Mobile phones to be used for increasing literacy ratio

[Naveed Yaseen]

Mobilink signed a partnership agreement with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) for increasing literacy ratio of adolescent girls by using mobile phones.

The use of mobile phones to facilitate literacy in Pakistan will be the first such use anywhere in the world.

Elaborating the project, Unesco Director Maurice Robson informed that literacy programme uses mobile phones to develop a mobile-based, distance post-literacy programme where the new literates receive post-literacy materials, as messages on a mobile.

The programme has two parts. In the first, adolescent girls will receive interesting and informative text messages daily in Urdu and are expected to respond. The method is believed to be far more effective than conventional print-based post-literacy programmes in maintaining the interest and in keeping the literacy skills alive.

The second part of the programme includes evaluation every month to assess literates’ gains in knowledge, interactive exercises, a glossary of educational terms and additional resources. The first phase of this programme will cover 250 learners in Punjab in the next four months and will be expanded in other areas on favourable outcomes.

Pakistan has one of the lowest literacy rates in Asia. There is a large gender gap. The literacy rate for males over 15 years is 63 per cent while that for females it is 36 per cent. The reasons for the prevailing situation are complex. One of the main reasons is difficulty of retaining literacy skills of the new literates. In order to maintain the literacy skills after basic literacy courses, the new literates should have constant access to reading materials, at least for three months afterwards. But for most of the new literates, reading materials are scarce and the occasions to use the acquired literacy skills are rare. After graduating from the basic literacy courses, the new literates return to a non-literate environment and it is difficult for them to retain their newly acquired literacy skills.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=179092