Identifying the Status of Literacy Skills in Marginalised Institutions

The current status of learning and teaching English language in marginalised institutions, particularly maktabs1, madrasas2 or jamias3 are entirely ignored and also are marked by disparities and inequities. Meanwhile, English is a lingua franca, enabling communication across borders, cultures, and languages. Therefore, it is considered a passport to connect to the global world. Because of ignorance of English language in the curriculum of aforesaid marginalized institutions, the students face several challenges such as their threshold level of functional English. In addition, they often lack English proficiency to compete with mainstreaming learners for getting employment opportunities. As a result, the products of these marginalised institutions mainstreaming job opportunities. The paper focuses on the status and need for functional literacy to maximize the demographic dividend from a largely young population of the disadvantage section of the society having no access to the required mainstream-level skills and related job opportunities.