| October 8, 2001 | Monday | Rajab 20, 1422 |
Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)
Literacy promotion
IN the pre-September 11 scenario Pakistan was hoping, at best, to remain afloat economically as the world seemed not in favour of abandoning this country. But what has happened in the post-September 11 period is simply spectacular from the point of view of Pakistan’s economic prospects in the medium term. In the short run, however, the country has to cope with a number of irritants like war-risk surcharges on ships and airlines coming to Pakistan and the cancellation of orders by buyers in rich countries because of fears of disruption and dislocation once the battle front against Afghanistan becomes active. These short-term negative consequences seem to have been put out of focus by a plethora of offers and promises of what the world proposes to give to Pakistan for its active help and cooperation in the US-led war on terrorism. But what makes it more frustrating is the fact that much of the help that had already been finalized before the September 11 events and that was to flow in the second quarter of the current financial year is being confused as assistance related to our role as the new front-line state.
In the first place, all the debt rescheduling agreements that we are signing with the donor countries, the release of the last tranche of the IMF’s SBA, the about-to-start negotiations on PRGF and the waiving of nuclear-related sanctions have nothing to do with the post-September 11 eagerness to help Pakistan. Secondly, the total impact of the overall help on our economy will not be anything spectacular. Together with monetary sanctions meant specifically for the relief of Afghan refugees, an impression is created as if all the offers of help are meant for Pakistan. The government would do well to dispel any euphoric feeling on this score about the economic prospects ahead by presenting a correct picture of the loans and grants that are being offered to Pakistan.
Indeed, from all accounts, what has so far come to Pakistan in absolute terms in the context of the new situation is only a couple of hundred million dollars in emergency grants from the US, Japan and European countries. Additionally, the US has waived the democracy-related sanctions and Britain has promised resumption of military cooperation. The Europeans are also sending a high-powered team to assess Pakistan’s emergency and long-term needs. So, if the war against terrorism does not peter out in the next couple of months, Pakistan can perhaps hope to see a resumption of generous aid flows from rich countries — a repeat of what it had experienced during the late 1950s, early 1960s and then during the Afghan war of the 1980s.
One only hopes that the new aid would not go the way the previous flows did. While the nation received the earlier flows of aid gratefully, the governments in power in those periods squandered a lot of those concessional billions on wasteful projects and a part of it was also pocketed by the ruling elite. Some of this aid was attached, which meant the recipients were bound to import goods from the donors at highly inflated prices and at times to accept unduly expensive technical consultants as part of the bargain. Some of the aid was ‘packaged’ so that at the time of repayment the terms became highly punishing. All these lapses and pitfalls should be avoided this time. At the same time, the new flows of aid should be channelled only into those sectors of the economy which are essential for improving its health, such as for expanding social and physical infrastructure, enhancing foreign trade and cushioning the hardships of the much postponed restructuring of the economy to make it more vibrant and capable of generating more wealth and more jobs.
AN ambitious programme for achieving 100 per cent literacy in 15 years has been devised by the Punjab Literacy Commission in collaboration with UNESCO, says the provincial social welfare minister. It envisages the setting up of free elementary schools for children from three to five years of age at mohallah and village level. Special non-formal education centres would be set up for five to nine-year-olds and arrangements would be made to provide technical training to women and illiterate people between the ages of 10 and 50. Teacher training is part of the initiative.
Literacy programmes have been continuing under different names like adult literacy, nai roshni, national literacy commission, PM’s literacy commission, universalization of primary education, etc, over th past decades without any encouraging results. Pakistan is trailing behind many Third World countries despite the fact that large sums involving heavy external funding have been spent on organizing literacy campaigns and acquiring the services of foreign-trained experts and consultants for the purpose. Participation is low and worse still is the completion and high drop-out rate. Of the gross enrolment of 16 million children, aged 5-9 years, in primary schools, 8.7 million drop out before completing primary education. Another 6.9 million primary-age children remain out of school and in a five-year cycle, 13.55 million illiterates are added, which means 2.7 million a year.
The situation regarding female literacy is even more depressing. Women remain deprived of basic education because of non-availability of schools close to their homes. The site selection of institutions is often not suited to the needs of the people. Parents are reluctant to send their children, particularly girls, to distant places. Poverty and illiteracy of parents are major deterrents. Children often supplement their parents’ income by supporting them in their daily work. Themselves being illiterate, parents cannot supervize the studies of their children. Textbooks are uninteresting and hardly relate to the pupils’ daily lives and problems. Apart from the fact that the teaching methods leave a lot to be desired, there are few trained teachers available and fewer still who are prepared to go to the rural areas.
In this context, improving participation cannot be easy. Community involvement and skill development have been accorded an important place in the current programme. Vocational centres set up for women in villages would impart skills relevant to the respective areas in six-month courses. Community Partner Centres would increase female literacy through video cassettes to be played on TV-VCR to be provided by the community. But it is necessary to inform teachers about the specially designed participatory methods to increase effectiveness of the literacy drive. Focusing on girls and illiterate youth, vocational training can help increase participation as well as improve national income and productivity.
However, given the resource constraint, enlisting the cooperation of the private sector and NGOs would be important in sustaining the programme. To help expand the infrastructure of training and learning centres and strengthen the existing facilities for imparting literacy, they can be provided fiscal and tax incentives. The task of community involvement can be facilitated by the district governments which are better placed to cater to the people’s needs at their doorstep.