Federal Minister for Education Lieutenant General Javed Ashraf Qazi (Retd) has said that poverty is main cause of high illiteracy and dropouts from schools. He was addressing at a function "PostCards to the President" organised by the "SPARC" in connection with the global action week against the child labour, here on Wednesday.
The other speakers included Saifullah Chaudhry from ILO/IPEC, Ms Vibeke Jensen from Unicef and Humala Khalid from Unesco. All the speakers underscored the need for making quality education accessible to all children of Pakistan.
The minister said that basic education in Pakistan was not as expensive, however, he said that the poor economic condition of the society leads to dropout of children from schools.
He elaborated that most of the children in poor families supplement incomes of their parents and they have to leave schools and added that a comprehensive economic policy could only ensure high rate of literacy.
The minister also criticised the previous governments for not taking initiatives towards better policies and allocating required funds to the education sector.
Talking about the importance of English medium education, the minister said that English medium education was the key instruments through which nation could compete in the world.
He further said that the ministry has given the approval for making the English compulsory subject from class-I. Mathematics and Science would be taught in English even in Urdu medium schools, he added.
The minister said that some religio-political parties were politicising the education, which would irreparable loss to the future generation.
He said that the Western countries were helping us in reforming the educational policies, and dispelled the impression of dictation from the Western world.
Talking about the Aga Khan Board, the minister said it is a separate board like British Council, 'O' and 'A' levels examination system. "It is choice to get affiliation with it and no one will be forced to have his affiliation with the board", he added.
Qazi sought help from private sector and NGOs for fighting against illiteracy, particularly in the far-flung areas where more than 70 percent population lives.
The global action week was held world wide in April 2004, highlighting the plight of out-of-school children. The aim of the action week was to urge politicians to provide more resources and political will in order to get all children into school.
The Pakistan Coalition for Education carried out action week activities in 51 districts nation-wide. The postcards were printed by the Pakistan Coalition for Education, made up of about 25 NGOs in Pakistan, in connection with the global action week 2004.
Each postcard bears the message: "Please do more to give every child the chance to go to school and get a quality education." More than 32,000 children added their own message or drawing and returned the cards for the coalition to pass on to the President.
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