Punjab Education Minister, Mian Imran Masood, has said that the government is working on a plan to have a uniform education policy in all the four provinces after identifying the grey areas so that the desired results could be achieved.
He was speaking at the concluding session of two-day conference on "Proposed Framework for a Model National Science and Technology Policy" at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Tuesday.
Former LCCI Senior Vice President Sohail Lashari, Executive Committee member Mian Abzar Shad and Convenor of LCCI Standing Committee on Science and Technology Mian Fazal Ahamd were also present on the occasion.
The Minister further said that the federal government is spending 2.2 percent of the GDP on education at present and is planning to enhance it to 4 percent and this would definitely help give boost to the existing research and development facilities in the country. He averred that the government was giving special attention towards the improvement of literacy rate in the country, as only because of lack of education the country is left far behind in all sectors when a comparison with other economies of the world is drawn.
Speaking on the occasion, Sohail Lashari said that the LCCI appreciates the government's intention to raise the salaries of scientists, researchers and academics in order to plug brain drain from the country and the increased focus given by it to the education sector.
The efforts of the Higher Education Commission under the guidance of Dr Ata-ur-Rehman and the Government of Punjab under the leadership of Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, Chief Minister Punjab through the Punjab Education Sector Reforms Programme are highly commendable, he added.
"The establishment of nine engineering universities of international standard in collaboration with the foreign highly developed countries such as Korea, Germany, France, etc, would be a landmark development and a breakthrough in the education history of Pakistan," he observed.