To: Dear Ms. Sheikh

I am extremely sorry that you are upset. I myself send hundreds of emails out everyday and may be half of them bring a reply. It is also true that we screen emails from Pakistan with lots of caution especially when emails come with a login name different from the name of the person mentioned as the author. This account is checked by other people and not just Senge Sering, and sometimes I do not see all the incoming emails before they get deleted.

The institute understands that non-profit organizations have done a great deal of work in promoting literacy in GB. There are school systems like Al-zahra, Uswa, Al-Mustafa, Tamir Millat, UNDP, AKES and other similar school systems which receive money from different countries. However, the work done by AKDN is the largest given size of funding.

However, that does not absolve the government from its primary responsibility of funding literacy programs and that is the sector, which deserves criticism from organizations like IGBS. I have pictures of government schools, which will come on the website soon and will help the audience understand the real situation. According to the last reports of World Bank, female literacy has remained at less than 10% in GB.

The higher percentage of literate youth as you mentioned tend to concentrate in certain parts of the region like Hunza valley and Gilgit and Skardo towns. However, valleys like Braldo, Basha, Yanchhad, Hushe, Thale, Saltoro, Chorbat, Gultari, Shingo Shigar, Rongyul, Tormik, Stak, and Byarsa do not have the number of literate people which could be called satisfactory. The population on the right side of Shigar River, for instance, which number around 25 thousand starting from Ngyali village to Arandu, continue to lack government sponsored school for females. There is no government female school in the infamous Braldu valley, the gateway to K-2 - where Mortenson started his project. In the same manner, valleys from Astore, Rattu, Shimshal, Darel, Tangir, Ghizer, Yasin, Ishkoman and Nagar also face serious challenges when it comes to providing education. And again, the credit to higher literacy goes to NGOs and not the Govt of Pakistan.

Pakistan earns billions of rupees from GB from tourism, transit and trade over KKH, Indus royalty and water usage compensation, mineral exploration and yet, all the revenues end up in coffers in Islamabad. In return, GB received only 90 carore as developmental funds in 2010 - several times lower than what was announced in the beginning of the current fiscal year, and this is a routine. Big announcements and dismal returns. Government announced to reserve 20% of developmental budget for education sector in 2010, and yet, hundreds of teachers are out there on the streets protesting for their wages and benefits. Only if GB could get the Indus river royalty, which is more than 8 billion rupees per year and has been denied to the region since 1947 - we would not even need the paltry amount of 90 carore from Islamabad for development. Today, thousands of people of GB are on the street protesting and proving that government has failed to provide for the people. So the focus should not be on comparing literacy standards of GB with Pakistan and call it "better". The goal of organizations like IGBS is not to compare standards in GB with those in one of the failed countries of the world like Pakistan and feel content. Given abundance of resources and geo-strategic location, the GB region deserves 100% literacy and not 30% or so, which is the estimate of government department (since a real literacy census has yet to take place).

I was born there, have lived in that region for several years, have worked there for several years in the NGO sector and have traveled literally to every valley of the 75,000 square kilometer, even in places where only ponies can carry people across the tall mountain ridges, and trust me, I have witnessed the real literacy standard in the region. Most of the schools that you mention as examples have teachers with matriculate (10th grade) or higher secondary (12th grade) qualification. Few years ago, I had a chance to teach students of tenth grade in a village of Shigar for few months as a voluntary teacher. In tenth grade, they did not know the meaning of words like 'atom' or 'molecule'. My relatives who study in local schools tell me that on the day of exams, they are provided the books by the teachers and photo copies of the answers to the questions - by the teachers - so all students could pass and teachers could get the 'credit' for higher passing rate. This has been mentioned by hundreds of students that I talked to personally in different valleys of the region.

According to Pakistani definition, literate means one who could write his or her first name. The definition help include tens of thousands of those among literate who study in the privately funded religious Madrassahs. This standard of literacy needs to change and only a person with five years of formal education should be called a literate person. Only after that, we should be able to determine exact number of literate in the region as well as Pakistan. Most of the writers and journalists who claim that GB has the highest literacy in Pakistan - first did not visit the valleys where majority of the population lives, and secondly, fail to understand the definition and meaning of literacy in Pakistani context. Likewise, the literacy rate in GB is also enhanced by inclusion of the children of hundreds of thousands of Pakistani citizens residing in urban centers of GB as almost 100% of them go to school. Similarly, thousands of temp workers of GB, who reside in Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi, tend to claim residence of GB in their census forms, even though their children live with them in Pakistani cities and receive education outside GB. This also help enhance literacy rate in GB although in a false manner. Although Pakistani statistics for four provinces are available for public, statistics for AJK and GB are concealed as secret documents, which restricts ability of general public and journalists to carry a better analysis. Most of these figures about GB are speculative since by law, government national board of statistics refuses to share any statistical information about GB and AJK. I have tried it myself by visiting their office in Islamabad and they politely refused by saying that they 'do not have orders to do so'. Also, the drop out rate of students should also be considered during analysis, as thousands of children leave schools even before finishing the first five years.

IGBS is concerned that bad mouthing Mortenson will - in the end - hurt the girls of Gilgit Baltistan. We hope that international funding keeps pouring in for female literacy promotion

I wished if I had time to write and discuss more.

Sincerely

Senge

 

Subject: greg mortenson, guardian
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:46:36 +0500