The Problems of Illiteracy Pakistan is Facing Today

In our society illiterate people are considered to be a stigma and the ones because of whom our country is lagging behind in almost everything. People at first need to change this mind set and consider everyone the same and support them because the only difference so far between literate and illiterate people is written vs oral. No one is born literate but still from a very early age understands things such as voice, pictures and videos, and even now also when one can’t understand some instructions he goes for watching “how to” tutorials because that’s easy to comprehend and this is what our brain was specified for. You don’t need to be well-educated in order to survive because the basics needs are just clothes, food and shelter, but the easy access to these things is undoubtedly ‘literacy’ because in today’s world this is what leads you to your desired lifestyle and luxuries that more than half of the world cannot meet the expense of. This age is an age of competition – the survival of the fittest- and the idea that if you don’t claim your right someone else will seize it. There’re two probable things: either to watch people competing or to be a competitor yourself and fight for your right. The only way to get into this competition is by making yourself eligible for it i. e. making yourself ‘literate’.

Literacy most often proves to be a piece of cake for middle and upper class children but when it comes to the abandoned class i. e. lower class, there’s no one to get them out of their bad situations not even they themselves or the government, if they don’t edify themselves. In Pakistan, there’s this usual manifestation – due to modern age monopoly- that the man who’s born poor will die poor heedless of how profoundly he strives for success, except for some 0. 1 percent people who get themselves out of their fell situation either by hook or crook. Likewise there’s this thing here that the ruling elite will keep exploiting the abandoned class because of their lack of knowledge and financial support. The only way that half of the Pakistan can get out of the poverty is ‘literacy’. There are many ways possibly not to get rid but to lower the literacy rate that are continuously being overlooked in our country. Due to some pseudo philanthropists, there has already been much waste of the country’s treasure because rather than eliminating illiteracy they are busy filling up their bank accounts and I wonder if it is survival of the fittest or survival of the shrewdest.

One of the many ways to overcome illiteracy is to provide these people with adequate periodic allowance so that they don’t have to make their children work the hell out of themselves in return of just a few of pennies, and to make as many schools as possible with qualified and cooperative teachers and all other facilities that are being provided to children in private schools. This is probably conventional but the most efficient way though with a country can abolish illiteracy and make the most for its people. Government should initiate campaigns that promote education within this class’s people and making them aware of the circumstances that they along with their indigent family have to face if they don’t go for education which is their only mean of survival in today’s world. Government should start some projects that benefit poor and also make them overcome the lack of self-confidence that they ordinarily have due to their living style.

Pakistanis should also immensely will to help the ones below them, to aid them whenever possible and to provide them with basic necessities of life so that they can think of going towards something other than their deprivations. Although literacy cannot solve all our problems but it can make us get our way out of it. As mentioned in the famous article by Marvin Dhookaran, “For people who think that literacy solves many problems look at countries like Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. They have among the highest literacy rates in the entire world (more than 99. 7%) but still higher murder rates, violence, and crime than many other countries with lower literacy rates. In my opinion ending violence and crime worldwide is a more important goal than increasing literacy worldwide. “Many people worldwide have shared their views on grappling with low literacy rates but no one has ever been able to answer one of the most asked question relating illiteracy that what can eliminate the illiteracy wholly without harming the personal interests over the society’s interest.

One of the most admired answers is by the patron of Global Partnership for Education that spread awareness about HIV/AIDS, Helen Abadzi. She has compared illiteracy with AIDS that gradually sets its roots and kills a man because of it’s incubate effects. She further says, “To use the money wisely and teach nearly all students, the AIDS campaigns have several lessons to offer. Governments and donor agencies should insist on simple and effective literacy instruction in consistently-spelled languages. And millions of supplementary books should be made available to ensure automaticity and comprehension. This way, the beneficiaries will be able to get the needed information from print and make decisions to benefit their families. They could even be saved from AIDS like deadly diseases itself. Further recommendations are often being made in order to fight illiteracy off like supplying beginners’ easy-to-understand books for poor children. Some say that the books should have simple, elaborative and elucidative pictures while some people point out the hard words that are often there in books without any other descriptions that lead to distraction. Keeping all this aside I personally would share my opinion that along with taking measures to prevent and eliminate illiteracy, there should be a focus on other issues too, like poor health facilities and malnutrition etc. because literacy is not the only thing our country is failing in but there are many other problems outside that have to be solved in order to make people think about the next big thing – Illiteracy.

Pakistan is facing many problems when it comes to the subject “illiteracy”. According to the recent economic survey there’re about 58% of the illiterate people in Pakistan. Although the rate has been declined from the last year’s 60% but even now it’s quite a big number to be neglected and it means that more than half of the Pakistan is uneducated. There are many explanations why the country today is in this ailment. The most significant of all the reasons is the government’s lack of educational funds. There’re not enough facilities for the people of Pakistan due to which they are living in ignorance. As per the prominent Pakistani article writer M. Zain Mehmood, while writing about Pakistan’s illiteracy issue, “Illiteracy is a key issue in Pakistan with the main causes having already been discussed. It has become a major hurdle in the progress of the country since the illiterate population struggles withbasic instructions regarding machinery and therefore can’t progress technologically which hampers economic development of a country. Women illiteracy is also a subsequent problem which has led to increased problems regarding malnutrition, child mortality and an increase in the population at alarming rates which puts a heavy strain on resources. While the root cause stems from poverty, the cultural and religious mindset of the residents of rural areas also play a role, acting as hurdles in the illiteracy problem. Pakistan is lagging behind other developing countries like Bangladesh and India who have been relatively successful at increasing the literacy rate and educational opportunities.

As it already has been analyzed that there are about 57% of the females that are deprived of even the basic education while the number of males here is around 45%. It insinuates our cultural discrimination i. e. preferring males over females which can easily be seen by the difference in the country’s overall percentage of illiteracy. Pakistan from its inception, has cheered its women to take part in all the political affairs but due to some ignorant and deceptive people the general norm of patronizing women had set its roots in our culture but now it is being demolishing at a fast rate. This means that women are now being encouraged to study regardless of the consequences that were first highlighted by some misleading sexist people. Now the women are all being ready and motivated to represent Pakistan side by side with men. All the problems that our country is stuck in are someway related to illiteracy that’s proving to be a root cause of most of the issues. According to an authentic source, the causes and effects of illiteracy in Pakistan are as follows:

1. Half-hearted planning and management of literacy and continuing education.
2. Limited budget.
3. Lack of reliable statistics and research researchers.
4. Weak community participation.
5. Lack of multimedia material.
6. Lack of special skilled textbook writers.
7. Poor follow up of programmes.
8. In-service teachers do not take such work seriously.
9. Dependence on foreign aid.
10. Dropout rate is high.
11. Over-crowded classrooms.
12. Panacea of private sector.
13. Outdated curriculum.
14. Problems of higher education; brain drain etc.
15. Corruption.
16. Rote learning.
17. Unfair examinations.
18. Lack of adequate facilities such as clean water, electricity etc. in the rural schools.

Effects of Illiteracy

1. Over-population.
2. Low-GDP and per capita income.
3. Increase unskilled labour.
4. Infant mortality and maternal mortality.
5. Political instability.
6. Poor use of natural resources.
7. Heavy international debts.
8. Child labour.
9. Poor international image.
10. Low per acre agriculture yield.
11. Halting industrial growth and less trade activities.

This tells us that no matter what, our country will always be left behind if we don’t pay attention to the root cause i. e. illiteracy. People in Pakistan don’t have faith in its educational system and that is why those who can afford are leaving the country, those who can’t are frustrated and the lower class is in the condition it always has been in- ignorance. Our government has to rejuvenate the lost trust and reliance in order to lower the illiteracy rate in the country and make progress eventually.

To conclude we may say that we must fortify our educational system in order to make progress. We have to pay attention to the things to which government doesn’t. Such as there has to be introduced uniform educational policy, every job should be merit based, there should be sufficient educational facilities, and no fake schools as there are a total of 23000 schools in our country, just educational system and proper teachers’ training. All of us have to develop an outlook that Pakistanis themselves have to help other Pakistanis out and this is the only thing through which we can progress and conquer the world.