Literacy Rates in Pakistan 1947-2014

RiazHaq

Senator (1k+ posts)
The parts that now constitute Pakistan were among the least developed regions of India and the rest of the world prior to 1947, and the last to be conquered by the British, according to an eminent Pakistani economist Dr.

Kaiser Bengali. The British rule in Sind, Baluchistan and NWFP lasted about 100 years and these regions were considered the periphery of the British Raj in India. At the time of the first census in 1950, the overall literacy rate was 20% in India and 14% in Pakistan, according to UNESCO.

As of 2012, India has achieved 75% literacy rate while Pakistan is at 58%. Pakistan
Youth (15-24 years) literacy rate is 79.1% for males and 61.5% for females. Each new generation of Pakistanis is more literate than its predecessors:

Over 55 years 30% literate

45-55 years 40%

35-45 years 50%

25-35 years 60%

15-25 years 70%


Literacy Rates in 1950. Source: UNESCO

Pakistan has come a long way in terms of literacy but it still lags its neighbors, particularly Iran, which had lower literacy rate than Pakistan in 1950s, now has well over 90% of its adult population literate.

Education was a key focus of the Shah Reza Shah Pehlavi, the Shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979. The Shah
invested a significant chunk of his country's oil revenues to improve education, health care and infrastructure. Iran's education spending increased 1800% during the Shah's rule.

Literacy_Rate_Pak_1951_2009.jpg


Although literacy in Pakistan has grown by about 13% during
President Mushsarraf's rule to about 56%, it still remains woefully low when compared to its neighbors.
However, Pakistanis now spend more time in schools and colleges and graduate at a higher rate than their Indian counterparts in 15+ age group, according to a report on educational achievement by Harvard University researchers Robert Barro and Jong-Wha Lee.

As of 2010, there are 380 out of every 1000 Pakistanis age 15 and above who have never had any formal schooling. Of the remaining 620 who enrolled in school, 22 dropped out before finishing primary school, and the remaining 598 completed it. There are 401 out of every 1000 Pakistanis who made it to secondary school. 290 completed secondary school while 111 dropped out. Only 55 made it to college out of which 39 graduated with a degree.


Barro-Lee-Ind-Pak.jpg

Barro-Lee data shows the following:
1. India's overall schooling rate of 67.4% exceeds Pakistan's 61.9% in 15 and over age group.

2. Pakistan's primary schooling rate of 21.8% is slightly higher than India's 20.9% of 15+ age group

3. India has a big edge with its secondary enrollment of 40.7% over Pakistan's 34.6%, but India's completion rate at this level is a dismal 0.9% versus Pakistan's 22.5% of the population of 15+ age group.

4. India's tertiary education enrollment rate of 5.8% is higher than Pakistan's 5.5%, but Pakistan's college and university graduation rate of 3.9% is higher than India's 3.1% of 15+ age group.

5. Pakistan's combined graduation rate at all three levels is 45.7% versus India's 22.9% among the population age group of 15 years or older.

6. UNESCO's Global Education Digest shows that, as of 2009, nearly 16% of Pakistan's adult population has completed higher education, higher than the figures of 12% for India and 8% for Indonesia among emerging markets.


Higher+Education+Pakistan.jpg
College Graduation Data. Source: Global Education Digest

Barro-Lee data also shows that the percentage of 15+ age group with no schooling has gone down in both nations in the
last decade, particularly in Pakistan where it dropped dramatically by a whopping 22% from 60.2% in 2000 to 38% in 2010. In India, this percentage with no schooling dropped from 43% to 32.7% of 15+ age group.

School+gender+gap+in+Pakistan.jpg

Here's some data on out-of-school children in Pakistan:

1. The actual number of out of school children of primary age in Pakistan is 5.1 million.

2. The out-of-school figures of 50% in Punjab, 61% in Sindh, 65% in KP and 78% in Balochistan are for pre-primary children ages 3 to 5 years, not for ages 6-16 years.

3. In 6-16 years age group, 7% of urban and 23% of rural children are out of school.



4. The number of out-of-school children has declined from in 8.4 million in 2001 to 5.1 million in 2010.

5. According to Pakistan Standards of Living Measurements PSLM 2011-12, the country's literacy rate is 58%.


Out-of-School+Children+Decline.jpg

Source: 2012 Global Monitoring Report

6. Data from
Harvard researchers Rober Barro and Jhong-Wa Lee shows that Pakistan has been increasing enrollment of students in schools at a faster rate since 1990 than India. In 1990, there were 66.2% of Pakistanis vs 51.6% of Indians who had no schooling. In 2000, there were 60.2% Pakistanis vs 43% Indians with no schooling. In 2010, Pakistan reduced it to 38% vs India's 32.7%.

Barro-Lee-Ind-Pak.jpg




UNESCO data also shows that a significant percentage of out-of-school children in Pakistan are expected to enter school:
Out-of-School+Children+UN+2011.png

I do not see any justification for the usual expressions of extreme pessimism that follow every alarmist report in the media. I do, however, see an urgent need for higher spending and greater focus on education by Pakistani government to make faster progress, particularly in closing the gender gap in school enrollment. A recent report about significant education successes in Punjab prepared by Sir Micheal Barber gives me hope that the PML (N) will perform better than the last government in responding to the challenge.


http://www.riazhaq.com/2014/03/history-of-literacy-in-pakistan-1947.html
 
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FlyHigh

Senator (1k+ posts)
Karachi supposedly has the highest literacy rate, all we got is pathetic terrorist Altaf Hussain. Its pathetic because so called educated people listen to him.
 

umarriaz

MPA (400+ posts)
Here is literacy map of Pakistan. Pothohar, Hazara and north Punjab are most educated. Rural Sindh, Baluchistan and South Punjab are least educated.


Literacy_Map_Pakistan.jpg
 

umarriaz

MPA (400+ posts)
Table below shows the literacy rate of Pakistan by province.
[TABLE="class: wikitable"]
[TR]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2, align: center"]Province[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2, colspan: 4, align: center"]Literacy Rate[SUP][28][/SUP][/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2, align: center"]1972[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2, align: center"]1981[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2, align: center"]1998[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2, align: center"]2012[SUP][1][/SUP][/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Punjab[/TD]
[TD]20.7%[/TD]
[TD]27.4%[/TD]
[TD]46.6%[/TD]
[TD]71%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sindh[/TD]
[TD]30.2%[/TD]
[TD]31.5%[/TD]
[TD]45.3%[/TD]
[TD]69%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa[/TD]
[TD]15.5%[/TD]
[TD]16.7%[/TD]
[TD]35.4%[/TD]
[TD]60%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Balochistan[/TD]
[TD]10.1%[/TD]
[TD]10.3%[/TD]
[TD]26.6%[/TD]
[TD]50%[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Literacy rate over time in selected districts

[TABLE="class: wikitable"]
[TR]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2, align: center"]Region[/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2, colspan: 3, align: center"]Literacy Rate[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2, align: center"]2012[SUP][40][/SUP][/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2, align: center"]1998[SUP][33][/SUP][SUP][41][/SUP][/TH]
[TH="bgcolor: #F2F2F2, align: center"]1981[SUP][33][/SUP][/TH]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Islamabad[/TD]
[TD]96%[/TD]
[TD]72.38%[/TD]
[TD]47.80%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Abbottabad[/TD]
[TD]87%[/TD]
[TD]67.77%[/TD]
[TD]42.38%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Jhelum[/TD]
[TD]79%[/TD]
[TD]63.92%[/TD]
[TD]38.90%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Karachi[/TD]
[TD]77%[/TD]
[TD]65.26%[/TD]
[TD]55%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Lahore[/TD]
[TD]74%[/TD]
[TD]64.66%[/TD]
[TD]48.40%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Gujrat[/TD]
[TD]71%[/TD]
[TD]62.11%[/TD]
[TD]31.30%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Gujranwala[/TD]
[TD]69%[/TD]
[TD]53.40%[/TD]
[TD]29.90%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Rawalpindi[/TD]
[TD]67%[/TD]
[TD]59.45%[/TD]
[TD]46.60%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Quetta[/TD]
[TD]62%[/TD]
[TD]57.10%[/TD]
[TD]36.70%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Faisalabad[/TD]
[TD]62%[/TD]
[TD]51.94%[/TD]
[TD]31.80%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sialkot[/TD]
[TD]59%[/TD]
[TD]57%[/TD]
[TD]30.80%

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
 

RiazHaq

Senator (1k+ posts)
World's 10 most illiterate #BurkinaFaso #SouthSudan #Afghanistan #Niger #Mali #Chad #Somalia #Ethopia #Guinea #Benin

http://www.care2.com/causes/10-countries-with-the-worst-literacy-rates-in-the-world.html …


Barely anyone — one to two percent of the population — could read in ancient Rome and nobody thought more people should. Now we recognize that literacy is a human right; that being able to read and write is personally empowering and, in a world that relies more and more on technology, simply necessary.

Nonetheless, millions of children, the majority of whom are girls, still never learn to read and write today (pdf). This Sunday, September 8, is International Literacy Day, an event that Unesco has been observing for more than 40 years to highlight how essential literacy is to learning and also “for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy.”

774 million people aged 15 and older are illiterate, an infographic (pdf) from Unesco details. 52 percent (pdf) live in south and west Asia and 22 percent in sub-Saharan Africa. The latter region is where most of the countries with the lowest literacy rates in the world are located, according to data from the C.I.A.:

1. Burkina Faso: 21.8 percent of the adults in this West African country are literate.

2. South Sudan: This country in east Africa, which became an independent state in 2011, has a literary rate of 27 percent.

3 Afghanistan: 28.1 percent of this country’s population are literate with a far higher percentage of men (43.1 percent) than women (12.6 percent) able to read.


4. Niger: The ratio of men to women in this landlocked western African country is also lopsided: the literacy rate is 42.9 percent for men, 15.1 percent for women and 28.7 percent overall.

5. Mali: Niger’s neighbor on the west, the literacy rate in Mali is 33.4 percent. 43.1 percent of the adult male population can read and 24.6 percent of the country’s women.

6. Chad: This west African country is Niger’s neighbor on its eastern border; 34.5 percent of its population is literate.

7. Somalia: Long beset by civil war and famine, 37.8 of Somalia’s population is literate. 49.7 percent of the adult male population is literate but only 25.8 percent of adult females.

8. Ethiopia: Somalia’s neighbor to the north, the literacy rate in Ethiopia is 39 percent.

9. Guinea: 41 percent of this west African country’s population is literate. More than half (52 percent) of adult males are literature and only 30 percent of women.

10. Benin: 42.4 percent of Benin in West Africa are literate.

Around the world, two-thirds of adults who are illiterate are female, meaning that there are 493 women unable to read and write.

54 of the 76 million illiterate young women come from nine countries, most in south and west Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and not necessarily those with high rates of adult illiteracy: India (where almost 30 million young women are illiterate), Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Republic of Tanzania, Egypt and Burkina Faso.
 

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