KP Achieves Highest Literacy Rate Growth Among All Provinces

The federal government has launched the Pakistan Economic Survey (PES) 2021-22, detailing how the national economy performed in the current fiscal year that will end on 30 June 2022.

Education Completion Rate

According to PES 2021-22, the Primary Education Completion Rate stood at 67%, Lower Education Completion Rate stood at 47%, and Upper Secondary Education Completion Rate stood at 23%. This shows that more students have completed their education till the primary level.

Literacy Parity Index stood at 0.71, Youth Literacy Parity Index stood at 0.82, Primary Parity Index stood at 0.88, and Secondary Parity Index stood at 0.89.

Pre-Primary Education

The participation rate in organized learning—one year before attaining the official age of entry to primary education— stood at 19%. This number, unfortunately, shows that little consideration is given to pre-primary education.

The percentage population in a given age group achieving at least a specific level of proficiency in functional, literacy, and numeracy skills stood at 60%.

Literacy Rate

In FY2020-21, the literacy rate stood at 62.8%; It was 62.4% in FY 2018-19.

Gender-wise

Gender-wise breakdown shows that the literacy rate among males increased to 73.4% in FY2020-21 from 73% in FY2018-19. The literacy rate among females increased slightly to 51.9% in FY2020-21 from 51.5% in FY 2018-19.

Area-wise

Area-wise analysis suggests that literacy rates in both rural and urban areas have increased. The literacy rate in rural areas increased from 53.7% in FY2018-19 to 54% in FY2020-21. The literacy rate in urban areas increased from 76.1% in FY 2018-19 to 77.3% in FY 2020-21.

Province-wise

Province-wise analysis shows literacy rates in all provinces have increased.

Punjab

The literacy rate in Punjab increased from 66.1% in FY2018-2019 to 66.3% in FY2020-21.

Sindh

The literacy rate in Sindh increased from 61.6% in FY2018-2019 to 61.8% in FY2020-21.

KP

The literacy rate in KP increased from 52.4% in FY2018-2019 to 55.1% in FY2020-21.

Balochistan

The literacy rate in Balochistan increased from 53.9% in FY2018-2019 to 54.5% in FY2020-21.

Initiatives to Improve Education Quality

During FY 2021-22, the federal and provincial governments launched various initiatives to raise the standards of education in line with Goal 4 of the UN SDGs.

These initiatives are:

• Enhancing access to education by establishing new schools
• Upgrading the existing schools
• Improving the learning environment by providing basic educational facilities
• Digitization of educational institutions
• Enhancing the resilience of educational institutions to cater to unforeseen situations
• Promoting distance learning, capacity building of teachers
• Improving the hiring of teachers, particularly hiring of science teachers to address the issues of science education

Single National Curriculum

The Single National Curriculum was launched as PTI’s flagship scheme envisioning minimizing the disparity in Pakistan’s education system and providing equal learning opportunities to all segments of society. There are three education systems in the country; public educational institutes, private educational institutes, and religious seminaries.

The SNC will be implemented in three phases. The first phase has been concluded as a uniform curriculum has been introduced from pre 1 to 5 classes at the beginning of the academic year 2021-22.

The second phase will commence with the start of the academic year 2022-23 in which a uniform curriculum will be introduced for classes 6 to 8.

The last phase will start from the academic year 2023-24 in which a uniform curriculum will be introduced for classes 9 to 12.

Improvement in Key Education Indicators

The overall education situation based on key indicators such as enrolments, number of institutions, and teachers has improved significantly.

Enrolments

During FY2019-20, the total number of enrolments stood at 55.7 million. It was 53.1 million in FY2018-19. This shows an increase of 4.9% increase in the number of enrolments in the education sector.

Institutions

During FY2019-20, the total number of institutions stood at 277,500. It was 271,800 in FY2018-19. This shows an increase of 2.1% increase in the number of educational institutes.

Teachers

During FY 2019-20, the total number of teachers stood at 1.83 million. It was 1.79 million in FY2018-19, which translates to an increase of 2.23%.

Expenditure

The cumulative education expenditures by federal and provincial governments in FY2021-22 stood at 1.77% of GDP. During FY2021-22, expenditures on education-related projects stood at Rs. 988 billion, showing an increase of 9.7% from Rs. 901 billion.