In Pakistan, a person is considered literate if they can read and understand a simple text, write a simple letter and perform basic mathematical calculations.

Pakistan’s national literacy rate was reported at 60 per cent in the Economic Survey 2024-25, a modest rise from previous years, with male literacy at 68 per cent and female literacy at 52 per cent. It means around 40 per cent, or over 100 million people, remain illiterate in Pakistan. Beyond these troubling figures, the country continues to face deep gender and regional disparities, alongside a persistently large population of out-of-school children

While there has been some improvement, the rate of increase in literacy has been slow and has stagnated at times since around 2011, according to the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD). Rapid population growth, inadequate educational infrastructure, and rising poverty continue to undermine gains

In addition to high illiteracy, Pakistan faces an education crisis among school-age children, with an estimated 26 million children out of school, a number that has increased despite a previous decrease in percentage. More than half of these out-of-school children are girls, and over 60 per cent of 3–5-year-olds lack access to pre-primary education.

If the definition of literacy were raised to the level of Matric pass (Grade 10), the minimum qualification for most low-wage employment, particularly in the Middle East, the situation would appear even more alarming. Only about 20–25 per cent of Pakistan’s adult population holds this level of education or higher.

The question, therefore, is urgent: how can Pakistan tackle these staggering numbers and........

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