LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has framed literacy as an enforceable public entitlement rather than a welfare concession, committing her administration to widening access to learning across the province.
According to an official statement issued on Tuesday, the chief minister paid tribute to those pursuing knowledge and to every individual engaged in teaching, saying the passion and quest for learning were integral to national belief. “Knowing and learning is the right of every conscious individual, and we will ensure that this right is fulfilled in every possible way,” she said in the message.
Providing literacy opportunities to every citizen, she added, was the foremost responsibility of the government — language that shifts the framing from charity to obligation, and which education-sector bodies have long pressed provincial governments to adopt.
The chief minister noted the day was being observed under the theme “Literacy for People, Planet and Prosperity.” The theme connects literacy with inclusion, sustainable development, livelihoods and economic opportunities, and supports reflection on global progress since 2015.
The 2026 edition is not routine. It marks the 60th anniversary of International Literacy Day, with the global celebration held on 8–9 September in Chiapas, Mexico, organised by UNESCO in collaboration with the Government of Mexico, including the award ceremony of the UNESCO International Literacy Prizes. UNESCO estimates at least 739 million youth and adults still lack basic literacy skills based on 2024 data, with four in 10 children not reaching minimum reading proficiency.
Maryam Nawaz stressed that promoting literacy could not be achieved without making it an individual, national and global priority.
“Special attention is being paid to the digital literacy of the younger generation in Punjab to equip them with the skills needed to meet the demands of the modern era,” the chief minister said.
She argued that literacy did not merely mean the ability to read books, and that acquiring skills and technical knowledge in line with the requirements of the modern age was an essential component.
That framing tracks with provincial programming already under way. The Literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education Department has been rolling out a “Middle Tech Program” combining middle school education with technical skills training, beginning with 10 Middle Tech Schools before wider expansion across Punjab. In August, the chief minister approved the assignment of the Literacy and Non-Formal Basic Education portfolio to School Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat, bringing two closely related arms of the education sector under one supervisor.
Maryam Nawaz said innovative initiatives such as the School Meal Programme were rapidly creating awareness about literacy in underprivileged areas of Punjab.
The Punjab government has approved a Rs6.87 billion school meal programme under which more than one million students in 7,294 government schools across 13 districts will receive milk and biscuits from September, with around 1.028 million students provided milk on three days a week and milk with biscuits on a fourth. The programme was initially introduced in three districts during 2023-24 and expanded to 13 districts in 2024-25. Covered districts include Bahawalnagar, Bhakkar, Chiniot, Dera Ghazi Khan, Kot Addu, Layyah, Lodhran, Mianwali, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur, Taunsa and Vehari.
The numbers behind the message are the harder part of the story. Census 2023 places Punjab’s literacy rate at 66.25 per cent — the highest of any province — yet Punjab also carries the largest absolute burden of out-of-school children in the country, at 9.6 million in the 5-to-16 age group. Nationally, 61 per cent of the population aged 10 and above is literate, with male literacy at 68 per cent against 53 per cent for females.
The provincial average also conceals sharp internal gaps. Census data show urban tehsils such as Gujrat at 82.48 per cent and Faisalabad City at 81.59 per cent, while rural tehsils including Koh-e-Suleman sit at 36.04 per cent and Liaqatpur at 38.35 per cent.
Remedial capacity is expanding, but slowly. The provincial government has announced 1,000 new non-formal elementary schools intended to bring roughly 25,000 out-of-school children back into the mainstream — a fraction of the backlog, and a reminder that the gap between announcement and absorption remains the central test.
The chief minister said every member of society would have to play a proactive role in achieving the goals of promoting literacy.
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