Punjab government is carrying out various programmes to provide opportunity to an estimated 38 million illiterate and out-of-school population to return to education fold, as eradication of illiteracy is critical for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
According to official sources, an amount of Rs 125 million is being spent on literacy and non-formal education during the current fiscal year, which is 4.2 percent more than the last financial year's allocation for this sector.
The sources said government aims to achieve the target through various initiatives, focusing on demand based training for new literate and imparting education, training and skills leading to economic independence, increased incomes and reduced poverty. In addition, various programmes are being pursued in this regard including establishment of 300 Adult Literacy Centres and 200 non-formal schools in jails, factories and brick kilns under a five-year plan.
These Literacy Centres and non-formal schools will help achieve the objective of education and skill development of prisoners in 29 jails of province and more than 5,000 brick kiln workers and other illiterates working in factories. Besides, government is also carrying out awareness campaign for promotion of literacy. The sources said implementation of these interventions, coupled with management reforms would make it possible to attain the MDG targets by the year 2013-2014.