LAHORE (Dunya News) – Punjab has around 1.6 million illiterate people, with Kasur district recording the highest number, according to disclosures in the Punjab Assembly.
Lawmaker Ahsan Raza raised concerns over who will provide basic education to these citizens and urged the government to expand, rather than close, literacy and non-formal basic education programs.
Speaking in the assembly, Raza said literacy means the ability to write one’s name and read newspapers, and questioned who will take responsibility for teaching the illiterate. He added that Punjab’s overall literacy rate stands at 64 percent.
Raza also pointed out that 16 education projects launched in 2005 are now mostly inactive, leaving millions still illiterate, and said the province bears responsibility for this gap. Parliamentary Secretary for Literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education, Chaudhry Naveed Ashraf, highlighted that neighboring Indian Punjab has a literacy rate of 86 percent, while Afghanistan’s is 52 percent.
Ashraf said that in Kasur, 632 teachers are engaged under the literacy department, supported by a district staff of 15 employees. He added that across Punjab, 20,273 schools operate with over 680,000 students enrolled, raising the provincial literacy rate to 66 percent.