'[Education expert, Professor Fateh Malik] lauded the efforts of senators towards the implementation of the Article 25-A, for the betterment of future generations. "It was only Zulfikar Bhutto who brought revolutionary reforms in the education sector by making education free and compulsory for all the children," Malik said. "Private institutes were nationalized by Bhutto and salaries of teachers of private institutes were made equal to the salaries of government teachers," he said. Education was the backbone of any country and Article 25-A would provide free education to those children who were deprived of education due to poverty and had to resort to child labor, he said. According to the UNESCO report [...] the country had 18.64 million illiterate people in the year 1951, 22.08 million in 1961, 33.59 million in 1972, 42.69 million in 1981, 50.38 million in 1998 and 55.24 million in the year 2010.'
The stats at the end of the above quote are particularly concerning - how is it that the illiteracy rate is increasing? I haven't been able to locate the report, so I'm unsure how these figures were collated, however, they do raise questions. Questions which I am prone to asking anyway e.g. do targets such as Education for All (which are due to expire in 2015) really achieve results?
On that sobering note, Happy Independence Day, Pakistan (the country is 65 years old today). Here's hoping the next 65 years of your existence is full of educational development.
Read the full news article from Pakistan Today here.
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