Literacy in Pakistan has been expanding since the beginning of the 1970s. In 1972, only 22 percent of the population aged 15+ was literate compared to the 54 percent in 2008. Table 4.1 shows in 2006 that the population became majority literate. The over- all literacy rate for age group 15+ in 2008 was estimated at 54 percent, 67 percent for males and 40 percent for females. These rates are among the 10 lowest in the world for the countries with data available in 2008 – data was not available for Afghanistan, where rates of illiteracy are presumably higher than in Pakistan – , and Pakistan is the only Asian country as all the others are sub-Saharan African countries. The differ- ence in literacy levels of the 15+ population and the 15-24 population is striking, and show that literacy is gaining ground in the population. Still Pakistan is among the 10 countries with the lowest scores in terms of literacy of the 15-24 population, meaning that the pace of change for the youngest age group is not any faster than in the other least-literate countries. Since the overall population of Pakistan is large, the absolute number of illiterate men and women is very large as well, 51 million in 2008—about the whole population of South Africa for the same year. Table 4.1 also shows that the increase in literacy rates is not keeping up with the population growth rates as the total illiterate population is more or less staying in constant at about 50 million.
Literacy rate has been gaining ground in every provinces in Pakistan since the begin- ning of the decade of 1970s. Figure 4.2 shows the literacy rate of the population aged 15 years and older and 15-24 year older at the provincial level from 1972 to 2006. The literacy rates for the population aged 15-24 years is a reflection of recent educational
Table 4.1: Literacy rate in Pakistan from 1972-2008 Literacy Rate (percent) illiterate Population (million) illiterate Population Age group Year Total Male Female Total Male Female Percent
Female 15+ 1972 22 30 12 31 14 17 54 1981 26 35 15 36 17 19 54 1998 43 55 29 47 19 28 60 2005 50 64 35 51 19 32 63 2008 54 67 40 51 19 32 63 15-24 1972 36 49 20 7 3 4 56 1981 35 45 24 10 4 6 56 1998 55 67 43 12 5 7 62 2005 65 77 53 12 4 8 65 2008 69 79 59 12 4 7 64
Source: Goujon & Wazir (2011)
achievement in a country. The literacy rate for the population aged 15+ in Punjab increased more than double from 23 percent to 55 percent, from 1972 to 2010. More than four times improvements in the literacy rate for female (aged 15+) were observed during the past four decades in Punjab–from 10 percent in 1972 to 42 percent in 2010. It is interesting to note that during the decade of 1970s and 1980s the progress in Pun- jab was not impressive in female enrollments. However, over the past two decades, attractive progress has seen in Punjab, which is the reflection of the investment and commitment in education sector, particularly adult literacy for female by the govern- ment of Punjab. Several projects for improving adult literacy and female enrollment in Punjab has launched in 1990s and earlier of the first decade of 21st century—for example, Social Action Program funded by World Bank in early 1990s. It is worth mentioning that the illiterate population in Punjab has been almost double from 1972 to 2010—from 15.5 million to 30.2 million—about the whole population of Nepal in 2010. Moreover, more than 60 percent of illiterate population in Punjab was female in 2010. The literacy rate for the population aged 15-24 in Punjab was rapidly growing from 37 percent in 1972 to 74 percent in 2006. However, more than three times the female population (aged 15-24) in Punjab has been gaining literacy during the period from 1972-2006–from 20 percent in 1972 to 68 percent in 2006. Not surprisingly, persistent high levels of illiteracy is visible in KPK and Balochistan in the recent and distant past for the population aged 15+ and 15-24. The literacy rate for total popula- tion aged 15+ increased 26 percentage points in KPK (from 19 percent in 1972 to 46 percent in 2010) and 27 percentage points in Balochistan (from 10 percent in 1972 to 37 percent in 2010) over the period of 1972-2010. Approximately, 8 million inhab- itants in KPK are illiterate in 2010—about the whole population of Austria in 2010. Furthermore, in Balochistan, the literacy has also been gaining—from 10 percent to 37 percent from 1972-2010 for total population aged 15+. Approximately, 65 percent in population aged 15-24 in KPK and 55 percent in Balochistan has been literate in 2006, which reflect the fact that pace of change for the youngest age group (15-24) in
those province has slow as compared to other provinces in Pakistan.
As expected, gender disparities were extremely high in Pakistan in literacy rate (for population aged 15-24 as well as for population 15+), particularly in KPK and Balochis- tan in the recent and distant past. The Gender Parity’s Index (GPI) is used here to access the gender inequality in the literacy . A value of less than one of GPI indicates the difference in favor of boys, whereas values close to one show that the equal oppor- tunities was provided for girls and boys alike. The GPI extremely low in KPK during the last four decades—0.19 for population aged 15+ in 1972, and was significantly high in Sindh 1972 (GPI: 0.41). The pace of change in GPI for Punjab was astonish- ing during the last four decades, particularly in recent years for population aged 15 years and older—from 0.29 in 1972 to 0.63 in 2010. Table 4.2 shows by all criteria, the KPK and Balochistan were at the bottom of the ladder for literacy rates, like the GPI in Pakistan during last four decades (for population aged 15+ and 15-24).