Regularisation of contract teachers demanded

Speakers at a seminar organised by Pakistan Institute of National Affairs (Pina) hailed the Punjab Budget 2008-09 and said it had a vision for future development.
Appreciating Punjab government's new merit policy, the seminar demanded the abolition of entry test system, enhancement of budget allocation to 35 percent, regularisation of all contract teachers, introduction of uniformed curricula in all public and private educational institution and laying special emphasis on primary education.
The educationists representing elementary to higher education deliberated on various aspects of the Punjab Education Budget 2008 in the perspective of contemporary requirements of human development.
The participants welcomed the Punjab Assembly's resolve to ensure admission on merit. Quality education for all and merit are the key to national and economic progress, they remarked.
They were of the view that self-finance and self-support schemes were tailored for the affluent class. The new merit policy will open the gates of learning for those talented students who could not afford high cost of education.
Professor Malik Muhammad Hussain chaired the seminar. Professor Dr Shafiq Jallandhri, Qayyum Nizami, Altaf Hasan Qureshee, Professor Mehr Saeed Akhtar, Professor Mumtaz Ahmad Salik, Colonel Z.I. Farrukh(Retd), Professor Syed Raza-ul Haq and Professor Rao Jalil Ahmad were the key speakers.
The speakers opined that 28 percent allocation of budget in Punjab was good enough, but still short of expectation. In order to make education the top of agenda a significant raise in the educational budget was the need of the hour. The participants proposed that 35 percent budget be allocated in Punjab, and the federal educational budget be raised from the proposed 2.8 percent to 5 percent of the GDP.
The educationists called for the judicious distribution and proper utilisation of educational budget. The seminar delegates demanded that all the contract teachers at school and college levels be regularised from the date of their appointment. The educationists emphasised the need for raising the quality of education by putting in more resources in research, teacher training, curriculum/textbook development, and most importantly on educational appraisal and monitoring.