An illiterate nation
Dawn Editorial
Friday, 22 Jan, 2010
Girls from the troubled Swat valley attend a class as the army rebuilds their school which was blown up by Taliban in Matta, Pakistan. Militants are targeting mostly girls schools as they are against females' education. - Photo by AP.
UNESCO'S Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2010 places Pakistan fourth on the regional list of countries with the highest number of adult illiterates. Along with India and Nepal, this is also the country where women are twice as likely to be illiterate than men.
Indeed Pakistan has performed poorly on all four indicators used to compute the EFA development index: universal primary education, adult literacy, gender parity and equality, and quality. Amongst the contributing factors identified by the report is the fact that Pakistan spends less than 20 per cent of its budget on education, the growth of political movements hostile to girls' education and persistent poverty. Using Pakistan's example, the report points out that literacy receives insufficient attention "and is often not incorporated into wider poverty reduction strategies".
This indictment of the state of education should come as no surprise. The country's education sector has suffered serious neglect over the decades and become characterised by piecemeal policies, insufficient funding and inefficient planning. Despite the efforts, no meaningful improvement has been seen in primary school enrolment figures, while high levels of poverty and child labour also play a significant role in hindering access to education.
Matters have been made worse by recent political developments. In Swat, for example, the Taliban destroyed more than 100 girls schools between 2007 and May 2009; and a 2008 Taliban-issued 'ban' on girls' education led nearly 1,000 schools to either close down or stop admitting girls, while fear led to the withdrawal of 120,000 girls from schools. The path to rectifying this situation lies in improving the country's law and order situation, investing in the education sector and instituting poverty alleviation efforts that prioritise education. Unless a cohesive strategy is set into motion now, it is difficult to see how Pakistan can avoid having yet another generation's progress impeded by illiteracy.
Tags: education in pakistan,unesco,
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