World | Pakistan
Official cautions country may miss UN's key literacy goal
The number of illiterate people in Pakistan has crossed 54 million and the illiteracy rate is fast increasing, a government official said yesterday.
- By Waqar Mustafa, Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 March 3, 2007
Lahore: The number of illiterate people in Pakistan has crossed 54 million and the illiteracy rate is fast increasing, a government official said yesterday.
Addressing a seminar on the education system, Punjab Literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education secretary Rai Ijaz Ali Zaigham said there were 19 million illiterate people in Pakistan in 1991. "The number has now risen to 54 million."
The secretary said the literacy rate in Pakistan in 1961 was 17 per cent and in 2005, this rate rose to 53 per cent. According to him, till 1998, the literacy rate increased every year by 0.65 per cent; while, from 1998 to 2005, it went up by 1.28 per cent every year. "That is insufficient," he added.
Based on the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey, a World Bank report said literacy rates of population of 10 years and older have increased to 53 per cent as compared to 45 per cent in 2001-02. "While both female and male literacy, at 57 per cent and 80 per cent in 2004-05 respectively have increased, the gender gap has not shown any significant reduction," the report said.
"Gender gaps remain in schooling, largely in the rural areas where only 22 per cent of girls above age 10 have completed primary level or higher schooling as compared to 47 per cent boys," the report said.
"To meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 of achieving universal primary education and gender parity, continued focus will be required to implement education reforms, especially targeting rural areas and females, with intensive monitoring of outcomes," the World Bank suggested.
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