Declaring war on illiteracy

National literacy campaign will need to be planned with provincial, federal governments so it reaches towns, villages.

When the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan invited me to examine the problem of illiteracy in Pakistan, I was pleased to research on the urgent issue. We looked at different models and policies around the world to see what has worked in similar cultures and spoke to some of the foremost education experts. After extensive discussions, the findings are summarised in the recently published report “Reaching Full Literacy in Pakistan by 2025”.

Unesco has worked for over 65 years to ensure that literacy is a priority on national and international agendas, recognising that literacy is a fundamental human right and is essential to social and human development. Functional literacy is defined as not only reading and writing but also the acquisition of skills necessary for productive and effective performance within society. The cost of illiteracy to Pakistan has been estimated at $5.86 billion or 1.2 per cent of GDP. Education has long been cited as the best means of overcoming poverty and the obstacles that lock an individual into a cycle of disadvantage. Children are adversely affected by intergenerational illiteracy, which ruins lives and leads to poverty, social exclusion and unemployment.

Consistent underfunding has led to the present dire statistics for education — the average years of schooling for adults in Pakistan is 3.9; India’s average is 5.1, Malaysia’s is 6.8 and the USA’s is 12. Pakistan’s schools need a radical rebuilding and modernisation programme as 59 per cent of schools do not have electricity, 33 per cent do not have drinking water and 40 per cent do not even have desks.

The PTI plans to increase funding to five per cent of GDP, which will enable the primary education system to become universal, free, excellent and accessible for all of Pakistan’s five to 10-year-olds. This will mean that millions of children will become literate young adults by 2025. The parallel challenge of creating an adult literacy programme for the estimated 75 million adult Pakistanis who are currently illiterate will require a nationwide centrally-organised campaign, mobilising a variety of public and private resources. A task force will be established to create a multi-level plan to eradicate illiteracy, based on best practices from around the world.

Pakistan, under Imran Khan’s leadership, will develop a mass, state-organised literacy campaign based on relevant materials in spoken languages, creating a basis for improving educational attainment in the context of community life. The cultural and political obstacles to progress will be overcome with more teacher training colleges and more schools for girls and with more parents becoming educated, who in turn, will encourage their children to remain in school. Where children are needed as labour in poverty-stricken households, subsidies will be needed for books, uniforms and transportation if necessary, to enable full take-up of primary education.

While the initial investment may be considerable, the returns will be significant and the costs will diminish over time as each new educated cohort of children reaches working age. According to Unicef, 17.7 per cent of Pakistani children are working to support their families instead of attending school. A national literacy campaign, therefore, will need to be planned with close cooperation of provincial and federal governments to ensure that it reaches all of Pakistan’s small towns and villages.

As the election gets closer, the PTI’s strategies to eliminate illiteracy deserve close attention in a country crying out for a great leap forward into a future of increased stability and prosperity. This can only come about if Pakistan’s uneducated millions are given the opportunity to be educated and take their rightful place in society.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 18^th, 2013.