PESHAWAR, Pakistan: The Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training Baligh-ur-Rehman has said that the government is providing facility of education and growth opportunities to children enabling them to meet the challenges of current world.
While addressing the inaugural session of 10th Inter Provincial Education Ministers Conference (IPEMC) on Wednesday, he said that we have gathered here to ensure facility of education and chances of advancement to children as it is our religious, constitutional and moral responsibility.
The session among others was attended by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak, Provincial minister including Atif Khan, Mushtaq Ghani and Chairperson National Commission for Human Development (NCHD), Former Senator Razina Alam Khan, academicians and educationists.
The minister said that ensuring education and giving our children ample chances of growth is one of our prime responsibilities. He said presence of all the stakeholders at the platform is itself evidence of our commitment to make headway in field of education.
Baligh-ur-Rehman said that decisions taken in the previous conferences were reflective of the positive approach of all the federating units to improve education by developing consensus adding as a nation we must join hands and make education top most agenda on priority list.
The state minister said that working and positive outcomes of previous IPEMCs despite political tensions is reminiscent of positive approach and commitment of federating units towards education.
The minister said that we have decided to establish National Curriculum Council for making result oriented decisions regarding education adding educational standards has also been set to improve training of teachers and giving conducive environment to students.
Baligh-ur-Rehman said that development of education sector can truly be credited to democracy as handsome amount of Rs 767 billion has been allocated to education during current year as compared to the previous allocation of 550 billion rupees in 2013.
The minister said that enrollment of children has been considerably increased in 2016-17 while number of out of school children has also been decreased. He said that according to UNESCO number of enrolment and transition has also been increased in the country.
The state minister said that a decision was being made to establish Model Teachers Training Academy which has been agreed upon by Planning Ministry. He said that teachers from all the federating units would be given quota in the academy adding teachers from all the region would also be invited through platform of UNESCO that would also provide technical assistance.
The minister also appreciated the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for passing Private Schools Regulatory Act and introducing Nazara Quran in schools. He said that likewise Punjab government has also started a pilot project in Bahawalpur.
Speaking on the occasion, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Education Minister Atif Khan appreciated efforts of Baligh-ur-Rehman to make the forum functional and said that it would help adopting a more result oriented policy by benefitting from mutual experience sharing.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Education Sector Plan was also formally launched in the inaugural session of the conference.
