UNESCO literacy initiative launched

Pakistan is to benefit from accelerated financial and technical assistance under the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) new literacy initiative to speed up efforts to realise the Education For All (EFA) goal of a 50 percent improvement in adult literacy levels by 2015. “The literacy movement is expected to develop a new impetus in Pakistan under this new framework: the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment or LIFE. While increased financial and technical assistance from the international community would help the national authorities to improve their adult literacy and primary education programmes,” Jorge Sequeira, Country Representative of UNESCO told IRIN in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The UNESCO-led LIFE programme would be implemented in 34 countries where adult literacy rates are lower than 50 percent or there’s an illiterate population of more than 10 million. “Pakistan has been selected for accelerated assistance under LIFE due to its large illiterate adult population of over 50 million people but also because of a strong national political commitment to promote literacy in the country, for which budgetary allocations have also been increased,” Sequeira said. In Pakistan, the overall adult literacy rate is currently estimated at 54 percent while the primary school dropout rate is the highest in the world, at almost 50 percent, according to UNESCO. Through LIFE, UNESCO would focus on the learning needs of out-of-school children and of adolescents, as well as youth and adults with insufficient literacy skills. “More specifically we’ll focus on girls, women, and families living below the poverty line, particularly in rural areas,” the UNESCO representative said. The LIFE programme would be implemented over a 10-year period. A total of nine countries have been selected for the first phase of LIFE’s implementation, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Iran, Nepal, Indonesia, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea. As a preliminary part of the LIFE strategy, a literacy assessment would be carried over the next 6 to 12 months in each of Pakistan’s four provinces in order to set strategies to reduce illiteracy. “Though literacy is the main thrust of LIFE, in order to maximise the impact, integrated approaches linking literacy with sustainable livelihoods, civic life skills, health and nutrition, including HIV/AIDS prevention would be developed,” Sequeira noted.