Non-formal education: Illiteracy to be eradicated by 2020

Dept runs 1,400 schools and 3,500 adult literacy centres in the province.

LAHORE:

The literacy rate in the Punjab currently stands at 60 per cent according to the Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement (PSLSM) Survey 2010-2011. The Literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education (LNFBE) Department aims to raise it to 100 per cent by 2020.

“Non-formal education is a culture. We need to understand that to achieve our  goals, we have to provide people with a learning culture acceptable to them,” said LNFBE secretary Dr Pervez Khan.

Established in 2002, the department is working on several projects including the Campaign for Enhancement of Literacy, Adults Learning Centres and LNFBE schools at brick kilns and Community Learning Centres.

The department operates more than 1,400 LNFBE schools and around 3,500 adult literacy centres in the province. Dr Khan said there was no formal setup for school premises and conditions acceptable to learners were created. “We ensure that the teacher is from the same locality to facilitate flexible timings,” he said. Also teachers employed in the LNFBE schools are often teaching multiple grades at their own houses.

The department has provided primary education to 250,000 children in the 5 to 16 age bracket, Dr Khan claimed. “Textbooks similar to those used in formal education are used. We provide for children who have either missed out on schools or are street children,” he said. “It is not always lack of schools which prevents children from getting education but often poverty, long distances and social taboos,” he said.

The Chanan Development Centre Running runs two non-formal education centres in Naseerabad and Nishat Colony in Lahore. It is educating girls at their Young Girls Empowerment Centres. The centres are effective in providing education to the under-privileged children and strengthening formal educational structures,” says CDA Executive Director Muhammad Shahzad Khan. “The centres offer a six-month course on basic language skills and arithmetic. They have flexible timings in accordance with the daily routine of the girls coming to study there  which is vital to ensuring attendance,” Khan said. “Girls are usually busy with domestic errands, so it is very important that the centres are close to their homes and timings that are conducive to their schedule,” said Khan. Besides education, these centres also teach girls entrepreneurial skills, he says.

The department has recently revamped its largest non-formal literacy project, the Literacy Programme into what is now called the Punjab Accelerated Functional Literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education (PAFLP) project. It hopes to address the demand for imparting livelihood skills. “Past experiences helped us realise that there is a need to incorporate life and income generating skills in our programmes to attract people. Unfortunately, no one comes just to learn reading and writing,” says system analyst Irum Malik. She says the current project offers functional skills besides literacy. Its predecessor the Literacy Programme had focused only on education. Malik says the programme will aim to create 50 functional/community learning centres for adults in 28 districts of the Punjab where the literacy rate is lower than 65 per cent. A pilot project has been launched in Sahiwal where 30 centres are imparting literacy and livelihood skills in six months to women.

“We need to give them a feeling of value and eventually a sense of belonging and usefulness to the society,” says Malik.

The PFALP was launched in July and is expected to run till 2016.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 9^th, 2012.