PESHAWAR, March 23: The NWFP government will need about Rs16 billion to raise the literacy rate by 50 per cent, from the existing level, by the year 2015 as part of its recently-formulated programme entitled "Education for All" (EFA).
According to official sources, the province had a total of 13.5 million people in the age group of 10 years and above out of the total population of 19 million.
The number of people of the said age group is estimated to increase to 14.5 million by the end of 2004-05 financial year, to 16 million by the end of the 2010-11 financial year and to 18.3 million by the close of the 2014-15 financial year.
The education sector's policymakers have envisaged a plan with an objective to improve the level of literacy rate by 50 per cent by the year 2015, requiring the province to arrange substantial amount of funds to materialize the plan.
The sources said that the EFA unit of the Schools and Literacy Department, NWFP, had prepared a plan to achieve the target of raising the literacy ratio from the existing 41 per cent to 61 per cent by 2015.
"This would require the government to arrange a total of about Rs16 billion to implement the adult literacy plan," said a senior officer of the provincial government.
The plan is yet to be approved by the provincial cabinet, though it has already been okayed by the provincial EFA forum involving representatives of a various departments concerned of the provincial government.
The government, said the sources, would need to arrange slightly over Rs1 billion for undertaking development activities for the planned increase in the literacy rate.
At least about Rs15 billion would be required to meet the cost of recurring expenditures - mainly salaries of teachers and other staff of the department - to be incurred to improve the literacy rate.
According to official data, out of the total population of 13.5 million of people in the age group of 10 and above only 5.5 million fall under the category of 'literate' in the NWFP whereas the remaining eight million people, including five million women, were illiterate.
The plan, added the sources, had set a target that the province should have 13.6 million literate people by the year 2015 - when the province's total population of the said age group is estimated to be around 18.3 million.
"Once the provincial cabinet takes it up for approval (expected in the near future), federal government and foreign donor agencies would be contacted to get financial support from them for the adult literacy programmes," said a development planner of the province.
According to sources, the adult literacy programme formed part of the EFA programme which the provincial government has stressed in line with the federal government's international commitments to achieve the target of education for all by 2015.
The adult literacy programme which would be executed in three phases ending in 2015 involves establishment of thousands of non- formal basic education schools, special centres to be run by NGOs, vocational centres for male and female population and Quranic literacy centres.
The government would need to induct some 140,000 additional literacy teachers raising the total strength from the existing level of slightly over 23000. Similarly, around 1000 master trainers would also be recruited and some 13,000 supervisors to achieve desired results.
