Background:
Pakistan faces significant challenges in achieving universal literacy and numeracy, with approximately 67 million illiterate individuals. The literacy rate of the country, standing at 61%, ranks second lowest in South Asia. This presents a pressing concern, undermining Pakistan's development goals and its international commitments, including Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.6. In response, Pakistan has a constitutional and international obligation to promote literacy and education.
National Education Emergency announced by the Prime Minister of Pakistan in May 2024, is aimed at addressing the country’s educational and literacy crisis. The "Each One Teach One" (EOTO) initiative is part of the Prime Minister’s directives on Education Emergency. The EOTO initiative aims to eradicate illiteracy and empower citizens across Pakistan by engaging students from schools, colleges, and universities as literacy teachers. This initiative seeks to harness the potential of the education sector to address the literacy crisis and improve educational outcomes nationwide.
Under the aegis of the Ministry of Federal Education & Professional Training the EOTO program is being overseen by the National Commission for Human Development which is the lead agency and certifying authority for literacy and non-formal education in Pakistan.
Salient Features of the EOTO Initiative
The EOTO initiative is in line with Prime Minister’s directives on 'Education Emergency' in the country and part of Roshan Pakistan - National Literacy Drive.
Engaging Students: Students from Grade 9 and above in schools, colleges, and universities are designated as Literacy Teachers, with each student responsible for teaching at least one illiterate individual.
Prescribed Literacy Syllabus: The initiative is implemented following a prescribed literacy syllabus approved by the Ministry of Education comprising of Urdu and Math books including Teachers Guide.
Duration of the Literacy Course: The duration of the literacy course is 12 weeks or three months with 60-90 minutes of daily teaching and learning.
Incentive for Students: As an incentive to the participating students, 10 additional marks will be given by the FBISE or the concerned boards. The Universities will determine their own incentive mechanism in accordance with HEC guidelines.
Benefits for Neo-Literates: In addition to the benefits of being a literate individual, the neo-literate persons will avail facilitated access to essential documents such as passport, driving license, arms license, and also become eligible for employment in federal government institutions.
Implementation Strategy
As a first step to implement the EOTO program, the concerned institution or university will nominate a Focal Person to coordinate with NCHD for undertaking the EOTO activities. NCHD will provide technical support for implementing the EOTO program including:
Training of focal persons/faculty members,
Provision of course content and teaching guides (in soft form)
Access to online teaching & learning material
Monitoring and academic support.
The educational institution/university will have the following major roles:
- Facilitate all EOTO program activities in collaboration with NCHD.
- Provide teachers/faculty to be trained as Focal Persons/Master Trainers.
- Train and guide the students on learner identification and teaching the literacy course.
- Facilitate the conduct of final assessment of the learners at the institution.
- Undertake any other task necessary for successful implementation of the program.
After necessary orientation/training on the EOTO program and arrangement of literacy books, the Focal Person will conduct training of the students on identification of illiterate learners and teaching of literacy syllabus and assessments of learners etc.
Guidelines for Assessment and Certification.
Following guidelines are to be followed regarding final assessment and certification.
Identification of Learner and Baseline Assessment
The most important step in the EOTO program is identification of an illiterate individual as Learner of literacy course. A Student is required to identify a learner and conduct baseline assessment as follows;
- The learner should be an illiterate individual preferably in the age cohort of 15-45 years.
- A semi-literate person who cannot write a sentence or do calculations in writing may also be enrolled.
- A person who has already completed education of class-4 or above is not eligible as a learner.
- The Student has to conduct the baseline assessment of the Learner before starting the teaching process and submit the duly filled BLA form to the Focal Person.
- BLA form filled after initiating the teaching process will not be accepted.
Preparation of Learner File
Every student will be responsible to prepare a learner file under the guidance of the Focal Person. This file will serve as a supporting document to be checked by NCHD for verification and issuance of certificates. The file will contain the following documents/ sheets.
- Copy of National Identity card or B-form of the learner
- Copy of the student’s registration card issued by the Board/ University
- Duly filled Baseline Assessment (BLA) form
- Assessment sheet/paper of Book-1
- Assessment sheet/paper of Book-2
- Final Assessment sheet/paper of Book-3
- Final Assessment sheet/paper of Math
Final Assessment of the Learners
The process of conducting the final assessment of learners is as follows:
The final assessment of a learner will determine whether he/she has become literate.
Students will be responsible to bring their learners for assessment.Final assessment includes assessment of Literacy Book-3 and Math.
Final assessment of learners will be conducted by the respective institution.
The assessment will be conducted in non-formal manner (like parent-teacher meeting).
Focal Person will check the assessment sheets and prepare consolidated list of qualified students & learners on the given format.
Certification by NCHD
NCHD, as the Lead Agency and Certifying Authority, will issue certificates to the Learner as well as the Student (Literacy Teacher) through the following process.
- After final assessment, the Focal Person of concerned institution will collect the learner files and prepare a consolidated list of qualified students and learners.
- In case of institutions affiliated with FBISE, the principal will submit the consolidated list with his/her signature & stamp to NCHD for issuance of certificates.
- Universities engaged in the EOTO program will follow HEC guidelines for certification.
- NCHD will issue certificates to the students and the learners after necessary verifications.
The certificates will be dispatched to the concerned institution for further delivery to the students and learners.