Pakistan has made steady but slow progress in literacy over the first half-century. Today, over 60% of men and 35% of women are literate. As the bedrock of development, it is a primary task of the nation to reach 100% literacy as quickly as possible. In addition to the obvious issues of providing enough primary schools and teachers throughout the country to enroll all young children, there are two major tasks that the country needs to accomplish.
The first is to close the gender gap. The wide disparity in education between men and women is a major handicap in developing the country. In rural Sindh, the female literacy rate is only 13%, and in sparsely inhabited rural Balochistan it is less than 10%. The shortchanging of girls began with the founding of the country, as both planners and parents decided that education for boys would be given priority. Since cultural barriers prevented mixed gender schools, even for young children, many areas devoted their only school facility to boys.
According to an official report of the Ministry of Education, there are many factors that contribute to the persistent low enrollment of girls in primary schools. Poverty and illiteracy of parents generate a negative attitude towards girls’ education. The demand for separate facilities for females prevents many regions from having schools available for girls. Along with that is a lack of qualified female teachers to staff girls’ schools. There are also problems with the curriculum and method of teaching a multigrade class by a single teacher in village settings particularly. In those areas where schools do exist, lack of essential facilities like drinking water, mats or benches, and bathroom facilities inhibit attendance. In many large families, the older girls are expected to help with raising their siblings and doing the household work, which prevents attendance at school. Finally, many communities are apathetic about the school system and do not exert any effective supervision.
Even if these barriers are overcome, and universal primary school enrollment becomes a reality in the next ten years, it will not quickly raise the literacy rate. It will take 60 years for the literacy rate to reach 95% even if Pakistan has 100% primary school enrollment by the end of the decade. The reason is that most of the illiterates in Pakistan are already adults. For them to be made literate requires a different strategy, one focused on adult education programs. So far, such programs have been non-existent. Without an effective approach to adult literacy programs, the literacy rate will continue to go up very slowly.
Adult literacy programs are doubly difficult to institute. Most adults are busy with the rest of their lives, and illiterate adult Pakistanis’ first concern is eking out an existence. Adult women face many of the same cultural barriers to education that girls face. Getting illiterate adults interested and motivated enough to acquire literacy requires a sophisticated and well-funded approach.
During the 1990’s, the Federal Ministry of Education held the view that adult literacy programs should be funded and developed by the provinces. Less than 100 million rupees per year of Federal money were budgeted for adult education. The provinces however claimed they lacked the resources to create these programs, so they too allocated little or nothing. As the Ministry’s own report wryly put it, “It is admitted fact that when you give minimum to the system you get minimum out of it.”
There are Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working in Pakistan to help raise the literacy rate. Among my favorite charities is Development in Literacy (DIL), which runs schools for several thousand girls in rural Punjab and Sindh. Some of these girls attend in defiance of their father’s wishes. There have been sad incidents involving these girls where the father burned the child’s schoolbook, or beat the mother for letting the girl attend. DIL, which is run by women in the Pakistani-American community, is making a major impact on the lives of these girls, an impact that will bear fruit in decades to come. The biggest effect our community can have on the success and development of Pakistan is in the education support. Forty dollars pays the cost of an entire school year for a Pakistani child. There are many organizations working on literacy in Pakistan, and support for them is a good way to make a positive change. Comments can reach the author at Nali@socal.rr.com.