Reasons low literacy rate Pakistan and way out

Everyone deserves the best start in life, which is what UNICEF is working to present the world’s most helpless children. Education is necessary to a child’s growth. I hope that as an Ambassador I can push people to join UNICEF’s operation to make education a actuality for children throughout the world.”

Education is the most critical aspect of one’s life which shapes his quality and his character. Not only about money, it’s about having independence of speech and writing. Education is the basic right of a human being with which he/she should be provided with. Without education, it’s not possible to know about the ups and downs which this world qualified, where we are reputation now and what is the future of this world.

Education plays a vital role in political permanence, economic growth and social development of a nation. It brings political stability by realising the people their national rights and duties. It brings economic growth by enhancing the production and efficiency of the people and seeks them moral requirements, so they can play their part in the society. Education is the backbone of any nation and the progress of any nation depends on the better state of their education system. It develops the people mentally, physically, socially and spiritually. The countries that have an effective system of education also happen to be the leaders of the world, both socially and economically.

But sorry to say, there are some countries, even in the 21st century, which are still facing the issue of low literacy rate. Pakistan is one of them.

The Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan says, “The state of Pakistan shall remove illiteracy and provide free and necessary secondary education within least possible period.” In Human Development Report Pakistan is placed at 136th position for having just 49.9 per cent educated population.

In 2017, Pakistan’s total literacy rate was approximately 59 percent, with less than 47 percent of women being literate and more than 71 percent of men.

If we consider these stats, this is an unsatisfactory situation. And the most important thing observable here is that after 2017, this illiteracy rate has not abridged, rather greater than before in the recent years.

The important point is that female illiteracy is more, comparably to male illiteracy. Women in Pakistan are not highly educated or literate. This is one of the reasons Pakistani culture is still patriarchal. Pakistan is lacking in female education, that’s why, females are unconscious of their rights. Pakistan is one of the countries deemed worst for women in general when it comes to quality of life and safety.

Literacy rate, adult female (% of females ages 15 and over) in Pakistan was reported at 46.47 % in 2017, according to the World Bank collected works of development indicators, compiled from publicly recognized sources.

We can observe various factors responsible for causing increased illiteracy rate in Pakistan. Here come 7 major issues which are leading causes to low literacy rate

1. Poverty
Poverty is one of the leading causes of lack of education in Pakistan. 24.3% people of Pakistan are below the line of poverty; they are unable to send their children even to government schools. Besides education, a family have to manage other expenses like food, clothing etc. due to having greater number of family members; one can’t afford to send his child to educational institutions. Besides creating other issues, poverty is contributing to the illiteracy issue which is bouncing day by day in Pakistan. Poverty is the leading cause to ignorance.
In Pakistan, Major causes of poverty include inflation, devaluation of Pakistani rupee in international market, unemployment and many others.

2. Overpopulation
Population of world is increasing day by day and so of the developing countries. In 2018, the total population of Pakistan amounted to approximately 200.96 million inhabitants. Overpopulation is coupled with poverty and it contributes to low literacy rate.
Overpopulation gives rise to several new issues like unemployment, competition for food and living(space) and depletion of resources.
Due to overpopulation, most children are deprived of going to schools and getting education.

3. Low resources for education

Allocation of budget for the education sector is not enough. Pakistan is one of only 12 countries in the world that spend less than two per cent of its GDP on education. Pakistan is a poor country which barely manages its resources in limited money. Moreover, most of the budget of Pakistan is received by army of Pakistan; there are fewer funds for education field.
The government has allocated PRs. 83.3 billion for Education Affairs and Services in the federal budget for 2020–21 against the revised allocation of PRs. 81.2 billion for the ongoing fiscal year,

4. Inaccessibility of school institutions
Pakistan has insufficient number of government schools due to which there remains the less chance of children to get education. According to a survey, there are about 200,000 primary, middle and secondary schools in Pakistan.
Moreover, the government schools are in dearth of basic facilities like classrooms, whiteboards, washrooms, libraries, laboratories and other accessories.
Also, there are private institutions available in fair amount but they are so expensive that even an average person can’t afford their expenditures. The government of Pakistan should build more and more schools to enhance literacy rate overall.

5. Ineffective government policies
Pakistan is going through number of flaws in its educational system. The educational system is not up-to-date and it doesn’t enable the students to compete with rest of the world regarding education. It lacks practicality; it does not teach the students to deal with the practical life which they face after the completion of their studies.
Poor examination system encourages rote learning which prevents the students to grasp the concepts and learn the things practically.
Also, the students consider their degrees as a sort of passport to gain job or employment and don’t focus at knowledge of the particular field.

6. Lack of quality education
Lack of quality education is one of the major causes of low literacy rate in Pakistan. Pakistani educational system lacks new and innovative methods of teaching which are instrumental in capturing students’ attention and better comprehension of the course. Pakistan still adopts the traditional ways of teaching. The course content is not up to the mark. Massive number of educational policies was introduced from time to time by various regimes in the history of Pakistan for reforms in educational system but due to lack of implementation and inconsistency, it showed no result.
The examination system of Pakistan tests the speed of students’ writing, not their capabilities; there is always a less time for students to attempt their paper that’s why they can’t perform well in the exams.

7. Negligent and uneducated behaviour of parents
In Pakistan, most of the parents are poor and uneducated and they don’t pay any special heed to the education of their children. They induce children to perform child labour, resulting in the destruction of educational career of the very child.
Also, the parents whose children visit government schools, they are not very serious about their future plans and make them quit the school at any stage of their educational career
Another problem with the parents is that they do not give any certain importance to the aptitude, desires, interests and future goals of their children. This is really disgusting behaviour. They insist the child only to take up/ choose science subjects and force him to become a doctor or engineer. They don’t have any sense of the other innovative fields which are emerging into this era of science and technology. They are unable to understand the fact that a child can make a good career even selecting the art field and becoming successful in it; they insist only to take up the traditional fields like doctor, engineer or a teacher.
Parents should be properly trained as to how they should behave with their children in different matters and allow them to choose the field they want to be in.

How can we contribute in enhancing literacy?
I think Pakistan does not need any further policy to improve educational system if the government work on and apply the previous pending policies. We can eradicate poverty by eliminating corruption. This can be done only through having a proper check and balance.
Government should make policies over how to control overpopulation so that every child of our country get educated and make his future bright.
The problem of lack of government schools can be removed by constructing more and more school institutions in every city and village.
Government should train the teachers and tell them about the persuasive ways of teaching so that students may feel no reluctance to interact with the teachers and ask everything without having any hesitation.

If we prepare our generation according to the needs of today’s world, they can play an important role in the country’s progress. In short it is education that can turn the population of any country from a burden to useful human resource.