Literacy emergency

Recent data confirms that, despite some gains, Pakistan remains at the bottom of South Asia's literacy rankings. A Free and Fair Election Network report shows Pakistan has climbed to a 63% literacy rate, which is a staggering 15 percentage points below the regional average of 78%. In today's competitive global economy, no nation can hope to thrive with an undereducated workforce. This is not just an education crisis, but arguably our most severe economic vulnerability.

While direct comparisons are tricky because they would ignore unique historical, economic and sociocultural factors, the countries ahead of us have their own security and economic problems. Sri Lanka is recovering from an economic collapse and suffered decades of civil war. It also has the second-highest literacy rate in the region, at 93%. This is notably why the country's economy grew very quickly when the war ended — it had resources and a competent labour force; it only needed peace. Pakistan, on the other hand, could be rid of terrorism tomorrow, but would still not be able to quickly set up high-skilled industries, as every third person is still illiterate. Even a country like Nepal, which has a relatively low literacy rate of 68% and has been suffering from violent protests and social upheaval, has a high potential for recovery due to its unique factors — primarily its tourism potential.

As for Bangladesh, before the student-led uprising that deposed the authoritarian regime of Sheikh Hasina, the country was an economic shining star in the region due in part to its consistently improving education rate — it was Hasina's crony capitalism and brutality that led to her downfall. Once the other pieces fall back into place, the Bangladeshi economy will almost certainly start putting up impressive numbers again.

We have suffered under authoritarian dictatorships, enlightened moderation, controlled democracy, crony capitalism and Islamic socialism, all promising successes that never came, because even though the exact reasons for failures in each case are unique, all failed to educate a workforce for future success.