It will be useful for uni students specially for commerce.

1. ILLITRACY IN
PAKISTAN
INTRODUCTION TO ILLITERACY

3. An illiteracy explosion
• Pakistan came into being in 1947 amid much revolutionary fervor and dreams of a
bright future.
• Four years later in 1951, the fledgling country was having a literacy rate of 17.9 per
cent – which meant 18.64 million citizens were illiterate.
• One would expect this number of illiterates to go down with the passage of time.
• On the contrary, the illiterate population of the country has swollen to the extent that
in 1998, over 50 million Pakistanis were illiterate.
• It is feared that number of illiterates is still growing in Pakistan. This doubling of
Pakistan’s illiterate population has been brought about by the state’s failure to
provide basic education to all children.
• The literacy is very low in Pakistan as compared to other countries.

4. Literacy and survival
 The importance of literacy in the world of today can hardly be overemphasized
where new technologies are emerging from nowhere to push the older ones into
obsolescence.
 Job markets are in constant flux; demand for traditional skills long cherished is
vanishing overnight, and new, unheard of skills are assuming center stage.

5.  Literacy rate
• Literacy rate stood at 62.3 percent in 2017-18 (as compared to 60.7 percent
in 2014-15) The overall literacy rate, estimated at 60% in 2012-13, has gone
down to 58% in 2013-14.
• According to Pakistan Standards of Living Measurements PSLM 2011-12,
the country's literacy rate is 58%.
• According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan (2010–11) the
overall literacy rate for those ages 10 and above is 57.7%, although with
regional and gender discrimination (favoring males).
• According to the latest Pakistan Laboure Force Survey 2009-10, the
overall literacy rate (age 10 years and above) is 57.7 percent (69.5 percent
for male and 45.2 percent for female) compared to 57.4 percent (69.3 percent
for male and 44.7 percent for female) for 2008-09.

7.  CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF ILLITERACY
Following are the effects of illiteracy.
 Limited ability to obtain and understand essential information;
 Unemployment: The unemployment rate is 2–4 times higher among
those with little schooling than among those with Bachelor’s degrees;
 Lower income;
 Lower-quality jobs;
 Reduced access to lifelong learning and professional development;

8.  Precarious financial position;
 Little value is given to education and reading within the
family, and this often leads to intergenerational transmission
of illiteracy;
 Low self-esteem, which can lead to isolation;
 Impact on health: Illiterate individuals have more workplace
accidents, take longer to recover and more often misuse
medication through ignorance of health care resources and
because they have trouble reading and understanding the
relevant information (warnings, dosage, contraindications.

9.  Following are the causes of illiteracy
1. Population Growth
Population growth is one of the derivative factors that affect not just the quality
education, but also the budget allocation for each family. From 1960 -2018 Pakistan
population has been increased from 40.99 -212.22 Million.
2. Mindset about Education
There are people who do not seem to feel the value of education in their lives
because of contentment. We cannot force people to accept the importance of early
education, and completing a course, since it lies on what the person believes, and
stands for.
1. Poor Implementation of Educational Programs

10. 3. Geographical Factors
This is another considerable factor because there are people who would want to
pursue education, but their location or places where they live limit them to have
a free access into it.
4. Lack of Funds
There are countries like Pakistan which is under developing that cannot really
sufficiently divide specific budget at all in one area of concern since there are
other factors to be considered as well like health, infrastructure projects, social
welfare, and others.
5. Poor Implementation of Educational Programs
This is the common problem of some school institutions and government
agencies that actually assigned to oversee and supervise the major educational
programs in their countries.

11.  Solutions of illiteracy
 The root cause of illiteracy in Pakistan is poverty
 Government should allocate more funds for the education sector to promote the
literacy rate in Pakistan.
• People should be given awareness for the need of education.
• Enough funds should be provided for starting new schools and colleges.
• Funds should be provided to poor students for purchasing text books, note books
and other school materials.
• Enough transport facilities should be provided to the students.
• Qualified teachers should be appointed to teach the students.