Lofty aims: ‘Government striving to raise literacy rate to 70 per cent’

There are fifty million illiterate people in Pakistan.

LAHORE:

Literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education (L&NFBE) Department Additional Secretary Nadeem Butt said on Tuesday that the department was striving to increase the literacy rate in the Punjab from 62 to 70 per cent in the next four years.

He was speaking at a ceremony held on the occasion of Literacy Day. This year’s theme was sustainable development. The day is observed internationally on September 8.

Butt said the department had aimed to educate 3.5 million adults in the next four years to increase literacy. He said the department would equip people with basic skills in addition to making them literate. Butt said the department had been educating one million brick kiln workers who had dropped out from school. He said the department was running 8,000 child literacy centres in the Punjab. Butt said the department would establish an additional 5,000 centres across the province in the next three months. He said the department was running 10,000 adult literacy centres across the province.

L&NFBE Project Director Muhammad Usman said there were 50 million illiterate people in Pakistan. He said there were eight million illiterate people aged 50 and above in the Punjab. Usman said the net primary enrolment rate was 57 per cent. He said it would be difficult for the government to realise the United Nations Millennium Development Goals with such figures. Usman said literacy had increased from 58 to 62 per cent in the Punjab. He said illiteracy was rampant in south Punjab. Usman said energy should be focussed on overcoming this challenge.

Chiho Ohashi of Japan International Agency Cooperation said sustainable development should be promoted internationally. She has been working on the Agency’s non formal education promotion project in Pakistan. Ohashi said sustainable development was not limited to ensuring economic development. She said it also had political and social implications. Ohashi said sustainable development empowered citizens.

Literacy Adviser to the Chief Minister Rai Haider Ali said the current situation in the province was bleak. He said some progress had been made in the sector after the government devoted more resources to it. Ali said the government had especially increased funding for the Literacy Department.

Literacy Secretary Pervez Khan said the department had been striving to increase literacy in the Punjab.  He said it had a number of projects underway that aimed to make three million people literate over four years.

The event was held at the Children’s Library Complex. Scores of gypsy children raised slogans in favour of universal education on the occasion.  They and brick kilns workers are being educated by the department.

They addressed the audience about the importance of getting educated. The participants demanded their rights by staging several plays and performances.

The department has been collaborating with Godh, a non-governmental organisation, to extend literacy to as many as  10,000 gypsy children.

Godh focuses on mainstreaming marginalised segments of society.

The department has also been recruiting teachers for its literacy centres. Their efforts were praised in the ceremony.

Shagufta Rafique, a resident of Sahiwal, said she was illiterate till the age of 21. She said she was educated at a literacy centre near her village. Rafique said that she was now happy that she was teaching at that very centre.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 10^th, 2014.