

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measures (PS&LSM) Survey 2014-15 has revealed that literacy rate in Pakistan for the age groups 10 years and older, is 60 percent.

The figures included 70 percent male and 49 percent female literacy people all over the country whereas the province-wise break-up indicates that Punjab has top literacy ratio of 61 percent including 71 percent male and 55 percent female.

In Sindh the ratio remained 60 percent with 71 percent male and 55 percent female followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 53 percent literate people including 71 percent male and 35 percent female and 44 percent in Balochistan showing 61 percent male and 25 percent female, official sources told APP on Saturday.

They informed 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. The goals included Universal Primary Education (UPE), Adult literacy, 33 Quality of Education, and Gender.

They informed that according to EFA Global Monitoring Report 2015, Pakistan’s education index value is 0.654 and stands at 106 out of 113 countries.

They further pointed out that the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training is running 5949 Feeder Schools with 6581 Feeder Teachers, where 310,146 students are enrolled.

Secondly NCHD has established 164,190 Literacy Centers across the country where 3.84 million people became literate. The total contribution of NCHD in national literacy rate is three percent.

NCHD has also assigned the task of preparation of National Plan of Action for Vision-2025 to raise the literacy rate up to 90 percent by 2025.

At Federal level, Basic Education Community Schools (BECS) project is managing 12,304 schools with enrolment of 493,972 students.

Khayber Pakhtunkhwa (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 Capital Territory to improve literacy skills. –APP