Literacy is a term that it is acknowledging that make to understand the development of the world. In other words, we also can say that literacy is essential and helpful to the people of a nation to observe the critical nature of the world. In this way, a nation will be able to communicate with the other world and share its emotions. Literacy plays important role in the development of a country.
The UN SDGs
The learning crisis has been on the global landscape for over a decade. It is the most critical challenge to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, the successor to Millennium Development Goal 2 of the United Nations. SDG 4 is a radical departure from access to learning. However, the global impasse has been on how to measure ‘learning’ such that it is clearly defined and understood by all for early years, lower primary, upper primary, and lower secondary as a Global Learning Metric.
Pakistan is facing a serious challenge to ensure all children, particularly the most disadvantaged, attend, stay and learn in school. While enrollment and retention rates are improving, progress has been slow to improve education indicators in Pakistan.
A high level of education is a necessary condition for economic growth. No country can make significant economic progress if a majority of its citizens are illiterate. Schultz and Becker presented this concept of investment in human capital almost 60 years ago. It is now an established fact that the rapid economic development of any country is attributed to an excellent system of education, particularly investing in primary education.
Out-of-school children (OOSC)
Currently, Pakistan has the world’s second-highest number of out-of-school children (OOSC) with an estimated 22.8 million children aged 5-16 not attending school, representing 44 percent of the total population in this age group. In the 5-9 age group, 5 million children are not enrolled in schools and after primary-school age, the number of OOSC doubles, with 11.4 million adolescents between the ages of 10-14 not receiving formal education. Disparities based on gender, socio-economic status, and geography are significant; in Sindh, 52 percent of the poorest children (58 percent girls) are out of school, and in Balochistan, 78 percent of girls are out of school.
Nearly 10.7 million boys and 8.6 million girls are enrolled at the primary level and this drops to 3.6 million boys and 2.8 million girls at the lower secondary level.
Current Literacy Rate
According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2021-22, only 1.77% of GDP was spent on the education sector last year while the literacy rate was recorded at 63%. The cumulative education expenditures by federal and provincial governments in FY2021 remained at 1.77% of GDP. Education-related expenditures during FY21 witnessed an increase of 9.7%, reaching Rs988 billion from Rs901 billion against 1.9 percent in 2019-20, 1.98 percent in 2018-19, and 2.12% in 2017-18.
The spending, however, went up from Rs901.013 billion in 2019-20 to Rs988.032 in 2020-21. It was Rs868.022 billion in 2018-19 and Rs829.152 billion in 2017-18.
The literacy rates increased in both rural (53.7 to 54.0 %) and urban areas. In rural areas, it increased from 53.7% to 54.0%; whereas in urban areas it has increased from 76.1 to 77.3%. According to the survey report, the gender gap appears to be closing over time. “Literacy rate went up in all provinces, Punjab (66.1 to 66.3%), Sindh (61.6 to 61.8%), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (52.4 to 55.1%) and Balochistan (53.9 to 54.5 %).
Pakistan’s literacy, enrolment, and other educational indicators have been improving over the last couple of years. The government is very much focusing on improving both the quality and coverage of education through effective policy interventions and enhancing the allocation of resources, but the required reforms and improvements in the education sector cannot be achieved without the active participation of the private sector.
What affects literacy in Pakistan?
There are five resources that affect the illiteracy of Pakistan. These facts are curriculum, learning materials, instructional time, instructing strategies, and students’ learning capacity.
Educational Facilities Status:
Most of the villages of Pakistan do not have the facilities and faculties of educational institutes. Children of these villages learned basic studies like knowledge of the Holy Quran and basic Islamic knowledge. However, for higher education, they would go to other cities routine-wise. It is the default for the less developed areas to travel for study daily wise or weekend wise. They also face the lack of a transport system. In this way, they avoid studying and learned the earning profession. They give priority to agriculture then study.
According to the previous survey, the ratio of students who are just saying goodbye to school increasing. Researchers experimentally concluded the result that, the government would fail to provide a good educational system to students in this way they escape from education. These students select their profession before literacy. The rate of literacy is going down and the illiteracy rate is going up in Pakistan
Financial Status
Financial weakness is the main cause of Pakistan’s illiteracy. According to a survey, more than 64% of people in Pakistan live in poverty. This means that less than 36% of people are stable economically in Pakistan. Most of the people of Pakistan live hand to mouth. So, most of the children are sent to earn money for live hood instead of studying. These children lose their most of time earnings. They could not attain the class or not bear the expenses the education. Till they give dominant earning to free of cost education.
Employment Status:
Unemployment is another cause of illiteracy in Pakistan. 5% to 6% of people are unemployed in Pakistan. They make up their mind literacy could not give them a job. They thought that people who learn some passion in time would be able to earn for a live hood. Most educated people are Unemployed and living hardly in society. Unemployment makes them disappointed. They lose hope and could not able to guide, to motivate other people in favor of education. Unemployment is a critical issue in Pakistan. It is big problem in the way of the progress of Pakistan. We are facing this problem and are not sure how to resolve it.
Shortage of Schools
There is a scarcity of schools, wherein for every 13 primary schools, there is only 1 middle school. There is also a shortage of teachers — around 50% of primary schools in Sindh and Balochistan and 29% in Pakistan as a whole have only one teacher.
Impact of Pandemic
COVID-19 has devastated the developed as well as the developing economies in the world. It has also changed the daily human lifestyle. It adversely affected education too. All educational institutions remained closed during COVID-19. But some people are talking about reopening the educational intuitions with Sops. As we all know that most people are not fully following the SOPs. How can we expect students to follow the SOPs during COVID-19? The lives of the students are more precious than educational loss. The government has initiated the idea of teleschool to compensate for the academic loss of students during COVID-19. Some educational intuitions have started online education. But all the educational intuitions cannot follow the same exercise due to certain constraints. It needs a strong will and heavy finances.
Support of UNICEF
In order to accelerate progress and ensure the equitable expansion of quality education, UNICEF supports the Government of Pakistan’s efforts to significantly reduce the number of out-of-school children (OOSC) at pre-primary, primary, and lower secondary levels. Their education program is focusing on:
- Early Childhood Education (ECE) – to improve school readiness
- Expansion of equitable and quality alternative learning pathways (ALP) at basic education levels
- Promoting school-community linkages to increase on-time enrolment, reduce drop-outs, and ensure completion and transition for all students.
At systems levels, we are contributing to more equity-focused provincial sector planning and budgeting; strengthening data and assessment systems; and evidence-based policy advocacy.
Benefits of ECE
Investment in quality early learning/pre-primary education so that young children are ‘ready for school’ has high positive impacts on primary school enrolment, survival, and learning, and is cost-effective.
The benefits of ECE are highest for children from poor and vulnerable households.
Given the limited reach and inequities in the provision of pre-primary education, Pakistan is increasingly recognizing early learning as a policy priority, and several provinces have already developed ECCE policies, plans, and standards.
Broadening of ALPs
UNICEF is addressing the issue of OOSC through studies, supporting provincial sector plan development, development or review of non-formal education policy, and direct program implementation. This wealth of experience now provides the evidence, know-how, and momentum for UNICEF to support federal and provincial governments in broadening ALPs within education systems to bring OOSC into primary education, with a specific focus on adolescent girls.
Barriers
Equity-based investments by the government continue to be the key way to ensure education systems include the most disadvantaged girls and boys. Considering insufficient and ineffective allocation of budgets, UNICEF strategically engages in sector planning, to capitalize on opportunities to influence decision-making on equity issues.
UNICEF’s growing technical capacity and focus on assessment of learning, and international expertise also provide an opportunity to add value to Pakistan’s efforts to improve assessment systems. System reforms help in improving accountability and evidence-based decision-making. UNICEF supports healthy dialogue on education budgeting and public financing, to highlight areas of improvement for better planning and improvement in the education sector.
Socio-cultural demand-side barriers combined with economic factors together drive education deprivation for certain groups of children in Pakistan, particularly girls. These barriers are further exacerbated by a lack of parental awareness of early learning, the importance of on-time enrolment, and the lack of social protection schemes. UNICEF is focusing more closely on the obstacles to on-time enrolment, retention, completion, and transition.
The author, Nazir Ahmed Shaikh, is a freelance columnist. He is an academician by profession and writes articles on diversified topics. Mr. Shaikh could be reached at nazir_shaikh86@hotmail.com.