Factors Affecting Pakistan's Literacy Rate

LITERATURE REVIEW:

The literature review will help in identifying the previous work done in this subject area. It aims to explore the relationship among the different variables and their impact on literacy rate in Pakistan. It would further assist in defining these variables and analyze them according to the published work.

Maurice Boissiere (2004) did a research on the determinants of primary education

outcomes in developing countries. The research question for this paper is “What determines the outcomes of education?”According to this paper, In today’s world, simply getting children into schools in not enough, governments must also ensure that children complete the

primary cycle and attain the basic knowledge and skills needed for personal well-being and national development. Many studies have examined how total resources devoted to education or resources per student affect education outcomes. This paper identified five principal contributors to education effectiveness: Curriculum, learning materials, instructional time, teaching strategies and students’ learning capacity. According to this paper, education outcomes often are framed in terms of the supply-side factors, but demand-side factors are also important in determining education outcomes. Participation in school is regarded here as an input, and completing primary school with the acquisition of basic knowledge and skills is regarded as a desirable outcome. An important pattern is that the outcomes of primary education in poor countries are far below those of the rich countries. There is now much more known about the basic cognitive skills of literacy in rich and poor countries based upon the growing body of evidence from international and regional education assessments. The gap between the rich and the poor countries on these measures is large, and the distribution of this most basic form of human capital within the poor countries also seems to be more inequitable.

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Ronald G. Ridker (1997) did a research on the Determinants of Educational Achievement and Attainment in Africa. This paper presents an overview and discussion of nine studies that attempt to explain educational achievement, attainment, and participation in different African countries.Available information on school, household, child, and community characteristics are explored for this purpose. Four of the studies base their analyses on national sample surveys, the remainder on evidence from field investigations of specific interventions at the primary level. This overview discusses the significance, limitations, and policy and research implications of the findings. The studies speak to a variety of issues, such as the importance of socio-economic as opposed to school characteristics in determining educational outcomes, the effect of quality improvements on enrollment, textbooks versus class size, professional versus para-professional teachers, and the role of parent participation. Most of the interventions were found to have positive impacts. This overview finds that outcomes can differ significantly depending on the context and status of variables. According to this paper variable are interrelated with each other. They demonstrate that improvements in school quality can have indirect as well as direct effects on achievement, the indirect effects occurring because of the effect on participation (enrollment, attendance, and continuation),which in turn affects achievement. They demonstrate the important mediating effects that household characteristics such as income and parent education can have on educational outcomes in some circumstances. They demonstrate that these influences can be very different in different circumstances.

Grant Johnston (2004) did the research on Adult literacy and economic growth. According to this paper, Sustained economic growth is a priority for the government. Investments in human capital are seen as making a key contribution to growth. This paper looks at whether an increase in the basic literacy skills of adults would have a positive effect on the New Zealand economy, through increased employment and workplace productivity. It contributes to a suite of research projects the Treasury is undertaking on specific contributions of human capital – that is, the knowledge, skills, competencies and attributes embodied in individuals Literacy skills are among the most important generic cognitive skills. Literacy was once considered to be the ability to read and write: people who couldn’t meet a very basic standard – writing their own name, for example – were considered illiterate. Contemporary definitions of literacy still include reading and writing, but take the concept a considerable step further and include a range of skills used in work, and at home, which are much broader than the term “literacy” at first suggests. Workbase, the New Zealand Centre for Workplace Literacy Development, considers that literacy covers “not just reading and writing, but speaking, listening, creative thinking, problem solving and numeracy”

Bruce Fuller, Lucia Dellagnelo and Annelie Strath (1999) did the research on Early Literacy and The Influence of Family, Teacher and Classroom in northeast brazil. Firstly they tried to answer this question “How Can Government Raise children’s Early Literacy?”Governments throughout the world-whether in the industrialized North or the impoverished South-are searching for effective means of boosting the early literacy of young children. Policy makers may be aiming to raise their society’s human capital stock and reduce inequalities inherent across schools. Whatever the motivation, policy makers and local educators are trying to identify investment strategies and local programs that will raise children’s basic literacy rate.what form of government investment raise literacy?. The study of school effectiveness in Third World settings is a field that dates back to the early 1970s, and it continues to mature. Over 120 sound empirical studies that attempt to isolate school or teacher attributes that raise the achievement of students have been conducted in diverse countries. According to the paper, the study of school effectiveness within the northeastern states of Bahia and Cearai focuses on three facets of school and teacher quality that may help to explain variability in children’s early literacy skills. These aspects of quality correspond to three policy strategies for raising the effectiveness of primary schools.First point is School infrastructure and instructional inputs–formalize school facilities and enrich basic materials.second point is teacher selection and preparation policies-recruit more able teachers and strengthen preservice training and the third point is classroom policies-improving pedagogy and classroom organization. In this case, they also run basic regression model to take findings for how literacy scores are related to children’s own attributes, such as gender and age, and to features of their home environment.

Atta Ur Rahman and Salah Uddin (2002) did the research On The Different Socioeconomic factors Affecting the Education of N-W.F.P (Pakistan).According to the case, Education is the basic need of human beings. It is also very important for the development of any country. Education is the responsibility of the state and government who should make every possible effort to provide it on an ever interesting and increasing scale in accordance with the national resources. The community should also realize its role in the development of education. Pakistan is one of the countries of the world where the highest number of illiterates are concentrated. Being illiterate is not only an individual disability, it also has societal implications. Democratic institutions and values can hardly flourish in a society where half of the adult population is illiterate, and most of the voters cannot access information or read newspapers. The situation is particularly alarming for women and those living in rural areas. Illiteracy not only causes dependence, it deprives people of development of their fullest potential of participation in decision making at different levels, and ultimately rises to breed oppression and exploitation. A number of students in the urban and rural areas of N-W.F.P (Pakistan) and control group were collected to examine the various socio-economic factors which affect our education system. A logistic regression was applied to analyze the data. The response variable for the study is literate (illiterate) person’s and the risk factors are Father literacy, Father income Parents’ attitude towards education, Mother literacy, Present examination system, Present education curriculum. In the conclusion of the paper, they investigated the factors which affect education in the model with one explanatory variable the main effect father education has a significant effect on education. The factor which affects our education is “FE*PA”, which means that the education of the child is depend on the education of the father and attitude of parents. The other factor are FI*ME means that father income and mother education also affect the education of the child. The father income and parents’ attitude also affect the education of the child.

Malik Ansab (2003) did the research on the Factors Affecting Literacy Rate in Pakistan. According to the case, multiple factors affect (both positively and negatively) the literacy rate in Pakistan. In Pakistan, allocations for education in general and for enhancement of literacy in particular, have, always been very low with, 2.3 % of GNP being the highest figure in 9th Plan (1998-2003). Allocations for literacy started with the non-plan period (1970-78) in which Rs. 2.3 million were allocated for literacy but actually only Rs. 5.00 million were spent. Rs. 12.5 million and Rs.8.5 millions, were respectively spent during the 7th and 8th plans periods for the first time. The message arising out of EFA 2000 Assessment noted that, “Education is characterized by the need to make tough choices between competing options of nearly equal attractiveness.” Public expenditure on primary education in any country has a direct bearing on the literacy rate of that country. In Pakistan, like most of the developing countries, the traditional ascription of feminine and masculine standards of behavior, division of labor and family responsibilities have been the main barriers in achieving a female literacy rate equal to that of males. In the rural areas, the poor people send only their sons to school, and that too make great personal sacrifice, but female children are kept without schooling. The country has not been able to provide adequate opportunities for the girls to acquire education. As a result, the situation has not only hampered the overall process of national development, but has also adversely affected the management of the day-to-day affairs of women, like childcare/child rearing, economic participation and social mobility.

Azmat (2003) did the research on factors affecting literacy in Pakistan. According to this paper,The trends in respect of male and female literacy from 1981 to 1998 for various provinces of Pakistan indicate that the male literacy rate in 1981 for Punjab has increased form 36.82 to 57.20 percent against a rise in the female literacy rate from 16.82 to 35.10 percent. in Pakistan the fertility rate is directly dependent on the level of education of mothers. In other words, the educational level of mothers influences family size. The illiterate women in high literacy regions have 4.74 children on an average, while literate and secondary school certificate holder women have 3.63 -3.24 children. This co-relation is quite significant and emphasizes the importance of literacy and schooling because some literature suggest that mere schooling of girls also affects fertility. they also run the regression analysis between fertility and literacy. the result of regression analysis is about both variables have strong correlation. Another important finding is Literacy is not only hampered by the low participation rate but a major problem is the retention of children who get admitted to primary schools. The survival rate up to grade 5 in Pakistan is only 49.7 while the repetition rate for each grade in the primary schools in Pakistan is about 15.74 %. The existence of a permanent infrastructure and an institutional set-up also contributes positively in enhancing the literacy rate in developing countries. One of the causes of Pakistan’s despairing situation in terms of literacy rate is, that adult literacy and non-formal basic education have not been institutionalized. After Balochistan, only Punjab has recently started to shape literacy and mass education in an institutional form. Punjab has constituted the Punjab Commission for Literacy and EFA, but it is still in its infancy.

Michael Kremer (2005) did the research on Schools, Teachers, and Education Outcomes in Developing Countries.Eight out of 10 of the world’s children live in developing countries (World Bank, 2003).For economists working on education, the study of developing countries offers both

policy questions of fundamental importance and a rich set of experiences to examine.The important policy questions stem from the potential role of education in improving the welfare of the 5 billion people living in developing countries. Many macroeconomists have emphasized the impact of education on economic growth. The rich set of experiences worth examining includes wide variation in input levels and education systems across developing countries and, in recent years, dramatic policy changes and reforms in many developing countries. In addition, in the last 10 years randomized evaluations of education policies (which are rare in developed countries)

have been undertaken in several developing countries. All of this makes the study of

education in developing countries a potentially fruitful area of research. There are many differences between the education systems of developed and developing countries, so this section provides basic information on education in developing countries.

Imran Sharif Chaudhry and Saeed ur Rahman (2009) did the research on The Impact of Gender Inequality on Education in Pakistan.this paper run regression analysis on primary data sets.

Gender refers to socially constructed roles and responsibilities of women and men. The difference in roles and responsibilities among women and men stems from our families, societies and culture. The concept of gender includes our expectations about the characteristics, attitudes and behaviors of women and men, and is vital in facilitating gender analysis. The different roles, rights and resources that both the genders have in society are important determinants of the nature and scope of their inequality and poverty. Inequality in access to resources between women and men is most common in poor and developing countriesThe status of women in Pakistan is somehow different from that of western countries. Gender is one of the organizing principles of Pakistan’s society. Home has been defined as a women legitimate ideological and physical space where she performs her procreative role as a mother and wife while a

man dominates the world outside the home and performs his productive role as a breadwinner. Men and women are conceptually divided into two separate worlds. The household resources are allocated in the favour of sons due to their productive role. Male members of the family are given better education and are equipped with skills to compete for resources in public arena. Education is the most important instrument for human resource development. It has become a

universal human right and an important component of opportunities and empowerment of women. A large number of empirical studies find that increase in women’s education boosts their wages and that returns to education for women are frequently larger than that of men. There are many empirical evidences that, increase in female education improves human development outcomes such as child survival, health and schooling explored that lower female education had a negative impact on economic growth as it lowered the average level of human capital. According to Knowles etal (2002), in developing countries female education reduces fertility, infant mortality and increases children’s education. Gender inequality in education directly and significantly affects economic growth. Chaudhry(2007) investigated the impact of gender inequality in education on economic growth in Pakistan. The secondary source of time series data drawn from various issues has been used. In his regression analysis, he estimated a set of regressions which shows a moderate explanatory power. The variables,overall literacy rate, enrolment ratio, ratio of literate female to male have positive and significant impact on economic growth.

Dr.Zahid Asghar, Nazia Attique and Amena Urooj (2000) did the research on Measuring impact of education and socio-economic factors on Health for Pakistan. It is a common understanding that people with higher level of education lead a more healthy life due to their enhanced level of awareness compared to the less educated individuals. Two important prerequisites for an effective health policy are; monitoring and forecasting the population’s health and its health determinants. Health of any individual or that of a society or community is not dependent on a particular single factor. Education affects health not because of the knowledge and practices one

can learn at school, but rather it shapes individuals life and can alter the characteristics of an individual to be healthier. Measurement of health is an abstract concept and health itself is affected by a number of factors. This study aims at exploring whether there is any relation in education, gender, and health for Pakistan. Exploratory data analysis and ordinal logistic regression are used here to assess relationship between health, education and other socio-economic factors. It is evident that individuals with higher education level tend to have better health status than a person with lower levels of education. There is also evidence of gender

being an important determinant of health in Pakistan. This study provides a useful piece of information for the policy makers in health and education sectors. The data used in this study was collected by Pakistan and Medical Research Council under National Health Survey of Pakistan.