ISLAMABAD, May 16: Federal Education Minister Lt-Gen (retired) Javed Ashraf Qazi has proposed that army be used to achieve 100 per cent literacy in the country, Dawn has learnt. Gen Qazi made the proposal to the Senate Standing Committee on Education which met here on Monday to discuss the Education for All (EFA) campaign.

Pakistan has given an international commitment to achieve the target by the year 2015. But several international organizations doubt it would be able to do so.

Briefing the committee during a meeting presided over by Senator Rozina Alam Khan, the minister said it was imperative to seek help from the army as its reach was countrywide. He suggested that army personnel be involved in establishing literacy centres all over the country.

Subsequently, the meeting unanimously decided to move a resolution in the coming session of the Senate, urging the government to engage army troops in the task in areas where the literacy rate was dismally low.

After the approval of the parliament, the first pilot project would be started for a period of three months, in which the junior commissioned officers (JCOs) of the army would establish early and adult literacy centres in villages near the garrison areas.

President Pervez Musharraf had already given his consent to the idea, the minister told the committee. He said army had presence even in remotest areas where civilian teachers were reluctant to go because of the logistic and other problems.

Since army was acclimatized to living in harsh conditions, he said, its educated personnel could be employed to promote literacy in the country.

Gen Qazi said government representatives faced embarrassment when doubts were expressed at national and international forums about Islamabad’s seriousness in making education accessible to all.

Elaborating his proposal, the minister said each unit of the army in the cantonments could be given a task for three months to establish literacy centres in five selected areas of the adjacent villages and impart education to the local illiterate population.

The next three months would be assigned to another unit to adopt more five villages to turn the illiterate into literate and the scheme would go on in all the provinces, including Fata and Northern Areas, till 100 per cent literacy was achieved by the target date of 2015.

All the manuals and literacy kits needed for the purpose were available with the army as the units used to educate the illiterate jawans upon their joining the army.

His idea was to assist the civil education managers who could not accomplish the task due to lack of capacity-building and other logistic reasons, he said.