LITERACY BACKGROUND

Pakistan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the region currently estimated at about 34%. The national average according to the 1981 census was 26.2% however, the wide disparities presented even a discouraging scenario. It ranged from 57.8% among the urban male population of Sindh to 1.75% among the rural females of Balochistan. In absolute term, the number of illiterates in the ten pi.us age group, which stood at the daunting figure of around 43 million, has risen to an estimated 50 million.

It is generally recognized that a rather low participation rate of about 66.3% at the primary school level combined with a high wastage rate estimated at 50% including dropouts and repeaters, is the major cause of our low literacy rate. The literacy ratio have been further aggravated because of the absence of meaningful literacy programmes and a rapid population growth [3% amongst the higher in the world.

Consequently, all the multitude of illiterates every year. Even the neo literate relapse into literacy due to the non availability of appropriate post literacy reading materials.

The problem of literacy is formidable both in its size as well as in its complexity. From a socio-cultural perspective, the traditional prejudices against educating females still linger on, particularly in the tribal and the rural milieu. In the economic context, the opportunity cost discourages poor families from sending their children to schools. Non-availability of suitable reading materials in the regional languages poses further difficulties for a multi-lingual society. These difficulties are compounded by the non-availability of resources.

Even of the target of attaining universal primary education by the end of the next decade id achieved, the existing huge backlog of 50 million people [ about 43 million in the productive bracket of 1044, and an estimated number of 18 to 10 million children who will either fail to get enrolled or will dropout on the way, before the attainment of UPE, and full elimination of wastage ] cannot be abandoned to the fate of perpetual illiteracy. The constitution explicitly provides that "the state shall remove illiteracy .... within minimum possible period:. The need for an effective literacy policy is therefor programme of adult literacy. A number of government and non-government is no national programmes are running programmes for adult literacy and education of various types in different parts in the country. However, the effect of these programmes on general literacy situation in the country is only marginal.

POLICY STATEMENT

A planned effort will be made to increase the literacy rate to 70% by the year 2002. The target by 1995 is being set at 50%. This formidable challenge cannot be met by the government alone. The whole nation needs to be mobilized for launching a campaign against the scourge of illiteracy on a war-footing. The provincial governments, NG0s, and local institutions shall be actively involved both in planning and implementation; the federal agencies assuming the role of coordination, monitoring and evaluation in addition to providing technical support for development of materials and training. Allocations for adult literacy programmes will be substantially enhanced at the Federal and Provincial levels. Acquiring literacy is enjoined on all Muslims as a religious duty; literacy programme shall therefore be supported substantially through the Iqra and Zakat funds.

The educational status of Pakistani women is amongst the lowest in the world. There appear to be two major reasons for this. Partly because the education sector as a whole has suffered from neglect, with enrollment rates stagnating particularly in the last decade or so and partly because within the education sector girls are far more deprived the boys. In 1985 / 86 only about a third of the approximately 940,000 five years old girls living in rural areas were in school. Fewer then 1 in 6 rural girls completed five years of education which is considered the minimum for achieving basic literacy. In 1985, Pakistan's female primary school enrollment (PSE) ratio was 324, amongst the ten lowest in the world. Apart from Butan and Yemen, all the others are in Afria. There are only five countries with a lower ratio of female to male PSE. Whilst Pakistan's women did some catching up in primary school enrollments between 1965 and 1985, the gap between female and male secondary school enrollment (SSE) widened compared with that in other low income countries. Indeed the total PSE of both male and female actually declined between the years of 1976 and 1985, perhaps the only country in the world where this happened.

Further more, high dropout rates within levels of schooling are a very disturbing features, both for boys and girls especially between Grades 1 and 3, and particularly in the rural areas. However, girls drop out at a faster rate between levels of schooling. Thus, only 30/o of rural 12-year old girls were still in school (compared with 8% for boys) and fewer 8 & 7, 18 remained in the 14-years old age group (compared with 7% for boys). Most importantly is the impact this current situation will have on the future. The current lack of educated women will in turn heavily constrain plans to improve future primary education and any other services for rural women, because it provides a very small stock of potential female teachers, health personnel, and development workers.

A girls time is likely to be more valuable than a boy's around the household. She may be needed to look after younger children, fetch water and fuel, tend the livestock, and help with processing of agriculture produce, all of which are female responsibilities in rural Pakistan.

On the benefit side, parents may feel, particularly if they are poor, that it makes more sense to invest more in their sons' education, since sons are much more likely than daughters to get a job and the migration of women to their husbands' homes after marriage means that it is the daughter and father in-law who will get most of the benefit, rather then the girl's own parents.

With this backdrop a group of like minded profile got together & formed a non-political, non-profit, non-government organization called Bunyad which means foundation. Only till that is strong can sustainable development take place. The global contact together with recognization of the depressing statistics of illiteracy in Pakistan especially for women & girls led to a positive action by Bunyad to undertake a programme of Non-formal Basic Education of girls in District Hafizabad of Punjab in 1994. The programme now been expanded to 7 districts of the province is summarized below.

Non-Format Basic Education Programme for Girls

BLCC has a massive programme of Non-Formal Basic Education for girls in 600 villages of 7 districts of Punjab reaching out to about 18000 girls who otherwise would be without education. The programme has taken .the facility of free basic education to the door steps of families in the rural areas providing education to girls who had either never been to schools or had dropped out due to poverty or other socio- cultural reasons thus providing them a second chance.

The general objectives of the programme are to utilize non-formal channels to increase female participation and reduce female drop-out rates at the prit-nary level. Utilizing a participatory approach the programme provides quality education to girls through the. establishment of community based learning centres in over 600 villages.

The programme objectives also include the enhancement of NG0s capacities in social mobilization and non-format basic education through training and net-working of community based organization CB0s

Under this programme BLCC has three projects for reaching the un reached and marginalised in keeping with the provisions of EFA and CRC. Specifically the three projects are as follows:-

ILM-Non-Format Primary Education Project

It aims at providing a two and a half year primary education programme for girls aged 6 to 14 years. The Government Text Book Board Primary Education curriculum, including focus on health and hygiene education, environment and gender sensitivity is being used. The project is being offered at 400 centres in the rural areas of Punjab. The project endeavors to provide quality education through pre-service and in-service training of teachers who are from the same villages where centres are located. The staff members are trained in monitoring and supervision, social mobilization and teacher training techniques. The participation of local communities is ensured through the formation of a Village Education Committee [VEC] and Family Education Committee [FECI. The latter comprises mothers or adult female family members of learners. The books and equipment are provided free of 1 any charge. The programme is funded by UNICEF. Of the 400 centres 200 centres in Hafizbad have completed their cycle while 200 centres in the South are still continuing.

PDP-ILM Non-Formal Primary Education Project

The project has recently been launched in the district of Sheikhupura where 90 learning centres have been set up with the active involvement of the local communities. The programme methodology is the same as followed in the programme described above.

In each village selected for setting up a centre a survey is conducted which is followed by an outreach and motivation work leading to some interest in and commitment to education. The community provides a venue and selects a local teacher while the books and equipment and teachers salary are provided by BLCC. Each centre enrolls 30 learners who are helped to do the primary level in 2 years. Teachers are provided pre-service and in-service training by BLCC's master trainers while BLCC staff undertakes monitoring and supervision. The communities are associated with the programme through the formation of VECs and FECs.

PMLC's NFPE Centres

BLCC is also implementing the NFPE programme of the Prime Minister's Literacy Commission in 120 villages. 60 of which are in Hafizabad and 60 in Multan district. Under this programme 120 centres have been set up each having a strength of 30 girl learners aged 6 to 14 years who will be helped to complete primary level education in 36 months. The PMLC provides for the teachers' salaries and the teaching material etc. while BLCC implements the programme. The responsibilities of the latter include training of teachers and supervisors, setting up the centres mobilizing the communities supervising and monitoring of the centres.

[IV] Non-Formal Secondary School

A follow-up study of the 100 ILM-NFPE centres in Hafizabad which had completed their cycle of 2.5 years revealed that 34% of the learners who had done their primary level were pursuing education at the secondary level in the formal system. Most of the remaining 66% too were desirous of doing so but could not continue further owing either to 1 lack of middle schools for girls in their villages, or the schools being distant from their villages. There was also in general a great demand for non-formal secondary schools from the parents and learners.

Responding to this situation BLCC planned a project for setting up Non-Format Secondary Schools in Hafizabad and Multan Districts for which CIDA agreed to provide the funding. Thus 90 Non-Formal Secondary Schools have been established - 45 in district Hafizabad and 45 in Multan. The centres offer secondary level study programme of 2 years duration to enable the learners who have complete their primary level to seek admission to middle level. The methodology of setting up the centres and associating the communities is the same as followed in the establishment of NFPE programme. The programme is reaching out to 2700 girls in 90 villages.

Supervision, Monitoring and Reporting of Non-Formal Education Project

BLCC has a clear structure and in-built mechanism for assessment, recording and reporting which is as under:

[i] At the village level each centre is run by the teacher who is assisted and supervised by the local (VEC) and (FEC)

[ii] Over 20 centres there is a BLCC supervisor responsible for the monitoring of the jurisdiction.

[iii] Over 100 centres there is a Project Manager for monitoring and managing the programme at 'Markaz Level'.

[iv] The managers are responsible to the area co-ordinator than Project Director at BLCC Headquarters.

Monitoring and Reporting

[i] The teachers are responsible for regular assessment of their student's progress and for reporting this and attendance along with drop outs to their supervisors. On monthly basis for which a proforma has been provided.

[ii] The supervisors produce a monthly report of their cluster of centres and submit the same to the Project Manager. The monitoring forms fitted by the supervisors include comments of VECs too.

[iii] The Programme Managers produces an overall statistical and narrative report for their areas for submission to BLCC Headquarters.

[iv] The statistics are entered into the Bunyad EMIS and matters arising in the narrative report are acted upon wherever required.

[v] Consolidated quarterly reports covering both statistical and narrative aspects are prepared at Headquarters under the supervision of Project Director and submitted to the donor agency.

Womens Education & Poverty Alleviation Programme (WEPA)

BLCC had thus Far been focusing mainly on literacy and education of girls. However recognizing the fact that the Province of Punjab is the biggest province of the Country in terms of population ( 56% of the total population of Pakistan ) but has only 9% literate women in the rural areas. Malnutrition is rampart leading to anemia and subsequently tuberculosis affecting families and their future generations. The Infant Mortality Rate is as high as 104 and the maternal mortality between 300 - 600 per 100,000 live births.

The girls are married at a very young age leading to a long reproductive life during which they are likely to produce on average 6 to 7 children. With young rural women being illiterate and shy even of talking about family planning, the use of contraceptives is low. The result is large families, poor health, illiteracy, low living standards and poverty.

BLCC therefore decided to undertake an integrated programme for young rural women ( 15 - 35 years ) which combines functional literacy, skill development, and saving and credit schemes for small business enterprises. The main purpose of the project is to help rural women improve the quality of their lives through education and income generating activities. Called WEPA the project has been undertaken in the villages of Multan and Hafizabad, where Bunyad had already been active for the fast five years, in the field of literacy and Non-formal Primary Education. It has more than 600 ILM-NFPE for girls centres in eight districts. It is targeting about 18000 girls will complete their primary education through this programme which is community based and participatory in nature. The communities participate through the above mentioned VECs and FECS. The latter are entirely women's groups comprising mother and / or female relations of the learners.

FECs have been formed for each of the ILM-NFPE centres. Their functions include prevention of dropouts, involvement in extra curricular activities and support to by way of motivating mothers to send their daughters to the centres for education. They also get together at the centres for the celebration of national days, religious functions, health workshops and other activities of interest to them.

For a long time the members of these FECs had been expressing their desire for BLCC to organize a programme for the adult women too so that they could not only learn to read and write but also undertake activities aimed at improving their economic conditions through credit and income generating activities.

This led BLCC to set up the WEPA Project.

The main objectives of the programme are as follows:

1. To empower women by raising their income earning capacities, self -employment and organizational skills.

2. To create a self-reliant and sustainable credit programme for rural women.

3. To initiate a process where in education and training will lead to greater awareness amongst the target group regarding gender issues and women's equality.

4. To create leadership among rural women by linking education and information with training and income generation programmes.

The target group is the members of the Family Education Committee (FEC) of BLCC's NFPE centres for girls aged between 15 and 35 years. The project offers a 10 month programme of functional literacy, group formation and saving / credit for small entrepreneurial activities.

BLCC in collaboration with its sister NGO, PASS has developed gender friendly literacy books under the guidance and supervision of Dr. Namtip Askronot of UNESCO (Bangkok). These books have been printed after pretesting in the field and are now being used in this project. Within 10 months the target group will be expected to be able to read and write.

The second component of WEPA is group formation for the purpose of savings and credit. The target group will be helped to organize themselves in groups of five members for the purpose of savings and credit. The members of each group start pooling their monthly savings which are deposited either in a local branch of a bank or Post Office in an account opened in their name. The savings component is started within four months of the project starting. The women who show savings will subsequently be eligible for credit. To begin with two of the five members of a group will be given credit while the remaining three will stand as guarantee. When the former have paid back their loans the attar will in turn become eligible to get loans. The above programme has been started in 20 centres of Hafizabad and 20 of Multan. A total of 1200 women are being targeted.