Punjab`s 3.8m illiterate kids mock literacy day

LAHORE, Sept 7: Punjab has some 38 million illiterate people, including 3.8 million children in 5-9 years vital age group. These illiterate children -- two million girls and 1.8 million boys -- are groping around in the dark of ignorance while the world is celebrating International Literacy Day with the theme “Literacy for Peace” on Thursday (today).
The institutional incapacity and lack of funds are hampering progress on higher literacy rate, while the 3.2 per cent population growth rate is hitting all initiatives aimed at improving the situation hard.
The literacy rate in Punjab is estimated at 62 per cent; 58 per cent in Sindh, 52 per cent in Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and the lowest, 47 per cent, in Balochistan. The Islamabad Capital Territory alone boasts of 84 per cent literacy rate. Within Punjab the literacy rate varies from place to place with Rawalpindi having the highest and Rajanpur the lowest. The literacy rate in tribal areas for females is even less than 10 per cent in case of Rajanpur and DG Khan.
While increasing trends of lawlessness and extremism in Pakistan are attributed to low literacy rate, poverty and high population growth, education could not only be used as a weapon against these menaces but also as engine of economic growth to bring peace and prosperity to the country.
However, all indicators on the literacy and education front in Punjab are depressing as even the existing schools are being closed in the name of 'rationalisation' instead of increasing their number to at least meet an enormous 3.2 per cent population growth rate. The education department has so far closed 1,600 high, elementary and primary schools in the province.
While the Punjab school education department is unable to meet the educational needs of the province, the literacy and non-formal basic education department (LNFBE) has launched programmes to impart literacy, basic education and vocational skills to illiterate children and adults, respectively.
The LNFBE department, is led by secretary Dr Allah Bakhsh Malik, who has won the UNESCO Confucius Award – the highest international honour in literacy and education sector. The budget for the department has been increased by 360 per cent.
In order to bridge the illiteracy gap, the LNFBE department has launched six programmes, including four projects initiated during the current year in pursuance of declaration of 2010 as National Year of Literacy.
The department is currently imparting literacy to 1.2 million children at its 9,900 schools and 1.9 million adults are studying at 9,000 Adult Literacy Centres (ALCs) where men and women are being taught vocational skills. Women are also being given seed money to start small businesses. At brick kilns, adults and children are being trained in making better bricks that was helping increase the owners' profit and consequently workers' wages.
Under the campaign for enhancement of literacy in four districts of Punjab-- Dera Ghazi Khan, Khanewal, Mandi Bahauddin and Khushab-- the department, in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has achieved desirable results. Now, JICA has again come up with a $200 million grant to expand literacy project and gender parity goals to all districts of the province.
Still, the education indicators in Punjab show there is only 59 per cent literacy rate in 10 years plus population – 69 per cent among boys and 50 per cent among girls. The literacy rate in urban and rural populations stands at 76 per cent and 51 per cent, respectively.
In order to achieve 88 per cent adult literacy rate and making 33 per cent annual drop-outs of formal schooling system literate till 2015, the literacy department has suggested establishing some 300,674 ALCs and 122,124 NFBE schools with a total cost of Rs26.23 billion and Rs9.77 billion, respectively.
Curtsey:DAWN.COM,— PUBLISHED SEP 08, 2011