The National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) has countrywide established 6,602 literacy centres where 160,533 people have become literate. According to official sources, the non-formal basic education system introduced by the government through setting up of 7,749 centers has been able to enrol 356,977 students.
To reduce gender gap, the government has decided to convert all primary schools to coeducation schools. Both national and provincial governments are introducing incentives for girls through monthly stipend and free textbooks.
As part of the reforms, the government has made Katchi classes part of the primary education system. Through MTDF, the government has set a target of setting up 30,000 new primary schools. Free education up to matriculation is also part of the education reform agenda.
Since public spending is rather limited, private sector has a very important role in the education sector. As a result of government reforms and rising demand for education, private schools are expected to grow to 55,000 in 2009-10 from 42,000 in 2004-05.
English language has been made compulsory from class 1 in all schools. Similarly other subjects like science and mathematics are to be taught in English. Provision of computer labs in all public schools is also part of these reforms. Major element of the integration efforts is the Madressah reforms. A Madressah education board has been set up to monitor and regulate the curriculum of Madressahs.
In Pakistan, the overall literacy rate increased to 53 percent in FY05 compared to the 45 percent in FY02. The improvement in literacy rate is visible across all the four provinces.
Region-wise literacy rate shows wide disparity between rural and urban areas. Not only is the urban literacy rate significantly higher than the rural region, the improvement is also more profound in the urban sector. This situation is common to all provinces. Further, the province-wise data shows that while the literacy rate has risen during 2001-05 period, disparity across provinces has also widened.
The improvement in provinces' literacy rate is mainly linked to the Education Sector Reforms over the last three years in all provinces except Balochistan. Punjab and Sindh are implementing similar reforms, while Madressahs are being registered for formal education in NWFP.
Another significant weakness of the education system is gender disparity. Though the female literacy rate has improved from 32 percent in 2001-02 to 40 percent in 2004-05, it is still lower than the 65 percent male literacy rate in 2004-05 against 58 percent in 2001-02. This situation is common to all provinces.
According to official sources, the gender disparity is more evident in rural region as the female literacy rate in the rural regions is quite low compared to the male literacy rate.
However, it is encouraging that the gender gap is narrowing in all provinces except NWFP. In case of Punjab and Sindh, the shrinking of gender gap can be linked to education sector reforms in the provinces as these reforms mainly focus on female literacy rate. The most surprising and encouraging element is the prominent decline in Balochistan though overall literacy rate in case of the province has not shown much progress. A high dropout rate is another issue that reduces the impact of enormous efforts being put in as part of the education sector reforms.
In FY06, 39 percent of students dropped out before completing their primary whereas another 20 percent left their education before completing their secondary level. Usually due to inadequate resources, children end up leaving their education, as parents are more inclined to have an extra helping hand contributing to the family income.
Dropout rates are generally higher for girls, probably because of the distance of schools and low priority generally given to educating girls. However this weakness is being targeted by new reforms in the education system that not only focus on the cost of education, but also on creating awareness among parents and providing incentives such as free of cost text books, and stipends for the students.