Talking to a two-member delegation of Qatar Foundation headed by Miechel Morrson which called on him on Tuesday, Minister of the State for Federal Education and Professional Training Baligur Rehman said that the government is doing its best to ensure access to education to a common man and improving quality of the education.
The minister said, “In light of socio-economic and demographic transformations, we are determined to improve the technical and vocational education and training system in the country to facilitate learners to acquire relevant competencies for decent work.”
He said about 15 million out of school children, youth and adults with insufficient literacy skills continue to be a greater challenge for the government although we are improving high educational standards with better ratings of our universities in Asia.
The state minister told the delegation that 20,000 community schools are being run by the government successfully in the areas where formal schools cannot be established for want of required population.
“Many non-formal schools have been adopted by philanthropists who have started contributing money to run the community schools,” he added.
Expressing government’s resolve to increase public spending on education sector during the next four years, the minister said 0.5 percent of educational budget of PSDP and 20 percent of provincial budget will be increased every year.
The provinces are spending already more than committed budget as Punjab is spending 26 percent, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa 27 percent, Sindh 21 percent and Balochistan 19 percent, the minister added.
The delegation assured to extend a helping hand to address the challenges in the education sector for improving literacy rate in the country.