President's Education Sector Reforms (ESR) Programme emphasises the provision of education for all school age children and it proposes to achieve 76 percent net primary enrolment by 2006.
According to an official source, the government has decided to provide at least one primary school to every village along with other initiatives like provision of free textbooks, free education up to matriculation. Grants and stipend to girl students and the introduction of English language teaching from grade-1 are also part of policy measures.
According to an update report, the overall adult literacy rate of Pakistan for the fiscal year 2004-05 is 53 percent against the ambitious target (according to the Education Reform Action Plan 2001-05) of increasing it from 45 percent in 2001-02 to 60 percent in 2004-05. It is also below the PRSP target of 58 percent for the period 2004-05. The MDG target is to reach 80 percent literacy till 2015. The literacy rate increased at an average of two percent per annum in the past four years and with this rate it is highly unlikely that Pakistan would be able to reach the MDG target unless and until there is a major change in the policy and implementation framework.
The education sector was not given due priority in the past, as it was perhaps not recognised as the engine of growth in the evolving market economy. Scarcity of funds, weak implementation and monitoring of programmes, overlapping and high recurring costs, low access to basic education, static curriculum and minimal public-private partnership in this sector (especially in the rural areas) have impeded the development process in the education sector. These constraints and some of the initiatives taken by the government to counter them are discussed in greater detail in the following sections.
The discrepancies at the provincial level persist ranging from Sindh with highest literacy rates at 55 percent and Balochistan at 37 percent. Overall adult female literacy increased from 32 percent in 2001-02 to 40 percent in 2004-05. The corresponding change in the male literacy rate is from 58 to 65 percent. Literacy remains higher in the urban areas (71 percent) as compared to the rural areas (44 percent). In absolute terms, the number of illiterates in ten plus age group is 51.8 million. It is generally recognised that a low net participation rate of about 57 percent at the primary level combined with high inefficiency rate estimated at 45 percent dropouts in the public sector, has contributed to a low national literacy rate.
The literacy ratio has been negatively exacerbated due to the absence of meaningful and over ambitious literacy programmes in the past.
The President's Education Sector Reforms emphasise improvement through the implementation of the national literacy guidelines/policy, creating awareness about improving literacy, institutionalising literacy efforts through more efficient and effective organisational structure at all tiers of the government, to ensure consistent implementation of national literacy curriculum and standards.
Under Education Sector Reform (ESR), 6,953 literacy centres have been established throughout the country. So far, 0.278 million youth have been made literate. National Commission for Human Development has also established 6,602 adult literacy centres and 160,533 neo-literate have graduated from these centres.
USAID assistance has also led to opening of approximately 4,000 adult literacy centres in Sindh, Balochistan and 7,543 adults have so far passed the literacy programme. National literacy guidelines have also been developed. UN decade strategies for literacy programme have also been developed in close co-operation with Unesco.
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