The present government has accorded high priority to the provision of technical education as it is the major tool to improve economy of the country.
This was stated by the Federal Minister for Education Lieutenant General (R) Javed Ashraf Qazi while talking to World Bank Country Director John Wall here on Friday.
He said technical education was imperative to produce much needed technical manpower for the growth of agricultural, commercial and industrial sectors of the economy.
The minister maintained presently 78 polytechnic, mono-technique and the colleges of technology were providing technical education to the population age group 16 and above, he said.
The minister further said present government had directed all plans should include setting up at least one quality polytechnic institute at every district headquarter followed by phases wise set up at Tehsil level, and all existing schools in the country should provide vocational training to the students.
The Education Minister further said vocational institutes would be linked with the micro finance banks that in turn would provide interest free loans to the passing out students on soft terms, he said.
he said ministry of education accordingly had prepared and processed concept papers for setting up of 105 more poly technique institutes at a capital cost of Rs 7790 million. Whereas possibility of project funding was being explored from the donor agencies like Islamic Development-Bank (1DB), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA).
The minister maintained there was an allocation of Rs 300 million for technical education in the PSDP 2003-04 while the ministry was also trying to seek more funds from the national resources and international donor agencies.
John Wall appreciated the efforts of the government for fiscal devolution down to the districts especially in the education sector.