Sartaj stresses use of digital tools to increase literacy rate

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Sartaj Aziz Friday stressed the need for use of digital tools to achieve higher literacy rate in the country.
“We cannot achieve the target of 90 per cent literacy rate
under 2025 and 100 per cent by 2030 under Sustainable Development
Goals unless we do not use digital technology and tools including
cell phones, laptops and computer systems”, he said while
addressing a seminar held here in connection with World Literacy
Day.
The moot titled “Literacy in Pakistan: Challenges of Digital
World” was organized by National Commission for Human Development
(NCHD) in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency
(JICA) and United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO).
The deputy chairman said in today’s digital world,
conventional ways of giving education to illiterate adults could not
work well.
He said by using social media and digital tools,
thousands of students could be accessed within limited resources and
time.
He also asked the provincial governments to allocate maximum
findings for the development of education sector in the country and
to achieve the target of 90 per cent literacy rate under vision
2025.
Earlier addressing on the occasion, Minister for Federal
Education and Professional Training, Muhammad Baligh-ur-Rehman said
in recent years, the country’s education sector had witnessed
rapid improvement due to special focus given by the incumbent
government.
He said the country’s overall budgetary allocation in
education sector increased from Rs500 billion in 2013 to over Rs900 billion in 2017.
Moreover he said number of out of school children of ages
five to 15 years had reduced from over 26 million in 2013 to less
than 22 million now.
The minister said in term of improvement of out of school
children, the federal territory area witnessed remarkable
improvement of 55 per cent during last three years, while Punjab
made 23 per cent and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa made 9 per cent improvement.
In her welcome address, NCHD Chairperson Razina Alam Khan
said the NCHD had launched a number of innovative approaches to
reach the marginalized groups.
“NCHD in collaboration with UNESCO introduced computer and mobile
literacy in a pilot project which remained very successful,” she added.
However, she stressed that as today it was the requirement of
all digital societies, we should share and analyze promising
practices with regard to policies, programmes monitoring and
evaluation as well as financing that advances literacy in a digital
world.
Deputy Chief Representative, JICA Yoshihisa Onoe, Country
Director UNESCO, Pakistan, Vibeke Jensen, Chief Advisor JICA Chiho
Ohashi, and Consultant NCHD, Dr Muhammad Saleem also spoke on the
occasion.

Source: APP