Another international literacy day (on September 8) has come and gone. A good many ritual meetings were held in some of the cities. Walks were organised and photo opportunities availed of. Where does Pakistan stand today internationally, literacy wise? At the lowest rung of the ladder. <br />
Why is it so? Ask our rulers who lose no opportunity in indulging in rhetoric. No country can make real progress if the bulk of its people remain illiterate said the Prime Minister sometime back. When it comes to translate this statement into allocations for literacy, there is little to show by way of conviction or credibility. We spend very little on education. Around 2 percent of the GDP. The minimum laid down by UNESCO is 4 percent. <br />
A few months ago General Musharraf pledged publicly to raise the allocation for it in the coming budget to 4 percent. The Prime Minister repeated the promise. The Education Minister talked about it. Expectations were raised. Come the budget the ratio remains more or less the same. The lowest in South Asia. <br />
There was some increase for higher education but for literacy and EFA there was no appreciable enhancement (I understand the increase for higher education has since been cut by about 5 billion rupees). Tens of millions of rupees are being squandered to publicise the exploits of a Chief Minister under the banner headlines of Parha Likha Punjab day after day in the newspapers and on the TV channels. If some good work is done, is it appropriate to beat drums about it using public funds on a daily basis? <br />
The Punjab government is merely doing its constitutional duty. Article 37-B of the constitution in 1973 laid down that free and compulsory education at primary and secondary level would be provided and illiteracy eradicated “within minimum possible timeâ€Â. Thirty-three years have elapsed and we are miles away from the task given to the nation by the constitution. <br />
If the government has woken up to do the job, it had to attend to, the matter could be highlighted by holding a press conference or inserting an ad in some of the newspapers. But to go on week after week projecting the claim of a larger enrollment and provision of free books with pictures of the Chief Minister and the General at the expense of public funds is a crass misuse of authority and resources. It must be stopped. (The same chief minister has been spending crores of rupees in adding to his offices on the Mall and in GOR). <br />
Ironically these Parah likha Punjab ads have nothing to say about literacy as such. About 35 million Pakistanis above the age of 10 residing in Punjab are utterly illiterate. According to the National Plan of Action prepared as a follow up of the World Conference held at Dakar, Senegal and its framework of action to achieve the six prescribed goals there should have been by now 300,000 literacy centres and 82000 non formal basic education schools for out of school children operating today. Almost two thirds of these in the Punjab ie, more than 250,000 centres. The actual number however is less than 10 percent of the target. So much about the Parha Likha Punjab! The six targets set at Dakar, Senegal are annually monitored by an independent Global Team constituted by UNESCO. <br />
The 2006 global monitoring report has been already released. Some of the findings are quite revealing:<br />
<b>?According to the report, Pakistan is one of the two dozen or so countries which will fail to achieve any of the Dakar goals by the year 2015.<br />
?In 41 countries, including Pakistan less than 2/3rds of those enrolled in primary schools reached the last grade. In Pakistan the official dropout rate is 45 percent. <br />
?The average literacy rate in the least literate developing countries is about 60 percent. In Pakistan it is claimed to be 53 percent. <br />
?In Pakistan 57 adult women are counted as literate for every 100 literate men.<br />
?Direct testing of literacy suggests that the challenge is much greater than the “conventional numbers.â€Â</b>To help laggard countries UNESCO has developed a programme called LIFE - Literacy Initiative for Empowerment. 34 countries have been identified to be included in the programme. Initially Pakistan is one of the two countries chosen for special support. For the last seven months UNESCO has been pressing the ministry of education to finalise details for this special initiative. The ministry however has yet to finalise the preliminary essential steps. No signs of any urgency to avail of this windfall offer to strengthen the capacity to achieve the literacy targets. The UNESCO director in Islamabad in a meeting held on the subject did not use nice words to indicate that in case the matter was further delayed the programme may have to be taken up directly by UNESCO.<br />
A UNESCO presentation on LIFE has identified the following issues with regard to a strategic framework of action for the United Nations Literacy Decade (2002-2012). <br />
<b>?Insufficient political will <br />
?Weak organisational infrastructure <br />
?Inadequate financing and delays in disbursement<br />
?Low level of capacity <br />
?Lack of research and data <br />
?Low awareness of the importance of literacy <br />
?Lack of monitoring and evaluation system <br />
?Absence of uniform National Curriculum</b>How myopic a government can be? The central government in a fit of economising expenditure abolished the National Commission for Literacy and Non-Formal Education thus doing away with the essential mechanism for planning and coordinating literacy plans and programmes. <br />
In almost all the developing countries there are national authorities or missions placed at the highest level. In India there is a national literacy mission and a similar organisation exists in Bangladesh in direct charge of the prime minister. Hopefully the Dr Nasim Ashraf’s commission for human development will make an appreciable contribution to the promotion of literacy. It recently got an award from UNESCO. <br />
A look at the provincial scene shows that Punjab and NWFP have taken steps to build an organisational infrastructure and have started literacy programmes. There is no progress in Sindh and Balochistan. Literacy is a basic human right. It is an essential human skill. Imagine a society in which half of the population cannot read the calendar or the bus numbers. <br />
A society in which the bulk of women cannot read the letters received from their husbands, brothers or sons working abroad. Illiteracy is dependence. It indeed is a disability. According to the Global Monitoring Report the literacy challenge can be met only if “ political leaders at the highest level commit themselves to action, expand primary and secondary education, scale up youth and adult literacy programmes and develop rich literate environments. Can Pakistan afford further neglect of literacy in this day and age of knowledge societies?
Why is it so? Ask our rulers who lose no opportunity in indulging in rhetoric. No country can make real progress if the bulk of its people remain illiterate said the Prime Minister sometime back. When it comes to translate this statement into allocations for literacy, there is little to show by way of conviction or credibility. We spend very little on education. Around 2 percent of the GDP. The minimum laid down by UNESCO is 4 percent. <br />
A few months ago General Musharraf pledged publicly to raise the allocation for it in the coming budget to 4 percent. The Prime Minister repeated the promise. The Education Minister talked about it. Expectations were raised. Come the budget the ratio remains more or less the same. The lowest in South Asia. <br />
There was some increase for higher education but for literacy and EFA there was no appreciable enhancement (I understand the increase for higher education has since been cut by about 5 billion rupees). Tens of millions of rupees are being squandered to publicise the exploits of a Chief Minister under the banner headlines of Parha Likha Punjab day after day in the newspapers and on the TV channels. If some good work is done, is it appropriate to beat drums about it using public funds on a daily basis? <br />
The Punjab government is merely doing its constitutional duty. Article 37-B of the constitution in 1973 laid down that free and compulsory education at primary and secondary level would be provided and illiteracy eradicated “within minimum possible timeâ€Â. Thirty-three years have elapsed and we are miles away from the task given to the nation by the constitution. <br />
If the government has woken up to do the job, it had to attend to, the matter could be highlighted by holding a press conference or inserting an ad in some of the newspapers. But to go on week after week projecting the claim of a larger enrollment and provision of free books with pictures of the Chief Minister and the General at the expense of public funds is a crass misuse of authority and resources. It must be stopped. (The same chief minister has been spending crores of rupees in adding to his offices on the Mall and in GOR). <br />
Ironically these Parah likha Punjab ads have nothing to say about literacy as such. About 35 million Pakistanis above the age of 10 residing in Punjab are utterly illiterate. According to the National Plan of Action prepared as a follow up of the World Conference held at Dakar, Senegal and its framework of action to achieve the six prescribed goals there should have been by now 300,000 literacy centres and 82000 non formal basic education schools for out of school children operating today. Almost two thirds of these in the Punjab ie, more than 250,000 centres. The actual number however is less than 10 percent of the target. So much about the Parha Likha Punjab! The six targets set at Dakar, Senegal are annually monitored by an independent Global Team constituted by UNESCO. <br />
The 2006 global monitoring report has been already released. Some of the findings are quite revealing:<br />
<b>?According to the report, Pakistan is one of the two dozen or so countries which will fail to achieve any of the Dakar goals by the year 2015.<br />
?In 41 countries, including Pakistan less than 2/3rds of those enrolled in primary schools reached the last grade. In Pakistan the official dropout rate is 45 percent. <br />
?The average literacy rate in the least literate developing countries is about 60 percent. In Pakistan it is claimed to be 53 percent. <br />
?In Pakistan 57 adult women are counted as literate for every 100 literate men.<br />
?Direct testing of literacy suggests that the challenge is much greater than the “conventional numbers.â€Â</b>To help laggard countries UNESCO has developed a programme called LIFE - Literacy Initiative for Empowerment. 34 countries have been identified to be included in the programme. Initially Pakistan is one of the two countries chosen for special support. For the last seven months UNESCO has been pressing the ministry of education to finalise details for this special initiative. The ministry however has yet to finalise the preliminary essential steps. No signs of any urgency to avail of this windfall offer to strengthen the capacity to achieve the literacy targets. The UNESCO director in Islamabad in a meeting held on the subject did not use nice words to indicate that in case the matter was further delayed the programme may have to be taken up directly by UNESCO.<br />
A UNESCO presentation on LIFE has identified the following issues with regard to a strategic framework of action for the United Nations Literacy Decade (2002-2012). <br />
<b>?Insufficient political will <br />
?Weak organisational infrastructure <br />
?Inadequate financing and delays in disbursement<br />
?Low level of capacity <br />
?Lack of research and data <br />
?Low awareness of the importance of literacy <br />
?Lack of monitoring and evaluation system <br />
?Absence of uniform National Curriculum</b>How myopic a government can be? The central government in a fit of economising expenditure abolished the National Commission for Literacy and Non-Formal Education thus doing away with the essential mechanism for planning and coordinating literacy plans and programmes. <br />
In almost all the developing countries there are national authorities or missions placed at the highest level. In India there is a national literacy mission and a similar organisation exists in Bangladesh in direct charge of the prime minister. Hopefully the Dr Nasim Ashraf’s commission for human development will make an appreciable contribution to the promotion of literacy. It recently got an award from UNESCO. <br />
A look at the provincial scene shows that Punjab and NWFP have taken steps to build an organisational infrastructure and have started literacy programmes. There is no progress in Sindh and Balochistan. Literacy is a basic human right. It is an essential human skill. Imagine a society in which half of the population cannot read the calendar or the bus numbers. <br />
A society in which the bulk of women cannot read the letters received from their husbands, brothers or sons working abroad. Illiteracy is dependence. It indeed is a disability. According to the Global Monitoring Report the literacy challenge can be met only if “ political leaders at the highest level commit themselves to action, expand primary and secondary education, scale up youth and adult literacy programmes and develop rich literate environments. Can Pakistan afford further neglect of literacy in this day and age of knowledge societies?