Literacy Trends in Pakistan - UNESCO Islamabad

lowest female literacy rate in Pakistan in district Kohistan (2.95 %), and highest in Karachi Central (73.92 %), indicates the sharp variations ofattitude of the populace towards the education of girls. It is desirable that adult female literacy projects are initiated by the government or NGOsin Balochistan, NWFP and the three districts of Sindh where the female literacy rate is very low. It may be synthesized from the statisticspresented here that significant reductions in adult illiteracy can be achieved most cost-effectively by allocating a large percentage of resourcesfor the education of women. In particular, it is argued that money spent on the education of women who are mothers, or likely to becomemothers, is more as effective as compared to the same money spent on the education of fathers. Resources invested on the education of womencontribute not only to the development of the women themselves, but also significantly improve the participation and educational achievementof their children.The trends in respect of male and female literacy rates from 1981 to 1998 for various provinces of Pakistan also indicate that the male literacyrate in 1981 for Punjab has increased form 36.82 to 57.20 percent against a rise in the female literacy rate from 16.82 to 35.10 % (i.e. more thandouble). In the Sindh Province, the male literacy rate has increased from 39.70% in 1981 to 45.29 % in 1998, while in the same province thefemale literacy rate has increased from 21.60 to 34.78 percent. In NWFP, the increase in the male literacy rate has been from 25.80 % to51.39%, whereas the female literacy rate has increased from 6.5 to 18.82 % (i.e. three times) for the same period. In Balochistan, the increasefor the male literacy rate is from 15.2% to 34.03% and for females from 4.30 to 14.09 % (more than three times), for the same period.13.4 Participation RateTable VII and IX of Part II of this profile, and Table 14 (Part-I) given below, indicate that participation rates in various provinces have asignificant co-relation with literacy rates (r = 0.93). The Table further reveals that there are 30 districts in Pakistan which have less than 20percent and only 7 districts which have more than 60 percent participation rate at primary level. All districts in the NWFP and Balochistanprovince have less than 60 percent participation rate. The participation rate in this section has been worked out on the basis of statistics given inthe Population Census Reports. The population of 5-9 years old children and enrolment figures has been taken from District Census Reports(Table No.15) of the 1998 Population Census. In spite of the achievements, the participation rate in Pakistan did not exceed 60 percent, setagainst the target of 100 percent net participation rate by the year 2000. This implies that 8 million children of 5-9 age group were never enrolledin school and half of the 12 million that are enrolled may drop out before completing-primary education. Of all the E-9 countries, Pakistan hasthe lowest survival rate at the fifth grade. At that rate, the total number of out-of-school children may reach 14 million by the year 2003.30