- Pakistan has the second highest rate with the most out-of-school children according to Global Monitoring Report
International Literacy Day is being celebrated worldwide today.
The Pakistani government has pledged to increase spending on education and to initiate efforts to enroll 25 million out-of-school children and increase literacy rate.
Public and private organisations will hold different activities including seminars, conferences, workshops and interactive sessions highlighting this year’s theme ‘Literacies for the 21st Century’.
The government will hold a three-day special nationwide enrollment campaign from September 9 to 11 to enroll over half a million children in schools.
Article 25-A of the constitution obligates the state to provide free and compulsory education to children between the ages of 5 to16.
However, recent data from the Status of Education Report (ASER) of 2012 says that 23 percent of rural and 7 percent of urban children, aged between 6 to 16 years are not in schools, with girls lagging significantly behind boys in the rural areas.
Similarly, the Global Monitoring Report 2012 has marked Pakistan at the second highest spot amongst the countries with the most out-of-school children.
The UNDP Millennium Development Goals report states that Pakistan will not be able to achieve its education goals until 2015. Approximately, 50 percent of enrolled children drop out before completing primary education.
State Minister for Education, Training and Standards in Higher Education Baligh-ur-Rehman said that the government has decided to increase spending on education up to 4 percent of GDP by the year 2018.
The government has launched National Plan of Education to accelerate its efforts for bringing positive reforms in the education sector by controlling drop outs, increasing enrollment and enhancing quality of education.
“The literacy day will be marked with great enthusiasm and renewed pledges to realise the dream of a literate nation,” he said.
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly proclaimed a 10 year period beginning on January 1, 2003 as the United Nations Literacy Decade.
The assembly also welcomed the International Plan of Action for the decade and decided for UNESCO to take a coordinating role in activities at an international level within the decade’s framework.