70 percent of rural class has no access to quality education

Around 70 percent of the underprivileged rural-class has no access to the quality education in Pakistan, while the government of Pakistan will take another 30 to 40 years to provide each child with quality education.
This was disclosed by the Kashmir Education Foundation (KEF)'s delegation at a press conference held here on Thursday. The KEF delegation comprised Chairman KEF Major General Rahim Khan (Retd), Principal Pearl Valley Public School, Air Marshal Aftab Raja (Retd), Foundation's trustees Nadeem Shafiqullah and Asif Habib Khan and a British Educationist Joan Atkinson.
Addressing the press conference, Chairman KEF Rahim Khan said that KEF's aim was to provide quality education to children of underprivileged rural section of the country.
He also highlighted the foundation's performance, activities and future plans. He said that KEF would establish more such schools like Pearl Valley Public School in other parts of the country including Peshawar, Quetta, Lahore, and Karachi. About the KEF 's existence, Rahim Khan said that it was an independent body, which was established in 1994 as a voluntary non-profit, non political educational NGO.
Replying to a question, he said that the Pakistani community in the United Kingdom funded KEF and its annual budget was Rs 11 million. Regarding the school fees he said, that for the primary classes it amounted to Rs 1150 while Rs 1850 was being charged for intermediate classes. He said KEF had taken 10 years to become the recognised as a full-fledged academic institution in the country.
Nadeem Shafiqullah called upon people to realise the importance of quality education in order to challenge the neighbouring countries in the region in the field of education.
He said North East Asia, South East Asia, and South Asia were turning into a single region where a few countries would dominate due to their high quality education system, while several would be constraint to depend on dominants. Expressing fears, he said the backwardness in education would not enable Pakistan to dominate the region, adding that every individual had to play his or her role to salvage the education sector of Pakistan.
British Educationist Joan Atkinson stressed the need for quality education trainers to train indigenous teachers. She was of the staunch view that high skilled educationists and trainers could change the barren education system of Pakistan.
She said that earlier KEF's vision on education was narrow but later it had been widened by expending its academic activities to other parts of Pakistan.
Principal Pearl Valley Public School, Air Marshal Aftab Raja (Retd) also spoke on the school's and foundation activities.