Literacy rate to be raised to 70% in four years
islamabad — Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood on Tuesday said that the government was preparing a plan to declare Literacy Emergency in the country aiming at increasing the literacy rate from 58 to 70 per cent in next four years.
In order to achieve the task, the education ministry has prepared a plan to launch country-wide “National Literacy Campaign”, the minister said.
Shafqat Mahmood further said that under the campaign as many as 5,000 literacy and skills development centers would be established in all districts of four provinces.
A National Coordination Center would also be set up to create consensus among all stake holders regarding the literacy campaign.
Meanwhile, Joint Education Adviser in the Federal Education Ministry Rafiq Tahir while sharing the details of the proposed campaign said that a brain storming session has been held in the ministry regarding launching of the emergency campaign. He said the next meeting regarding literacy campaign would be held on January 16.
After finalising the draft of literacy
campaign, it would be approved by the Cabinet Division before implementation, said.
Tahir further said that chief ministers of all provinces and provincial education ministers would also be brought on board before launching of the campaign.
Under the plan, Rafiq Tahir said the ministry of education has also established National Curriculum Council (NCC) to achieve the desired goals in the education sector.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM) is planning to launch a new project titled ‘School Under a Tree’ to impart education to street children, said Managing Director Aon Abbas Buppi.
He said the PBM management was currently working on the details of launching the ambitious project. Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal was running 159 schools for rehabilitation of child labour. At present 17,871 students are getting primary education in these schools.
Giving details, he said 73 schools are working in Punjab, 37 in Sindh, 24 in Khyber Pakhtunkwa, 14 in Balochistan and 11 schools in Islamabad Capital Territory, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Northern Areas. —