Weak professional base blamed for past’s poor literacy drives

Islamabad

Weak professional base is the main cause of the literacy campaigns not succeeding in the past. To address this issue, the National Commission for Human Development has established the National Training Institute manned by professionals of non-formal education and literacy to cater for multi-grade pedagogical requirement of the out-of-school children.

This was stated by NCHD chairperson Razina Alam Khan while addressing a meeting of the organisation's senior management here on Friday.

The NCHD chairperson said the NTI was established with the aim to meet the needs of professionals working in the field of literacy and non-formal education, and build their capacities according to the new approaches evolving in the world with the help of other stake holders.

She said the NTI would also prepare the accelerated learning modules and condensed syllabus to be required by a learner, while researches would be conducted through the institute to assess and evaluate programmes of NFE and Literacy, she said.

While talking about innovative approaches she said, NCHD has made literate to 3.8 million since its inception and providing education to 320,000 children in NCHD 5,949 Feeder Schools in the remote areas.

"NCHD is working in the jails with the convicts to provide education, and empowering them to become useful citizens after release, she observed. We have approached learners in seminaries with reforms and introduced primary education along with religious education and skills in order to bring them in the mainstream of higher education, she said. Currently we are successfully working in 100 seminaries of FATA, AJ&K, GB and ICT," she said.

The NCHD chairperson said in collaboration with JICA, her organisation had launched a model non-formal school system where 20 schools were functional in Islamabad in order to provide education to the children of age 10-14 who could neither be admitted to the primary school and nor belongs to adult literacy.

She said the NCHD in collaboration with the UNESCO introduced computer and mobile literacy in a pilot project, which remained very successful.

"The NCHD is working hard in order to meet the mission of the organisation and achieve its goals. A total of 6000 adult literacy centers are in process of establishment, where more than 150,000 poor and illiterate will acquire literacy as well as vocational skill to improve their livelihoods," she said.

She however said as today it is the requirement of all digital societies, we should share and analyze promising practices with regard to policies, programmes, monitoring and evaluation as well as financing that advances literacy in a digital world.