After taking over the reins of power in 1993, the PPP government established an organisation called the ‘Prime Minister’s Literacy Commission’ with the goal of achieving 100 percent literacy in 5 years.

To achieve this target, 200,000 home schools, also known as non-formal schools, had to be constructed. They are cost effective and time efficient. The plan was to complete them in five years through five phases, the first one being a pilot project of 10,000 schools. I was appointed Chairman of the PMs Literacy Commission in August, 1995, with the primary task of setting up these home schools.

My team and I set up 7117 non-formal schools in every nook and cranny of the country, especially rural areas and with female teachers, in a period of seven months and with only 30 percent of the allocated budget. The task of setting up 10,000 schools could not be completed as in the last quarter of the financial year, budgetary release was stopped because of financial constraints. Shaheed Benazir Bhutto used to claim this achievement as one of the hallmarks of her prematurely ousted government.

Earlier, she attended a Literacy Mela organised by the PMs Literacy Commission, along with Bilawal and Bakhtawar Bhutto, to witness the plight of poor children and to intermingle with them. It would be unfair not to mention the great contribution made by Ms. Shanaz Wazir Ali—the then Special Assistant to the PM on Social Sectors—as she stood like a rock, in support of this program. Without her vociferous encouragement and support, this initiative could have been abandoned because of paucity of funds and the lack of commitment of some powerful quarters in the government.

After the ouster of the PPP government, I along with some literacy lovers, set up an NGO named National Literacy Movement. We organised 20 literacy centres in Kot Lakhpat and ran these schools with our own resources and a few donations. The greatest achievement of our NGO was to organize an All Parties Conference on Literacy. Its declaration was signed by representatives of 19 political parties. One could also call it the Magna Carta on Literacy in Pakistan.

21 years have since elapsed, but no government honoured their pledge–including the PTI government which incessantly pronounced that literacy would be its priority. Only the Pakistan Muslim League (N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Pakistan Millat Party, Awami National Party, Balochistan National Movement, Pakistan Muslim League (F), Istaqlal Party, Awami Qiadat Party, Jamhoori Watan Party, Labour Party Pakistan, Jamiat-e-Ulema e Pakistan, Jamiat-e-Ulema e Islam, Pakistan Awami Party, National Workers Party, Tehrik-e-Istaklal, PMs Literacy Commission, Education Department and National Literacy Movement signed the declaration but most failed to uphold its principles.

Presently, the curriculum is mostly flooded with mere book-centric knowledge. It must be totally recast and focused on values, skills and their interests. Schools must be a place where children should love to go.

It is high time that we realise that illiterate and manual workers are no less intelligent than us. Adversities, that they face in early childhood and the experiences that they undergo make them more intelligent than us. Education is more of a social experience for them.

As envisaged in the Literacy Declaration, education and literacy must be amongst the top priorities of any government, wherefore budgets on them must be substantially increased. If Pakistan wants progress, all governments must ensure, that education does not remain the monopoly of the rich. Rather, the well to do should be heavily taxed to create budgetary space for the poor.

In my view, true democracy cannot be achieved without 100 percent literacy rates. It is indeed sad to state that even after 75 years of achieving independence, Pakistan stands at a dismal 62.8 percent which is one of the lowest rates in the world.

Pervaiz Saleh
The writer is the former Special Assistant to the PM (Benazir Bhutto) and the Convener, MRD and member of the National Finance Commission.