Literacy and Educational Attainment Levels in Pakistan: 1951-1973

The role of education as a necessary means of meeting the shortages of trained personnel and manpower requirements as well as a factor in increasing productivity and economic growth rates, is of fundamental importance to the developing countries [14, p. 13], and has greatly reinforced the need for educational planning as an integral part of development plans [17, p. 612]. Education is recognized as a factor of prime importance in the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan of Pakistan. While high priority has been assigned to primary education and vocational and technical training, qualitative improvement has also been emphasized for the secondary and higher levels of education [8, p. 147]. Although proportion of literates has increased substantially during the past thirty years; Pakistan like other developing countries, still has predominantly illiterate population. In the present study an attempt has been made to assess the literacy status of the country quantitatively. The qualitative aspects which are equally important for educational development, shall be studied in a subsequent paper. With the aim to review the educational progress on the basis of the number of literate and illiterate persons, levels of education attained and the extent of participation of children in schools, the broad objectives of this study are as follows: