Adult literacy is low , but improving . In 1992 more than 36 percent of adults over fifteen were literate , compared with 21 percent in 1970 . The rate of improvement is highlighted by the 50 percent literacy achieved among those aged fifteen to nineteen in 1990 . School enrollment also increased , from 19 percent of those aged six to twenty-three in 1980 to 24 percent in 1990 .
COVER STORY
Adult literacy is low , but improving . In 1992 more than 36 percent of adults over fifteen were literate , compared with 21 percent in 1970 . The rate of improvement is highlighted by the 50 percent literacy achieved among those aged fifteen to nineteen in 1990 . School enrollment also increased , from 19 percent of those aged six to twenty-three in 1980 to 24 percent in 1990 .
A t independence , Pakistan had a poorly educated population and few schools or universities . Although the education system has expanded greatly since then , debate continues about the curriculum , and , except in a few elite institutions , quality remained a crucial concern of educators in the early 1990s .
Adult literacy is low , but improving . In 1992 more than 36 percent of adults over fifteen were literate , compared with 21 percent in 1970 . The rate of improvement is highlighted by the 50 percent literacy achieved among those aged fifteen to nineteen in 1990 . School enrollment also increased , from 19 percent of those aged six to twenty-three in 1980 to 24 percent in 1990 . However , by 1992 the population over twenty-five had a mean of only 1.9 years of schooling . This fact explains the minimal criteria for being considered literate : having the ability to both read and write ( with understanding ) a short , simple statement on everyday life .
Relatively limited resources have been allocated to education , although there has been improvement in recent decades . In 1960 public expenditure on education was only 1.1 percent of the gross national product ( GNP ); by 1990 the figure had risen to 3.4 percent . This amount compared poorly with the 33.9 percent being spent on defense in 1993 . In 1990 Pakistan was tied for fourth place in the world in its ratio of military expenditures to health and education expenditures . Although the government enlisted the assistance of various international donors in the education efforts outlined in its Seventh Five-Year Plan ( 1988-93 ), the results did not measure up to expectations .
In early times , and to some extend now as well - Education is / was organized into five levels : primary ( grades one through five ); middle ( grades six through eight ); high ( grades nine and ten , culminating in matriculation ); intermediate ( grades eleven and twelve , leading to an F . A . diploma in arts or F . S . science ; and university programs leading to undergraduate and advanced degrees . Preparatory classes ( nursery ) were formally incorporated into the system in 1988 with the Seventh Five-Year Plan .
In 1991 there were 87,545 primary schools , 189,200 primary school teachers , and 7,768,000 students enrolled at the primary level , with a student-to-teacher ratio of forty-one to one . Just over one-third of all children of primary school age were enrolled in a school in 1989 . There were 11,978 secondary schools , 154,802 secondary school teachers , and 2,995,000 students enrolled at the secondary level , with a student-to- teacher ratio of nineteen to one .
Primary school dropout rates remained fairly consistent in the 1970s and 1980s , at just over 50 percent for boys and 60 percent for girls . The middle school dropout rates for boys and girls rose from 22 percent in 1976 to about 33 percent in 1983 . However , a noticeable shift occurred in the beginning of the 1980s regarding the post primary dropout rate : whereas boys and girls had relatively equal rates ( 14 percent ) in 1975 , by 1979-- just as Zia initiated his government ' s Islamization program--the dropout rate for boys was 25 percent while for girls it was only 16 percent . By 1993 this trend had dramatically reversed , and boys had a dropout rate of only 7 percent compared with the girls ' rate of 15 percent .
In drafting the Eighth Five-Year Plan in 1992 , the government therefore reiterated the need to mobilize a large share of national resources to finance education . To improve access to schools , especially at the primary level , the government sought to decentralize and democratize the design and implementation of its education strategy . To give parents a greater voice in
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