Speakers for holistic approach to promote literacy

Speakers at a ceremony held to mark International Literacy Day here on Monday called for making holistic approach to promote literacy in the country. The ceremony titled "Enrolment Campaign for Out of School Children", held by Ministry of Education in collaboration with National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) and Unesco in connection with International Literacy Day observed with theme "Literacy and Health".
Nafeesa Shah, a member national assembly, addressing the ceremony as the chief guest said it was high time government reviewed its predecessors' policies on education, keeping in view socio-cultural factors to encourage maximum parents to send their children to schools.
"Many factors count with regard to literacy rate in the country, say, missing facilities, short-lived programme, absence of follow up activities, lack of good teachers, missing of link between education and development, shortage of educational institutions, ambiguous concept on literacy, you can name it" she observed.
She said as many as 50 million people of the country were still not literate, thus there was a need to formulate a separate policy on literacy while taking all stakeholders on board to literate them and achieve goals in education sector within timeframe signed under different national and international agreements.
She also appreciated teachers, parents and donor agencies including National Commission for Human Development and Unesco for playing its role in promotion of literacy in the country. Speaking on the occasion, Director General Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) Attiq ur Rehman said that concrete steps were being made to enrol maximum out of school children.
As par of such efforts, he said that within next two years, ministry and its partners would be able to achieve 100 percent literacy of Islamabad Capital Territory. Federal Directorate of Education, he said that 3,523 out of school children were enrolled in 132 villages around Islamabad with the help of NCHD, community mobilisation, district administration and ministry of education. Iqbal-ur-Rehman, Director Education, NCHD who is also the program head of NCHD Literacy Program said that literacy was a matter of national security.
He said that NCHD literacy program is currently based on phonetic approach and the National Literacy Program of NCHD was well received in 122 districts of Pakistan where over 120,000 Adult Literacy Centers were established and nearly 4 million people made literate. Dr Maurice Robson, the Director Unesco delivered the message on behalf of Director General Unesco. Dr Robson said that literacy had to be given priority in government agendas to combat all ills of society.
He emphasised on making the school environment child friendly and education a joyful experience for the children attending the school. He said appreciated the current government's literacy programme in the country, but he hastened to add that it was not enough and there was a long way to go. Later, few of the children among 3,523 who were enrolled under the campaign were given school uniform.