'Private sector ignored in National Education Policy'

The recently announced National Education Policy lacks depth and is based on 'wishful claims', ignoring ground realities. The private sector has been ignored in the policy, and it would not be possible to achieve the ambitious target of 86 percent literacy rate without the active participation of the private sector.
These views were expressed at a seminar held to review the new education policy, at a hotel, under the auspices of the All Pakistan Private Schools Welfare Association (APPSWA) on Friday. APPSWA President, Zulqarnain Shah was the chief guest on the occasion.
In his key note address, he lamented that the government had overlooked the suggestions of educationists and intellectuals as the policy was based on superfluous assumptions of the bureaucracy which had nothing to do with the educational requirements of the 95 percent poor of the country.
For example, he said, "The education policy says intermediate classes would be part of schools which is not only unworkable but will also create more problems for the schools' administration." He suggested that this assessment needed prudent planning and proposed that high schools should be upgraded up to the level of higher secondary schools.
Syed Zulqarnain said the APPSWA had given its suggestions regarding quality education and enhancement of literacy rate, but the government failed to include their suggestions in the new education policy.
He said presently 17.5 million students were enrolled in 154,000 private educational institutions and this reflected public confidence over private sector schools. He claimed 52 percent literacy rate in the country was because of these private educational institutions.
He said the suggestions of educationists, relating to educational system in private sector, were not included in the education policy. He maintained the education policy, prepared without the consultation of concerned sector, would not be able to achieve desired results.
Sadiq Siddqui, Mukhtar Ahmed, Muzamil Iqbal Siddiqui, Rana Naveed Asghar, Javed Aziz, Rizwan Yusaf, Sh. Arshad, Tariq Chaudhary, Maqsood Siraj, Farhat Ali, Mehmood Khan and others spoke on the occasion and threw light on various aspects of the education policy.