KARACHI, Nov 14: Sindh Education Minister Dr Hamida Khuhro on Tuesday approved a plan aimed at creating public awareness for promotion of education in Sindh and directed the officials concerned for formally launching the plan on Dec 25, the birth anniversary of Quaid-i-Azam.

The plan was approved after a detailed presentation given to her by Provincial Education Manager Dr Mohammad Ali Shaikh.

Briefing the minister, Dr Shaikh said the target groups for this campaign would be the educationally underprivileged people.

Referring to the latest census held in 1998, he said that the highest literacy rate in Sindh was in the urban areas with literacy amongst male standing at 69.75 per cent and females at 56.66 per cent. On the other hand, literacy amongst rural male had been at just 37.89 and female at 12.32 per cent only.

In terms of participation rate of school going children of five to nine year age group in various district of Sindh, Dr Shaikh said the lowest percentage of participation was in Tharparkar followed by Thatta, Shikarpur, Badin, Jacobabad, Umerkot, Ghotki, Larkana, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Sanghar, Dadu, Khairpur, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Naushahro Feroze.

On the other side, the highest percentage of school participation was confined to Karachi.

As per the Unesco estimates for 2005, he said the highest percentage of illiterates remain in the category of rural females, followed by rural male, urban females and finally by urban male.

The provincial education manger spelled out the objective plan that included motivating illiterate population in Sindh to acquire education.

Describing the availability of media for this campaign, Dr Shaikh said that television had entered as one of the most important and effective medium of mass communication in rural as well as in urban areas in the recent years.

He said that Pakistan had the highest ratio of television sets per thousands persons in South Asia.

Briefing the minister about potential of radio for this public awareness campaign, he said that due to its easy availability, presentation of programmes in Sindhi and non-dependence on electricity, radio was the most accessible source of communication in rural Sindh.

About the role of newspapers and periodicals in this campaign, he said the medium of newspapers should help strengthen the resolve for continuing education thus reducing dropout ratio.

The education manager said that in addition to traditional means of mass communication, one of the most important ways of influencing people remains personal contact.

In this regard, he suggested using a force of volunteers comprising college students, school teachers and activists of NGOs.

Dr Khuhro appreciated the efforts for preparation of the plan and expressed hope that the programme would contribute significantly towards promotion of education in Sindh.—PPI