NCHD working on skill integrated literacy programme

Islamabad

The National Commission for Human Development is working on the skill integrated literacy programme to train the people on sewing, stitching, gardening and home appliance and cell phone repairs besides enabling them to read and write.

This was stated by NCHD Chairperson Razina Alam Khan while a Shah Abdul Latif Social and Cultural Association function organised here on Thursday to mark the International Literacy Day.

The event was attended by academia, students, teachers and people associated with adult education, literacy and skill development in large numbers.

The NCHD chairperson said uneducated and unskilled women serving in rural and urban areas could not deliver effectively and efficiently and were denied rightful place in society as well.

“There is a need for providing greater education opportunities to girls,” she said.

Razina Alam said the most important national resource for development was the human labour force.

“We are a country of almost 200 million people. Half of them population is women, 70 per cent of whom are illiterate. We cannot progress due to illiteracy especially if women are uneducated,” she said.

The NCHD chairperson said basic education was an essential requirement for the optimal development of human beings and harnessing their true potential.  “In the present age and time, knowledge has transformed from virtue and power to necessity. In order to become functional citizens in the present age of the global onslaught of information and knowledge of unimaginable proportion, the attainment of basic literacy is a fundamental requirement,” she said.

Razina Alam said the NCHD had launched the ‘Literacy Movement’ in the name of ‘Each One Teach One’ whose pilot project would be executed in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) under 100% Literate Islamabad Project.

“We will have to devise a workable strategy through which we could enroll volunteers from all walks of life to impart literacy skills among illiterate persons, and become a part of our movement,” she said.

The NCHD chairperson said her organisation would provide learning materials and teachers’ guide volunteers free of charge.  She said a literate environment improved socioeconomic indicators in a society.