ISLAMABAD, July 14: The Central Development Working Party in a recent meeting has approved a Rs981.374 million project to achieve 100 per cent literacy in four model districts of Punjab, official documents showed.

The project, which has a foreign exchange component of Rs75 million as Japan International Cooperative Agency (Jica) grant, will be funded under the Education Sector Reform programme.

The project through sharing of resources - federal 35 per cent, provincial 37 per cent, district governments 20 per cent and JICA 8 per cent - aims to achieve the target in the age group of 10 to 34 years with universal primary education in Mandi Bahauddin, Khanewal, Khushab and Dera Ghazi Khan.

There was no proposal for consolidation of present facilities to cover reasonable portion of the dropouts or left-outs. However, during the meeting it was observed that the project appeared to be ambitious one as it was based on the assumption that competent and committed teachers would be available, illiterate adults comprising mostly workers were anxious to become literate and new model for providing literacy in six months was sufficient.

The Punjab government informed the meeting that literacy and NFBE department had sufficient capacity for implementation of the project in coordination with the district governments.

The ministry of education supported the project on condition that federal funding under the ESR programme would be utilized and no separate funds were required in the PSDP; to which the government of Punjab agreed.

Secretary Northern Areas desired that the experience of the project be shared with other areas as well. Deputy chairman Planning Commission said the government of Punjab might implement the project as proposed by the education ministry without its inclusion in the federal PSDP. And the provinces might share their experiences for promotion of education in less-developed areas.