KARACHI, Sept 2: The representatives of the Sindh Education Department and NGOs, working for promotion of literacy, at a seminar on Thursday stressed for enhanced coordination among non-governmental organizations and government agencies to yield better results from their campaigns and programmes.

The seminar on "Turning our attention to literacy in rural areas" was organized by the Pakistan Press Foundation at its Vicky Zeitlin Media Library in connection with the International Literacy Day, being observed on September 8.

Giving details of the Sindh education department's efforts for promotion of literacy in rural Sindh, the Director, Literacy and Non-formal Education, Sindh, Dr Dur Muhammad Pathan, said that the federal government had allowed the Sindh education and literacy department to set up over 8,000 non-formal schools in the province by 2015.

"Currently, we are running 1,227 non-formal schools having 41,000 enrolment of students in the province," he said, adding that some 50 NGOs were also cooperating for the promotion and increasing of literacy rate in Sindh.

He said the Sindh education department was also planning to increase the salaries of teachers serving at non-formal schools besides provision of Rs500 to the owner of the compound where such schools were established or would be established.

In addition, the department was also running 400 adult literacy centres where working male and females were educated, he added. Lauding the role of NGOs in the promotion of literacy in the province, he said, these organizations should initiate coordinated efforts with the Sindh education department to yield more positive results.

The representative of an NGO, Literate Pakistan, Muhammad Shan-e-Alam, in his presentation informed that his organization was working in the areas of research and curricula development, which would enable illiterates to acquire education within 3-4 months.

"Our experts have prepared curricula and books, which if taught by teachers trained by our organization, will enable an illiterate person to read newspaper and express himself in writing within 3-4 months," he added.

He informed that their experts were utilizing modern techniques and methods for curricula preparation besides in teachers training, adding that so far they had made 100,000 persons literate during the last 10 years.

Dr Mubina Agboatwala of the Health Oriented Preventive Education in her presentation said, her organization was emphasizing for establishment of an educated and healthy society in the country, for which it was running several programmes.

According to her, HOPE had established formal schools, home schools and libraries in rural Sindh and underdeveloped areas of Karachi besides launching adult literacy programmes to promote literacy in the province.

"We also adopt schools and children and try to improve condition of these schools besides providing education to adopted children," she informed, adding that HOPE also created liaison with formal schools and helps in improving their educational standard.

Deploring that the dropout rate of female students in rural areas was alarmingly high, she said, her organization was paying attention towards this specific area and concentrating on female education beyond primary level in the province.

Ms Shehnaz Abjani, Director Zindagi Trust, urged participants of seminar to review the definition of literacy, as according to her, a person having some ability to write his or her name should not be considered as literate. - PPI