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1. Submitted to
Sir Haq Nawaz
Submitted By
Sidra Rehman
Roll No. S/2017-2241
B.Ed Hons Elementary
3rd Semester
INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
UNIVERSITY OF THE PUNJAB
LAHORE

2. Literacy Rate
Background
 There is a powerful relationship between literacy
and development. This correlation came to the
forefront in the recent decades when the term
human capital gained currency. The significance of
education in terms of human development is
manifested in the World Declaration on EFA, 1990.

3.  (www.unesco.org/org/education/efa/ed_for_all/ba
ckground/jomtien_declaration.shtml),which
states that, education is a fundamental right for all
people, women and men, of all ages, throughout
our world but it is unfortunate that a number of
people, mostly women, have been deprived of this
fundamental right. According to the been deprived
of this fundamental right. According to the UIS
(UNESCO Institute of Statistics) data,
(http://www.uis.unesco.org/ev_en.php?ID=6401)
there are an estimated 781 million illiterate adults
in the world, about 64 percent of whom are
women.

4. Literacy Rate in 1947
 In 1947, when Pakistan came into being, there were
only 8,413 primary schools, 2, 190 middle, and 408
Secondary Schools, 40 colleges, and 2 Universities
in the areas constituting Pakistan (GoP, 1951: 5).
The literacy rate for untied India in 1947 at the
time of the independence of Pakistan was about 15
percent (Bengali, 1999). This rate was much lower
for the areas that constituted Pakistan.

5. Literacy Rate in Rawalpindi District 1912
Religion Literacy Rate (%)
Christians 85.1
Jains 33.1
Sikhs 29.1
Hindus 18.7
Mohammadans 2.1

6. Literacy
Years Definition of Literacy
1951 One who can read a clear print in any language.
1961 One who is able to read with understating a simple letter in any language.
1972 One who is able to read and write in some language with understanding.
1981 One who can read a newspaper and write a simple letter.
1998 One who could read a newspaper and write simple letter in any language.
Source: Simplified from of the table used in literacy trends in Pakistan UNESCO (2003).

7.  The definition of literacy given in the ministry of
education handbook on literacy, education and gender
March 2004 is A person is considered literature if
he/she can read and write with understanding a
simple, statement related to his/her life.
 The World Bank defines literacy as “The ability to read
and write a simple statement about one’s everyday life
and do simple mathematical calculation”.
 It is interesting to note that if we apply the world band
definition it would have negative impact on literacy
rate in Pakistan as the world Bank’s definition includes
mathematical calculation as a part of literacy.

8. Pakistan Educational Conference, 1947
 The report on the Pakistan Educational Conference
(GoP, 1947: 84) underlined the significance of literacy
and suggested that, “Literacy is a means to further
education and must not be regarded as an end in
itself”. The minister responsible for education, Mr.
Fazal-ur-Rehman, (Gop, 1947: 9)
 The conference (Gop, 1947: 9) recommended that the
State in its own interests should provide to its boys and
girls, universal, compulsory and free basic education
which is the primary requisite of training in
democracy.

9.  Some major recommendations of the conference
included the use of broadcasting, magic lantern
slides, gramophone records, documentary films
and other scientific methods to help improve the
literacy of masses.
 A literacy center for women was to be established,
and training aids like cinema, radio, circulating
libraries were to be greatly encouraged.

10. Commission on National Education, 1959
 The Commission on National Education that was set
up in 1959 by Ayub Khan. The Commission (Gop, 1959:
197) realized the menace of illiteracy and focused on
the considered removal of illiteracy as a matter of
crucial importance of Pakistan and one which will
require a tremendous effort.
 According to the commission three major factors that
hampered the literacy drive included lack of sufficient
motivation, use of defective teaching techniques and
paucity of reading materials.

11.  The Commission (Gop, 1959: 202) proposed that each
child who joins school must continue for the full five
year programme and gradually include all primary
aged children in this effort; it will mean that no new
illiterates will be entering the productive (12-40) age
group.
 The Commission appreciated the initiative of Village
Aid, essentially focusing village of the country and
recommended intensifying these efforts and setting up
a center similar to the Literacy Training and
Production Centre at Lalamusa in East Pakistan.

12.  The Commission recommended that in urban areas of
the country a programme similar to Village Aid should
by undertaken by the Debarment of Social Welfare
with the appropriate professional assistance from the
education sector. The Commission referred to some
approaches which had been tried. The use of
undergraduate college students as adult literacy
teachers and the use of one literate adult to teach
another under the each one teach one approach. The
Commission recommended utilizing the services of
women and imams (religious prayer leaders).

13. Proposals for A New Educational
Policy, 1969
 The 1969 policy acknowledged that no read economic
progress was possible without literacy. It referred to
three advantages of literacy, namely providing a base
for education, induction of social change in behavior
and improvement in productivity. The policy (GoP,
1969: 19) observed that out of a total number of 20
million children in the age group 5-10, no more than 9
million (45 percent) are enrolled in schools. The
overall literacy in the country is no more than 20
percent which is amongst the lowest in Asia. The
policy aimed to impart literacy to 68 million adults by
1980.

14.  The policy thus proposed that the existing primary
and middle stages of education should be consolidated
into one elementary state to which a high degree of
priority should be accorded so that illiteracy could be
eliminated in the beginning. It proposed the
establishment of a National Literacy Corps comprising
youth of 18 years and above who had passed their
intermediate or higher examination.

15. The Education Policy, 1970
 The 1970 Education Policy (GoP, 1970: 3)
acknowledgement at the outset that Pakistan today
has one of the highest rates of illiteracy in the world.
The policy observed that because of irregular
attendance and a high dropout rate of children, they
could not achieve the appropriate level of literacy. The
1970 Policy claimed that the literacy rate, which was 24
percent at that time, will rise to well over 35 percent by
1982-83 and Pakistan is quite likely to attain 100
percent literacy around the year 2010 if other
important factors continue to remain constant.

16. The Education Policy, 1972
 One of the objectives of the policy (GoP, 1972: 1) was to
eradicate illiteracy with the shortest possible time through
the universalization of elementary education and a massive
adult education programme. The policy declared the
education would be free and universal up to Class X for all
children throughout the country.
 The policy announced the establishment of the People’s
Open University to provide part time educational facilities
through correspondence course, tutorials, seminars,
workshops, laboratories, television radio broadcasts and
other mass communication media. Another important
feature of the 1972 policy was the formation of the National
Book foundation. To make the literacy movement effective,
voluntary participation by society was essential.

17. The Educational Policy, 1979
• The policy (GoP, 1979: 1) considered the provision of a minimum
acceptable level of functional literacy as one of its objectives. The
policy took some drastic steps, e.g. opening mosque schools, mohalla
(neighborhood) schools and village workshop schools. The policy
pledged that 5,000 mosque schools would be opened during the Five
Year Plan period at the rate of approximately 1,000 schools per year. The
students in the mosque schools would be taught by the imams (prayer
leaders). The policy also proposed to establish 5,000 mohalla schools
during the next five years.
• The policy (GoP, 1979: 25-6) recommended setting up a National
Council on Adult Education with its nucleus at Allama Iqbal Open
University, Islamabad. According to the policy, the Allama Iqbal Open
University, through its multimedia delivery technology, would organize
radio and television programmes, prepare special booklets and reading
material for adults and set up mobile operational units in the rural
areas. The policy aimed to establish 10,000 adult literacy centers in the
country.

18.  On the recommendation of the 1979 policy, the Literacy
and Mass Education Commission (LAMEC) as set up in
1981. The primary job of LAMEC was to come up with
strategies to eradicate illiteracy through formal and
informal means of education and promote functional
literacy.
 In 1983 Zia ul-Haq announced a ten point program for the
promotion of literacy. Some of these points were overly
ambitious, for example, he recommended that arms,
licenses, driving licenses and similar other licenses and
permits should be granted only to literate persons.

19.  A year after the sixth Five Year Plan, a massive National Literacy Plan
(1984-1986) was launched. The Plan, with Rs. 317.016 million funds at
its disposal, took up the challenge of making 2.2 million persons
literate in a period of two years (1984-1886). A number of projects were
launched (Bengali, 1999: 13) including Afternoon School projects,
NGOs Volunteer Literacy Corps projects, Sipah-e-Idrees projects,
Social Welfare Agencies Literacy projects, Literacy Trade Centers on all
the roads of the country, Open Air Schools under the shade of a tree
and Student’s Literacy drives.
 As a follow up to the National Literacy Plan (1984-86), an initiative of
Droop in Schools 1986-89 was announced with the estimated cost of
Rs. 208 million. It was decided to launch the project in nine districts.
When the project was in its initial phase, it was replaced by the
nationwide Literacy Programme launched by the newly inducted
Junejo government in December 1985. Interestingly the Literacy
Programme was soon substituted by a new programme called Nai
Roshni (New Light) Schools.

20. The Education Policy, 1992
 The 1992 Policy (GoP, 1992: 20) stated that the problem of illiteracy is
formidable both in its size as well as in its complexity. The policy set an
ambitious target of increasing the literacy rate to 70 percent by the year
2002. It proposed detailed strategies to realize this target.
 These strategies included:
 Making primary education compulsory
 Reduction in dropout rates.
 Literacy programmes through the provincial governments
 NGOs handling local organization with appropriate support from the
Federal government.
 The full utilization of electronic and print media for motivating the
public towards supporting the literacy effort.
 Evening shifts in primary schools and the utilization of summer
vacation to enhance the literacy effort.

21. The Education Policy, 1998
 The Education Policy, 1998 underlined the significant role of literacy at
individual and societal levels. The Policy (Gop, 1998: 28) reiterated Pakistan’s
international commitment to double the rate of literacy by the year 2000
cannot be accomplished without achieving universal primary education (UPE).
It resolved to raise the existing literacy rate of 39 percent to 55 percent during
the first five years of the policy and 70 percent by the year 2010.
 The policy announced some ambitious plans to realize the target. Some of the
major strategies (GoP, 1998: 21-3) included
 Launch of the Non-formal Basic Education Programme for 5.5 million primary
school age children (5-9 years old) who were out of school.
 Replication of the Asian Development Bank sponsored pilot project for 15-25-
year-old rural women.
 Creation of a Literacy Fund to finance the literacy movement in the country.
 Launch of a National Literacy Movement on an emergency basis in every
village, tehsil and district.
 Use of mosques for non-formal basic education to increase literacy.

22. The Education Policy, 2009
 The 2009 policy (Gop, 2009a: 18) stated as one of its
objectives, “To eradicate illiteracy within the shortest
possible time through universalizing of quality elementary
education coupled with institutionalized adult literacy
programmes).
 The policy also aimed to devleopa national literacy
curriculum and identify instructional materials. The policy
(GoP, 2009a: 39) in its action plans reiterates, literacy rate
shall be increased up to 86 percent by 2015 through up
scaling of ongoing programmes of adult literacy and non-
formal basic education in the country.

23. Analysis and Discussion
 A critical analysis of the literacy initiatives reveals that
the education policies and plans were generally unable
to achieve the promised targets in the stipulated
period of time. This is evident in that gives an
overview of the literacy targets and target dates set in
the education policies and how these dates kept on
shifting to the new target dates.

24. Literacy Targets and Target Dates
Years Policy/Document/Report Target Target
Date
1947 Pakistan Educational Conference No Specific
Target
No Specific
Target Date
1959 Commission on National Education No Specific
Target
No Specific
Target Date
1970 National Education Policy 5 Million 1975
1972 National Education Policy 11 Million 1980
1979 National Education Policy 35% 1980
1992 National Education Policy 70% 2002
1998 National Education Policy 70% 2010
2009 National Education Policy 86% 2015

25. Progress towards Goal 2 at the National
Level (Percentage)
Indicator 2001-2 2004-5 2007-8 2010-11 2011-12 MDG
Target 2015
Net Primary Enrolment
Rate (5-9 Years)
42 52 55 56 57 100
Completion/ Survival
Rate grade 1-5
57.3 67.1 52.3 49 - 100
Literacy Rate (%) 10
years and above
45 53 56 58 58 88
Source: Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM)
Survey 2011-12.

26. Changing Definitions of Literacy
Years Definition of Literacy
1951 One who can read a clear print in any language
1961 One who is able to read with understating a simple latter in any language?
1972 One who is able to read and write in some language with understanding?
1981 One who can read a newspaper and write a simple letter.
1998 One who can read a newspaper and write a simple letter, in any language?
Source: Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PSLM)
Survey 2011-12.

27. Factors Affecting the Literacy Rate
 A critical factor in the failure of policies is the unrealizable data
which is used in planning. For instance in 1992-93 four different
literacy rates, 41.3, 34.0, 31.0, 35.0, (Ahsan, 2003: 274) were
published in official documents.
 Another important factor responsible for the failure of policies
was poor governance. The issue of student dropout rates also
played a negative role in the effort to promote literacy as a large
percentage of students in Pakistan.
 Some of the initiatives taken to help enhance literacy were also
not culturally sensitive. Teaching kits and accommodation for
single female teaches were two glaring examples (Warwick et al.,
1992). These initiatives consumed huge funds but miserably
failed in achieving their objectives. Similarly the initiatives of
mobile libraries and teaching techniques on wheels involving
huge funds could not succeed.

28. Summary
 Literacy is considered to be an important step towards
personal and collective socio-economic development.
Almost all policy documents acknowledged the
significance of literacy in the development of the country.
When we talk of the relationship between education and
development we need to realize that enhanced literacy
numbers do not guarantee development. It is the quality of
literacy that is very important. That is why we see that in
some cases the numbers are inflated but we do not find the
evidence of development in real life. Literacy, however,
remained a challenge for policy makers due to social,
cultural and economic factors.