A large number of people in Pakistan remain illiterate, only 59.3 per cent of the country’s population have access to education, according to the Economic Survey 2022-23.
According to Education Secretary Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry, the actual literary figure stood at 59.3pc compared to 62.8pc reflected in the Economic Survey 2022-23, reported Dawn.
The Pakistani Daily cited sources that besides giving the least priority, the education sector in the country received the lowest funding, which was one of the main reasons for a decline in the literacy rate.
A federal government school told Dawn that 60 pc is not a satisfactory figure as 40 pc of Pakistan's population still remains illiterate.
Pakistan is spending less than 2 per cent of its GDP on education. Official sources said besides giving it the least priority, the education sector also received the lowest funding, which was one of the main reasons for a decline in literacy rate, reported Dawn.
The Economic Survey 2022-23 pointed out that the cumulative education expenditure made by the federal and provincial governments in fiscal year 2022 was estimated at 1.7 pc of the GDP.
As per the federal secretary literacy rate in all the provinces had gone up, with Punjab witnessing an increase from 66.1 pc to 66.3 pc; Sindh, 61.1 pc to 61.8 pc; Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 52.4 pc to 55.1 pc while Balochistan saw an increase from 53.9 pc to 54.5 pc.
The survey also said that there were 32 pc out-of-school children, with more girls than boys deprived of education.
In Balochistan, 47pc children were out of school, followed by Sindh which had 44pc, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 32pc and Punjab had 24pc out-of-school children.
Pakistan had the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, with over 23 million children not attending schools. Besides, quality of education also remains one of the main concerns of students, reported Dawn.
Various survey reports on quality of education have painted a gloomy picture, stating that a substantial number of fifth graders were neither able to read a sentence in English nor Urdu.
Similarly, quality of higher education in the country has also fallen below the mark. During the last couple of years, a numbers of PhD holders have staged protests in Islamabad, seeking jobs in government universities, reported Dawn.
“There is a need to reset our priorities; we will have to pay special focus on our health and education sectors. There is a need to provide adequate funding and patronage to the education sector in the greater interest of the country,” said an official of the education ministry.
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