Minister for launching nationwide literacy campaign soon

Islamabad : The Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training will soon launch a nationwide literacy campaign to increase the literacy rate by at least 12 per cent within the next four years, said education minister Shafqat Mahmood on Wednesday.

"We are thinking about declaring an education emergency and will go to cabinet for concept clearance and support in a couple of weeks," he said told high-level delegation of Ufone here on Wednesday.

The Ufone delegation briefed the minister about the organisation and activities of Ufone in general and the technological interventions of Etisalat and Ufone in Education Sector in particular.

The minister said education is the top priority of this government.

"Our main targets are bringing the 25 million out of school children to schools, introducing a uniform education system and curriculum, providing quality education and skill development," he said.

The minister said the National Literacy Drive would be a mega campaign in which about 5000 adult literary and skill centres will be set up in each district of Pakistan; special accelerated learning syllabus will be introduced, and a national literacy coordination centre will be set up.

“We are planning to engage all the stakeholders including District Administration, Business Community and chambers of commerce and industry, Universities and Colleges’ students, Benazir Income Support Program and our own attached organizations i.e. Basic Education Community Schools and National Commission for Human Development,” he said.

The minister said a special communication campaign would be launched before and during the implementation of the literacy campaign.

He said technology would play a major role in the aforementioned four targets and in the National Literacy Drive to resolve the access and capacity issues. “The Ufone must develop and come up with some technological solutions and interventions that can be used in National Literacy Campaign and resolving issues of quality, access and capacity in Education”, added the minister for education.

The Ufone delegation appreciated the efforts of Education Ministry and the vision of Federal Education Minister and agreed to come up with technological solutions in the next meeting.