Less than one percent students in Pakistan, against 16 percent around the world, get technical training due to shortage of technical and vocational schools in the country. Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman stated this on Wednesday here at a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding (MoU). The MoU was signed between National Education Foundation (NEF) and private schools from Gilgit-Baltistan and FATA regarding technical and vocational education under the public-private partnership.
The minister said that educating each and every child of the country is a step towards improvement. About 16 percent children get technical education around the world but in Pakistan less than one percent students get technical training; therefore, the country is in dire need of technical and vocational schools. The minister said 24 million children are out of school in Pakistan and one reason behind this is that every child does not have same aptitude of formal education while the country does not have enough technical and vocational schools.
He said, "We hope that 10% of total schools in Pakistan should be vocational and technical schools." The minister said that the government has a mission of providing quality education to each and every child and it strongly condemns any kind of child labour. "We are going to start a training programme for entrepreneurs who want to open ECED (early childhood education development) centres in Pakistan," said the minister.
The NEF by entering into public-private partnerships with these schools would provide free vocational education from class 6th to class 8th, provision of Rs 800 per child from class 6th to class 8th along with the provision of free books, partial expenditure of Rs 2.2 million (maximum) by NEF on establishment of workshops on vocational and technical training, monitoring and evaluation by NEF along with the third party validation are part of this agreement.
The MoU signed between the NEF and Irfan Public School, Azam Warsak, South Waziristan, FATA, Shehzad Public School and College, Shewa, North Waziristan, Faizi Academy, Sass Valley, Nagar district, Hunza Nagar, GB, Janan Public School Chilas, district Diamer, GB and Al Qalam Public School, Hargis district Skardu, GB. The event was attended by MD NEF Qaiser Majeed, Parliamentary Secretary Nazir Khan, Ex Senator Razina Alam Khan and other officials of the ministry.