National literacy rate climbs to 63 per cent as Punjab leads provinces

Pakistan's national literacy rate has risen above 60 per cent to 63 per cent over the past two years, with Punjab ahead of the other provinces at 68 per cent and Balochistan lowest at 49 per cent, according to figures reported by Express News.

The report, carried by both Express News and UrduPoint, ranks Sindh second and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa third, although both provinces are given the same literacy rate of 58 per cent. Balochistan is placed fourth.

Punjab's rate rose from 66.25 per cent to 68 per cent, the report said, made up of 75 per cent literacy among men and 62 per cent among women. Sindh moved from 57.54 per cent to 58 per cent, with men at 68 per cent and women at 47 per cent. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa rose from 51.09 per cent to 58 per cent, with 73 per cent of men and 43 per cent of women counted as literate. Balochistan's rate went from 42.01 per cent to 49 per cent, with men at 61 per cent and women at 37 per cent.

UrduPoint, in its own headline report, put Sindh in second place at 58 per cent, with male literacy at 68 per cent and female literacy at 47 per cent in the province.

The gap between town and countryside is wider than the gap between any two provinces: across the country, urban literacy is 74 per cent while rural literacy is 55 per cent, Express News reported.

Citing the Pakistan Institute of Education and the Ministry of Education, the report put the total number of educational institutions in the country at 342,547.

The figures do not resolve the ordering of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which are reported at the same level but placed second and third respectively without an explanation of the tie. Neither report gave separate literacy figures for Gilgit-Baltistan or Azad Kashmir, and neither set out how the rates were measured or over what period the two-year change was calculated.

Female literacy lags male literacy in every province covered, with the widest gap in Balochistan, where 61 per cent of men and 37 per cent of women are counted as literate, and the narrowest in Punjab, at 75 per cent against 62 per cent.

Neither report named the officials or the survey from which the provincial rates were drawn, or said when the underlying data was collected.