Illiteracy in Pakistan

It is recognized fact that mass education is important for the development and prosperity of a
country. The main priority of the developing countries, in recent years has been to foster the
development and renewal of primary education and to eliminate illiteracy. Pakistan,
unfortunately like the other under developed countries has made little progress in this aspect.
Pakistan does not fare well on account of literacy within the region. The adult literacy rate for
India is 61 as compared to 53 percent in Pakistan. For adults illiteracy means exclusion from
most of economic, social and cultural activities. For women, literacy is a survival kit and symbol
of status. It means participation in the decision making of the family and equality.
Illiteracy is a small pane in large window, opening into the world of knowledge based on reading
and writing as one of the earliest cultural activities of mankind. The picture of illiteracy in
Pakistan is grim. Although successive government have announced various program to promote
literacy. Access to basic education is the right of every individual. Education is the most
important instrument in enhancing human capabilities and in achieving the desired objectives of
economic development. There are 163,000 primary schools in Pakistan, of which merely 40,000
cater for girls. According to UNIFICE, 17.6 percent of Pakistani children are working and
supporting their families.
In Pakistan illiteracy is because of some reasons in which some are corruption, unfair
examinations, poverty, Inequality of education, Gender biasness and panacea of private sector.
Firstly, corruption give birth to many evils in the society and causing many problems to the
country and citizens of the country some of them are listed like it leads to unemployment. It
creates environment of injustice, it increases crime rates. It adds to the illiteracy rate. Due to
corruption the poor are sidelined, the rich are bestowed, the needy are ignored and the
prosperous are delivered.
Secondly, poverty is also one of the main cause to increase illiteracy rate. Children living in
poverty face a host of challenges that their wealthier peers do not. Food and housing insecurity,
poor health care and unsafe environment, limited exposure to books and language. Any one of
these obstacles can affect their school performance, development and ability to learn, some
children face all of them, all at once.
It is said that fact that inequality of education takes place worldwide, especially in the developing
countries, unfortunately Pakistan reside in this category. Biased educational culture is found on a
very large scale. Unfortunately Pakistan was at number 129 in attaining educational goals out of
135 countries. Our literacy rate for women is very low as almost 50 percent of the girls were
unable to get education. This is also because of some narrow minded families that does not allow
their females to get education because of their insecurities regarding to the female transport
system.

Gender biasness is also one of them reason for illiteracy. Parents care a lot about the security of
their daughters. Regardless of the gender inequalities, there are huge opportunities available to
be an educated citizen. Some people did not like co-education system. They did not allow their
females to stand with men in many fields of life. This gender biasness generates the illiteracy
because many females did not go anywhere to get education and remain illiterate. Even for
women literacy is a symbol of status.
Another is panacea of private sector. Most people send their children to private schools rather
than government schools due to the difference of standard of education. Another main factor of
inequality is of learning. There are very poor learning standards in public schools and irregular
behavior of teachers is very common. Thus government institutes generate low learning
outcomes as compare to the private sector. So, the people mostly chose private institutes.
Inequality is not a natural phenomenon. It is created by the people and their standards.
All of above Illiteracy effects the development of a country. It causes child labor, over
population, political instability. However To control illiteracy rate in Pakistan Government
should take some steps to improve the system such as uniform education policy, ability and merit
must be declared as corner stones of our national life. Fair examination system, government
should make an education set up free from corruption. These are few suggestions to control the
illiteracy rate.