Pakistan High Commissioner to Canada, Tariq Azim Khan, has said that Pakistani Canadian Community has been contributing very generously to promoting primary education in Pakistan in collaboration with DIL Pakistan. "We appreciate the friendly gesture of support to providing basic education facilities for the unprivileged strata of the society", he added while speaking on the annual fundraising gala organised by Development in Literacy (DIL) Canada, says a press release received from Ottawa here Tuesday.
He underlined that over half a million Pakistani Diaspora living in Canada today can play a pivotal role in further cementing the existing bonds of friendship, economic interaction, trade and development cooperation including in health and education sectors. The High Commissioner informed that despite scarce resources and daunting challenges, the Government of Pakistan and the provincial governments are fully aware of the socio-economic needs of the common man. Allocation for education sector has been increased significantly during the last 3 years. He said that the net national primary school enrolment has improved to 57 percent and the national literacy rate has increased to 58 percent in 2014 from 35 percent in 1990. He said that "Pakistan Vision 2025" aims at substantial expansion in education as well as improvement in the quality of education and our target is to increase public expenditure on education to 4.0 percent of GDP by 2018.
In his address, Andrew Leslie, Member of Canadian Parliament, appreciated the role being played by the DIL Canada for provision of education in rural areas of Pakistan. He said that Liberal Party Government will continue to work with Pakistan in areas of mutual interest of the two countries.