Deserving youth: 'Efforts afoot to make modernised education accessible'

Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training, Shafqat Mahmood has said that promotion of quality education coupled with uniform education system is the priority of the Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf (PTI) government and steps are being taken to make modernized education accessible to the deserving youth.

Public representatives from all the provinces and educationists sought equity in curriculum, political commitment and parliamentary oversight under an education emergency in Pakistan to meet the 21st century standards.

He was speaking at a national conference on education titled "Generating National Response to Education Challenges in Pakistan," organized by Institute of Social and Policy Sciences (I-SAPS), which was also addressed by public representatives from all the provinces and education experts.

"We believe in the policy of education for all, regardless of social statuses, class differences and societal discriminations. Everyone has the right to quality education and we would leave no stone unturned to bring education within the reach of the youth from the deprived segments of the society," Mahmood said.

He said that introducing uniform education system is a major goal of the federal government under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan. "It is a challenging task but not impossible. We are working on priority basis to introduce uniform education system by merging and integrating English medium, Urdu medium and seminary (madrassa) systems of education into one unified educational arrangement," he said.

"In the next three years or so, we will be able to achieve the target of uniform education system in the government and private schools and seminaries. We are actively pursuing this target," he said.

He termed that it a failure of the state for the last 70 years to provide quality education in government schools and institutions that resulted in the mushroom growth of private educational institutions.

"Had the State taken the steps to improve educational standards, these private educational institutions should not have existed in the first place. These institutions are flourishing because the State has failed to improve the educational standards in the government-owned schools and impart quality education to the public," he said.

According to Shafqat Mahmood, more than 11,000 out-of-school children were identified in the federal capital in recent months out of which 7,500 have were admitted in the schools through government programs.

"In his first speech after becoming the premier, Prime Minister Imran Khan had mentioned that 25 million children were out-of-school. The matter was raised in Inter-Provincial Educational Ministers Conference and a survey was launched by the provinces and the federal authorities to identify out-of-school children and steps are being taken to get them in schools."

He stated that no nation can progress and prosper without improving its educational standards to respond to the growing challenges of the modern world. "We are well aware of the importance of modern education and are determined to make Pakistan a country that offers best educational facilities to its people," he added.

Deputy Speaker National Assembly Qasim Suri while discussing the poor education indicators and magnitude of the challenge stressed the need for a well-coordinated response to the challenge. He stressed the federal government to act as a coordinating vector for charting a course for addressing the education needs.

Chairman Standing Committee on Law and Convener Parliamentary Task Force on SDGs, Riaz Fatyana pointed out that Pakistan is lagging behind the SDG-4 targets and stressed the need for combined effort to achieve these.

Referring to the deteriorating situation of the country's education sector, he pointed out that 89 percent dropout rate in Balochistan is alarming and the main reason is neither the poverty nor the extremism, but unavailability of schools.

"More than 60 percent schools lack headmasters, 70 percent colleges lack principals. With this situation, the dream of improving the education system in the country cannot be materialized," he added. In Punjab, he said that there are 10,000 posts of teachers lying vacant.

He also suggested that all the seminaries need to be nationalized and they should be provided free of cost education and boarding etc.

Kanwal Shauzab, Parliamentary Secretary for Planning Development, Reforms and

Special Initiatives, Convener, National Caucus on Financing SDGs, outlined the government efforts for achieving SDG-4 targets.

She highlighted that the current regime has introduced exceptional reforms in the education sector and which will lead to substantial improvement in the education sector.

Ahmad Ali of the I-SAPS, informed the participants that the conference while deliberating on the diverse contours of the educational challenge will focus on generating a national response to educational challenges in Pakistan. He elucidated that the conference aims to initiate debate and explore the ways and means for synergizing Federal-Provincial interface for effectively meeting the obligations under Article 25-A and SDG-4.

Dr Salman Humayun, Executive Director, while discussing stressed the need for a national response which should be an aggregate of federal and provincial responses to the educational challenge.

He underscored that the desired response needs to address the challenge of developing minimum common standards, improving data structures, collecting regular data on various international commitments, students learning assessments, and coordination among the federating units.

Provincial Education Minister Punjab, Murad Raas expressed his views and said that holding of National Education Conference is a very pleasant occasion. He said that training programs should be introduced and a robust examination system should be introduced in order to improve the educational system, in addition to setting the curriculum in line with international standards.

He emphasized the need to create a consensus on a unified educational framework between the federal and the provinces.

He emphasized that School Education Department in Punjab also equipped with IT and information technology for bringing an equitable education system. By 2020 Punjab Education Department will be fully digitized in making decisions related to education, he added.