Educational system improvements, upgradation

Source: The News

Government to upgrade education system

Islamabad, Dec 15: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Social Sector and Co-Chairperson Pakistan Education Task Force Begum Shehnaz Wazir Ali has pledged to devise an effective mechanism to ensure the upgradation of the educational system and meet modern day requirements.

She was addressing the first brainstorming meeting of Pakistan Education Task Force, held here Monday to sort out strategies to implement the policy in true spirit.

"To monitor and supervise the different phases of implementation of the education policy, Inter-Provincial Education Ministers' Forum (IPEM) will be created to check any stumbling block in its implementation," she said.

Private and public sector partnership is essentially needed to remove disparities and implement a uniform education system in the country, she said.

Federal Secretary of Education Imtiaz Hussain Qazi in his presentation on 'Education Scenario in Pakistan and Issues in Education Sector' highlighted various key objectives of the policy as well as the challenges. He informed the meeting that the budgetary allocations for education would be raised to seven per cent of the GDP by the year 2015 according to the education policy.

Imtiaz Qazi further informed that under the policy, enrolment of students in higher education would be increased from 4.7 to 10 per cent by 2015 and 15 per cent by 2020. The policy also sets a goal to ensure free Universal Primary Education (UPE) by 2015 and up to Class 10 by 2025. Other initiatives include improvement in teachers' qualifications, curriculum, textbooks, examination and learning environment.

Contrary, the present literacy rate in the country is 56 per cent, including 67 per cent males and 42 per cent females, which is the lowest in South Asia.