AT a time when the country is mired in serious crises, a numbers game focusing on who can and cannot read might appear trivial. But it is not. Literacy, next to education, is the key factor in breaking the cycle of disadvantage that developing countries are trapped in. Unfortunately, this basic fact has yet to gain recognition in Pakistan where, according to Unesco’s latest Global Monitoring Report on Education, the adult literacy rate is 54 per cent. This is way behind the world average. What is worse, the country is not expected to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of 100 per cent literacy by 2015. In the next six years, the literacy rate will inch up to 62 per cent. The illusory image of progress is shattered by a look at the actual numbers. Since the literacy rate in Pakistan has failed to keep pace with the population growth rate the number of adult illiterates will actually grow to 47 million. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s ranking in the ‘Education Development Index’ is deplorable. The country is straggling at a lowly 118 out of 129.

The value of literacy and education for human development, economic progress and ecological survival is to well known to be extolled. The facts, too, do not bear repetition. But some observations about our education strategy that determines literacy are in order. First what we should be worried about is that the pace of progress is excruciatingly slow. An education policy that aims at the universalisation of primary education does not have to focus unduly on adult literacy programmes because within a few years there is no adult illiterate left to cater for. Pakistan’s lowly school enrolment ratio, high drop-out rate and poor standards ensure that there are plenty of adults around who need to be taught literacy skills. In our case, teaching adults would help in expanding school enrolment as parents who are literate want their children to be educated. Another fact to be noted is that low-quality education does not enhance literacy. It is now said that good primary-level schooling alone ensures lifelong literacy. Therefore an education system that does not address the quality issue amounts to funds being poured down the drain. Moreover, an elite minority that concentrates privileges in its own hands should be aware of the dangers of keeping the masses impoverished and deprived of the advantages of a good education.
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