Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday approved a detailed programme for the establishment of community schools for promotion of basic education, functional literacy and income generating skills. The programme will be implemented throughout the country with the participation of federal, provincial and district governments.
Funding, monitoring and supervision will be the responsibility of the federal government and the implementation of the project will be carried out by the provincial and district governments.
The Prime Minister gave the approval while chairing a high-level meeting here to take decisions on the steps required increasing the literacy level in the country.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Education Lieutenant General Javed Ashraf (retired), Minister of State for Education Ms Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr M. Akram Sheikh, Minister for Literacy, Punjab Dr Muhammad Shafiq Chaudhry, Minister for Education, NWFP Maulana Fazli Ali, Minister for Social Welfare, Women Development, Special Education, Literacy and Non-formal Education, Balochistan Ms Shama Parveen Magsi and senior officials.
Addressing the meeting, the Prime Minister said the government is making every effort to increase literacy and improve quality of education as no country can develop without investing in education.
He said presently the literacy level in the country is around 60 percent and there is a need to redouble efforts to improve it to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
The Prime Minister said all stakeholders including federal, provincial and district governments and NGOs should take up this task on war footings to improve the level of literacy in the country.
He emphasised the need for better co-ordination among all government and non-governmental organisations involved in the spread of education to get better results. The Prime Minister called upon the provincial governments to increase their allocations for education and literacy.
The Prime Minister decided that the Basic Education Community School Project will be executed by the National Education Foundation and the Ministry of Education will set up a separate unit in the foundation to implement, oversee and monitor the project.
Earlier Secretary Ministry of Education made a presentation about the project. He said, 20,000 schools (10,185 existing - 9815 new) will be established throughout the country in the rural areas and urban slums where formal schools are non-existent.
He said under the project children of age 4 to 9 would cover primary education in normal period. The duration of primary education will be 40 instead of 60 months for children of 10 to 14 years and students will appear in formal 5th class examination. These children will then re-enter in formal schools. The Secretary informed the meeting that programme is female oriented as 95% teachers and 70 percent students will be female.
A steering committee will be set up at the federal level having representation of all the four provinces, AJK and Fata. Management Committees will be set up at the provincial and district level to implement the programme. The Prime Minister appreciated the efforts of Ministry of Education for preparing Basic Education Community Schools Project.