basics to transform the landscape.

According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2016-17, the country’s literacy rate has dropped by two percentage points to 58% from 60%. The literacy rate among the male population was around 70% and for the female population 50%.

According to the survey, the urban areas of the country have 74% literate population. In contrast, the literacy rate in rural areas is 49%.



The literacy rate in Balochistan fell to 41% from 44%. Sindh’s literacy rate fell by 5% and was calculated at 55%. The rate in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa remained stagnant at 53% while Punjab witnessed a 1% decline.

Speaking to The Express Tribune on the International Literacy Day observed on September 8, Alif Ailaan campaign director Mosharraf Zaidi said that seriousness on the part of all stakeholders was needed.

“Promises made in the Constitution or those made by the political parties of the country and non-profit [organisations] working for the cause had little impact on the situation on ground,” he said.

Zaidi sounded sure that a real impact could only be achieved by building a narrative to transform the situation. “The reality is that in Pakistan 40% of the population can’t even read. Increasing basic literacy is not as big a challenge as ensuring 100% enrolment or providing high-quality education,” he said.



“There is no literacy agenda so whatever promises or constitutional commitments are there, there is no seriousness to achieve them. Unless this becomes a social and political priority, the situation will not change and small and incremental increases will continue to take place,” said Zaidi.

Prof Abid Hussain Chaudhry of the Punjab University Institute of Education and Research (IER) said there was a need to focus on basic education. “More schools are needed to fulfil our needs. For this, resources need to be diverted for providing more schools and increasing access to education,” he stressed.

He said lack of transparency was the major cause of little progress made by the government in this regard. “The initiatives taken by the government need more transparency. Many programmes launched by successive governments did not achieve the desired results. The reason is that there is no transparency in these initiatives.”

Dr Chaudhry said, “Such steps are needed which can actually change the status of literacy in the country and the focus should be on the basic tools of literacy.”

New definition

The government redefined literacy in the Population and Housing Census 2017. The new definition of literacy adopted in the country was: “Ability to read and understand simple text in any language from a newspaper or magazine, write a simple letter and perform basic mathematical calculation (i.e. counting and addition/subtraction).”



Previously, as per the definition used in the 1998 census, “A person was treated as literate if he could read a newspaper or a journal and could write a simple letter in any language.”

According to the experts, the change in definition would make little difference unless the government takes concrete steps and launches programmes for increasing the literacy rate.

“Making minor changes in the definition of literacy was a small policy instrument. However, providing education for literacy was the real issue. Have we seen any major literacy programme in the country in the last 10 years? There we see that no such initiative has been taken,” Zaidi said.

Prof Chaudhry said 58% was the officially stated literacy rate but it might not be accurate. “The definition of literacy is too broad. If it is narrowed down such that a primary pass is considered literate, then our literacy rate will be half of what it is now,” he asserted.