Literacy rate rises to 60pc in Pakistan: survey

ISLAMABAD: Literacy rate in Pakistan for the age group of 10 years and older saw an annual two per cent increase to 60 percent, a survey by Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measures (PS&LSM) Survey 2014-15 has revealed.

Seventy per cent of male students were found to be literate as compared to 49pc girls in the age group.

The province-wise break-up indicates that Punjab has the top literacy ratio of 61pc, with 71 and 55pc of girls and boys literate, respectively.

In Sindh, the ratio remained 60pc with 71pc boys and 55pc girls literate, respectively. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is at 53pc and the gender-based ratio is 71 and 35pc for boys and girls, respectively.

Balochistan came out in the last with a literacy rate of 44pc, with 61pc boys literate as compared to 25pc girls, official sources told APP on Saturday.

Officials said that Education for All Development (EFA) Index is a composite index using four of the six EFA goals, selected on the basis of data availability. These goals are: Universal Primary Education (UPE), adult literacy, quality of education and gender.

According to the EFA Global Monitoring Report2015, Pakistan's education index value is 0.654 and stands at 106 out of 113 countries.

Officials pointed out that the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD), Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, is running 5,949 Feeder Schools with 6,581 Feeder Teachers, where 310,146 students are enrolled.

NCHD has also established 164,190 Literacy Centres across the country, benefitting 3.84 million people.

The total contribution of the NCHD in national literacy rate is 3pc.

NCHD has been also assigned the task of preparation of the National Plan of Action for Vision-2025 to raise the literacy rate up to 90pc by 2025. At the federal level, the Basic Education Community Schools (BECS) project is managing 12,304 schools, enrolling 493,972 students.

KP has planned to open 1,000 non-formal community schools.

Punjab Literacy and Non-Formal Education Department is implementing various projects related to literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education.

Literacy Curriculum has been developed in Punjab, Sindh and Islamabad to improve literacy skills.