World Literacy Day - a reminder

Sunday might have been Defence Day and the spectacular airshow paid rich tribute to our armed forces, but lets not forget that yesterday (September 08) was World Literacy Day - an area where the country has failed miserably: Pakistan is home to the second-highest number of out-of-school children in the world. This means that every twelfth out-of-school child in the world is a Pakistani.
The simple definition of literacy is the ability to read and write with understanding in any language. With that said, 52 percent of class-five students in Pakistan cannot read a story in Urdu, Sindhi or Pashto; 56 percent cannot read a sentence fluently in English; and 58 percent cannot perform simple two-digit division. These are the latest stats according to the Annual Status of Education Survey Report (ASER) 2014.
Net enrolment rate at the primary level (nursery to class 5) in Pakistan is 57 percent, but this drops to 22 percent at middle-school level (class 6 to 10) and further drops to 13 percent at matriculation. Apparently, 46 percent of children drop out before finishing primary school. This is quite an alarming situation.
There aren't enough teachers either; one-third of total primary schools in Pakistan have just one teacher. Then, there is the added issue of frequent absenteeism on the part of teachers - according to a report by Alif Ailaan, between 10-18 percent of government teachers are absent on any given day.
Moreover, the condition of our school buildings is appalling - half function without electricity, one in three has no drinking water, and two in five have no toilets. There is a problem of space as well; around 17 percent of primary schools are single-classroom schools.
Yesterday, this column wrote about the missed Millennium Development Goals with respect to education; the investments made in opening new schools or adding new classrooms are far below the target, let alone the investments that need to be made in upgrading the condition of the existing schools. The education budget is still below 2 percent of GDP, as against the promised 4 percent. This is a national conversation that needs to be given greater precedence.