THIS is with reference to the report ‘Alvi says he read 30 to 40 books in a year’ (March 3). As it happened, it was towards the very end of his tenure, that the former president found it alarming that 20.62 million Pakistani children were out of school, and he promptly declared it a big challenge for the country. It was as if he had never known it before. However, to be fair, the former president was not the only one with a passion for rhetoric; it is a malaise that is common among the national elite.

The book-loving president had taken pains to visit the Sindh Governor House to launch the first Karachi Festival of Books and Libraries. It can be argued that the ceremony meant for promoting books and reading ought to have taken place preferably in an open space with participation open to all. Or, better still, the activity could have been arranged in some library or school in the interior of Sindh’s remote and acade-mically backward districts, like Kashmore, Kandhkot or Shikarpur, that are infested with notorious dacoits and anti-social elements. This would have made it a pragmatic effort towards the promotion of the reading culture in the country.

However, the fact of the matter is that a staggering number of 28 million children, not 20.62 million, are presently out of school as revealed by former caretaker federal education minister in a letter to Punjab education minister not long ago. Every fourth child is out of school. We are globally leading in the race to have the most out-of-school children. India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Taiwan are far ahead than us in literacy and ratio of children enrolled in schools.

Moreover, the ‘learned’ and ‘book-loving’ former president occupied the coveted seat for more than five years, and, needless to say, he was in a better position to address at least this daunting challenge of illiteracy, especially during his party’s tenure. This may have given him an opportunity to say that he did his best to improve enrolment in schools. But all he could do was to say that he read 30-40 books a year.

Regrettably, education remains to be the lowest priority of our ruling elite. They have scant respect, if at all, for this vital aspect that takes nations to glory and can make them stand proudly with advanced, literate nations of the world.

Unfortunately, we, as a nation, often believe more in rhetoric and less in doing something practical for any cause. In fact, a nation that has been groping in the dark for long seeking light at the end of the dark tunnel at least has the right to ask from its educated ruling elite about their own performance and delivery. At least this is its due right.

Qamer Soomro
Shikarpur

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2024