Lahore : 50% children across Punjab province unable to read

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2011 has revealed that approximately 50 percent children across Punjab cannot read a sentence in Urdu or in their mother tongue, while at least 66 percent children cannot read a sentence of grade two level English.

The report was revealed during a ceremony held at the Children’s Library Complex on Tuesday. Idara Taleem-o-Agahi (ITA) Programme Director Baela Raza Jamil, Adviser to Chief Minister Begum Zakia Shahnawaz, former finance minister Syed Babar Ali, Justice Nasira Iqbal, Punjab Schools Secretary Aslam Kamboh, Standing Committee for Education Chairman Chaudhry Javed Ahmed, Literacy Secretary Pervaiz Malik, EDOs of various districts and a large number of educationists were present on the occasion.

The survey was conducted by the South Asia Forum for Education Development (SAFED) and managed by ITA in collaboration with the Foundation Open Society Institute (FOSI), Department for International Development (DFID), National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) and Oxfam/Novib.

The ASER survey was conducted in 28 districts across Punjab. Specially trained volunteer teams surveyed 16,618 households in 839 villages and collected detailed information about 44,586 children (56% male and 44% female) belonging to the age group of 3-16 years. Children aged between 5-16 were tested for language and arithmetic competencies. The survey also collected information on 1,379 schools - 835 government and 544 private - while also assessing literacy level of 16,050 mothers.

Test results showed that only 51.4 percent children were able to read a sentence in Urdu or their mother tongue, while 15.6 percent were unable to read letters and were categorised as beginners. The English reading and comprehension test reported that 33.5 percent children could read sentences, 20.4 percent could read words, while 19.1 percent children were unable to recognise alphabets and were categorised as beginners.

The arithmetic learning level of children going to private schools was reported to be slightly better but far from being satisfactory. Of 1,379 schools assessed – 835 government and 544 private – the ASER survey identified that overall, the students’ attendance in government schools stood at 84.7 percent according to the attendance registers and 80.9 percent according to the headcount on the day of school visit. In private schools, these percentages stood at 89.2 percent and 86.6 percent, respectively. The teachers’ attendance level in government and private schools was recorded at 85.4 percent and 89.6 percent, respectively.