Pakistan’s literacy rate is marred with problems and decades have passed without any substantial action. According to the recent Economic Survey, the national literacy rate has come down to 60.7 percent, with the rural areas lagging behind with a 51.6 percent literacy rate compared to the 74.1 percent in the urban areas.
What further complicates the equation is the prevalent gender divide. 52.8 percent women are literate as compared to 68 percent men. Moreover, 38 percent children remain out-of-school, and that too in regions where the formal education system seems to be virtually non-existent.
These statistics paint a grim picture, but they also present a wild reality check. Millions of Pakistanis may never see the traditional classroom. In this situation, informal means of learning are slowly stepping in to fill the gap. These include distributed, community-driven, digital and publishing-based approaches.
“We’ve been receiving requests from educators and nonprofits, who have been asking us to make publishing affordable, put together curated libraries to serve underfunded schools, and give new writers in underserved regions the ability to publish and distribute their material in a cheap yet professional manner,” says Syed Hammad, the CEO of Papercraft Publishers.
He says that his company is involved in making Pakistani literature available both domestically and internationally. “We have developed a system, whereby a writer in any part of the country can get published internationally,” he says. “We can publish and distribute in both digital and print mediums.”
Hammad, like many others, believes that Pakistan needs representation to bring international attention to the country’s literacy landscape. “Perhaps if the world sees how talented the Pakistani people in the underrepresented regions are, it might bring in more opportunities for them to learn and grow,” he says.
Informal education is essential for Pakistan’s progress. In some parts of the country, mainstream educational infrastructure is insufficient, therefore, informal measures, if tailored to specific contexts, can help communities learn.
However, it remains to be seen whether these efforts can sustain themselves, without governmental support, and if they lead to both local and international educational initiatives.