Tajima Shinji April 8, 2001

Tags: Teachers , Literacy , Education

href="/tag/Pakistan">Pakistan by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in June 1977, a variety of experiences have firmly impressed upon me that the greatest issue for true development in Pakistan in the 21st century is literacy and basic education. The most effective means to reform a social structure wherein rich become ever richer and the poor ever poorer can be achieved only through the provision of basic education and the development of functional literacy for all the people in Pakistan in the 21st Century.

In visiting and observing Non-formal Community schools, I was struck by the many children who needed notebooks or copies. They usually had a small takhti or slates upon which to write, but such materials require the user to erase what he or she has written to allow the next entry, which leaves no record of the previous lessons. If messages or lessons are written on paper, they remain and can be useful to the learner and shared with others across time and space. What is written on paper can be reread and reviewed in class, and elsewhere later. Furthermore, paper can serve to record the diaries of individuals and records of villages. Thus, paper has the great capacity of leading all people to literacy and making possible a true democracy through expression by the paper in the society. This will also contribute greatly to income generating activities and ensure functional literacy for the women and young adults of the villages who have no jobs and no properties at all. For me, this has been an important discovery for the development of Pakistan and its need for self-reliance.

At present, Pakistan must import more than 70% of its paper pulp supply, contributing to the particularly high price of notebooks and any other printed materials. For rural children especially, the cost and availability factors of notebooks represent a very difficult problem. With this in mind, I began in 1998 to promote the recycling of old newspaper and paper boxes, and the use of roadside weeds, banana leaves, sugarcane stalk fiber and other naturally available materials to make paper. Hand-made paper making is quite an easy technique utilizing local resource materials, entirely natural and based on ancient skill.

I have been blessed with the cooperation and support of many persons while experimenting with the application of the traditional papermaking technique in Pakistan. My sincere thanks to Prof. Kimura, Mr.Mitsuzuka, Ms. Kurokawa for their kind and heartfelt technical cooperation from Japan and I also express my sincere thanks and great appreciation for many friends namely Mr. Osamu Inomata (JOCV) and Mr. Qulzam Hussain (R.C.D.P.Alipur) for their wonderful efforts and achievements of the Alipur Community and Ms. Ayesha and Mr. Shahid (PLC), Mr. Tariq Rafiq (IOC), Mr. Sahib Gull (IOC) and Mr.Amir-ur Alla (IOC) for their sincere and daily cooperation.

To date, we have been able to hold more than fifty five Paper-Making workshops for Community Mobilization, Functional Literacy and Income Generating activities for Karash minorities, children in the Adiala jail, female teachers in villages, artists and students in colleges, Pakistan Literacy Commission, Ministry of Women Development and Social Welfare, Ministry of Man Power, many NGOs in the country, UNICEF, Sindi University, First Women Bank, Afghan refugees, and many others. Over 1700 persons including institutions and NGOs have directly studied papermaking in these sessions, and they are now spawning a variety of movements across the country.

The present series of workshops is directed not at the socially disadvantaged, but at many whose lives and work are closely tied to paper and its role in artistic, educational and cultural expression. Many artists and educationists have already participated in previous workshops held in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar, Karachi, Hyderabad, Faisalabad and elsewhere. We also take great pleasure in inviting all of you to join the Creative Paper Making Committee (CPC), established on 10th October 2000 by our efforts - for the development of Paper. Even in this era of computers, handmade paper produced without negative effects on the natural environment represents great possibilities for rural and human development. Of particular significance is the role of paper and papermaking in nurturing the vast human potential of Pakistan’s people to continually carry forward education and culture, which can in turn promote and sustain peace and prosperity in 21st-century Pakistan.

To these ends my hopes, prayers and efforts are earnestly devoted.

30 November 2000

Tajima Shinji

Advisor to Pakistan Literacy Commission (PLC)

Expert - Japan International Cooperation Agency

Former Director of Literacy and Book Development Division -Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU), Tokyo