Lahore, September 09, 2021 (PPI-OT):International Literacy Day was celebrated on Wednesday 8th September, 2021 in Punjab. Provincial Minister Literacy and Non Formal Basic Education Raja Rashid Hafeez was the Chief Guest of this event.
The events of the day opened with an inaugural speech by the Minister, Literacy and NFBE highlighting the importance of literacy and education, the interventions and achievements of the government in achieving the objectives of literacy and education and the activities of the department in this area.
The Minister while highlighting the achievements of the department informed that 13,519 Non-Formal Schools were run by department with an enrolment of 434,479 children and adolescents. The highest number of enrolment was registered in 2019 under the present government.
The department had imparted adult literacy since its inception to 2,778,157 Adult Illiterates. Under the present government the period of adult literacy classes was enhanced to 6 months and the curriculum was upgraded and diversified in order to make the course more robust and to attract greater number of learners.
The department, with the support of JICA had recently introduced a 32 month Katchi to primary course in order to attract enrolment and retention of children and adolescents who were overage for the grade that they needed to be enrolled in. The department with the assistance of UNICEF had started early childhood education model of teaching and learning in selected schools.
In order to increase its outreach, ownership among stakeholders and improve quality of education the department had started a Friends of Literacy Programme through which the support of individuals and organizations was enlisted in order to achieve the department’s targets.
Another flagship project of the present government was the ILM-O-HUNAR Project whereby literacy and skills provision were integrated. The department had constructed rooms, with the aid of the International NGO ALIGHT for those areas where no facility was available to establish schools within any building focusing initially on the tribal belt of DG Khan as there the houses are mostly of thatched material and very small, so children cannot be accommodated there as most schools are run from one house of the teacher’s house.
The department caters to a vast range of communities which because of their particular circumstances have not been able to avail education from the formal sector. These include children in workforce, slum dwellers, internally displaced persons, madrasah children, minorities, jail inmates, Dar-ul-Amman residents and Transgender.
For more information, contact:
Directorate General Public Relations,
Government of the Punjab
Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: +92-42-9201390-86
Website: www.punjab.gov.pk