The government is contemplating on “own a school” programme to uplift the level of education in the Federal Capital. The Prime Minister Task Force on Islamabad has initiated extensive work on the transformation of the education system of the Capital beginning with three primary schools of the rural areas of Islamabad in collaboration with the private sector.
This was revealed by the Chairman Prime Ministers Task Force on Islamabad, Faisal Sakhi Butt while addressing the annual convocation and high achievers ceremony of Root School System here Saturday. He said that these schools would be upgraded with revamped infrastructure, proper teacher training and facilities for the students.
Faisal Sakhi Butt said that the Federal Capital lacks basic facilities even after the laps of more than 5 decades. He said that Task Force is working on addressing the real issues of the city and provision of quality civic services to the residents of which improvement of education is the priority area. He said that the basic issues of provision of clean drinking water, waste management, sanitation, and cleanliness and those of the development of stalled sectors have not been addressed as well as the modern capital of the world also lacks the proper transport system. He said that Task Force is executing a progressive agenda to address these issues in collaboration with CDA and other relevant organizations. He stressed the need of understanding the strange reality of Pakistan’s education system that is facing a serious form of digital divide.
“On one hand, teachers are working with ‘digital literate’ students with their lives anchored into the internet and multimedia devices. But on the other, a majority of students and teachers have no access to these tools and technologies neither at home nor schools,” he commented. Butt said majority of schools have failed to produce ‘digitally literate’ students, consequently, a large number of such students are unable to avail the opportunities available in today’s knowledge based economies. The chairman Task Force said the most serious challenge for our education system is to produce such students capable to use available tools and technologies in an online collaborative, research-based environment for research, analysis, synthesis, evaluating and innovations. He said it is really a challenge to change our way of thinking to help improve our system, institutions as well as policies.
“We need a vision to honor the commitments and challenges of interconnected world,” Faisal Butt advised. The Chairman Prime Minister’s Task Force on Islamabad called upon the management of the private school systems to collaborate with the public sector for improving the quality of education in government run schools especially in the areas of human resource development through better teachers training mechanism. “We are seeking suggestions and deliberating on the ways and means through which the standards of education in these government schools could be enhanced inline with the needs of the challenges of 21st century”.
