Pakistan to Open 4,000 Adult Literacy Centers by 2015

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Good news for those interested in adult literacy in Pakistan: The Pakistani government recently laid out plans to establish more than 4,000 adult literacy centers across the country by the end of 2015.  According to the Daily Times, Sheikh Waqas Akram, Pakistan’s federal minister for education and training, stressed the importance of higher literacy and education rates throughout the Islamic world.

Supported in part by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), this initiative seeks to open 100 community learning centers, 100 Quranic literacy centers, and 100 functional literacy centers in each of the 57 districts of the country.

Though Pakistan’s literacy rates are as high as 97 percent in Islamabad and other urban regions, more rural areas of the country see rates of as low as 20 percent.  The target overall literacy rate for 2015 is 65 percent, which would require a 17 percent increase over the course of the program.

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