Education Sector Plan 2014-18 for Islamabad launched

Capital Administration and Development Division (CA&DD) has launched the Education Sector Plan (ESP) for Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

The ICT ESP is the result of a two-year long analytical process and concerted efforts of the CA&DD with the technical assistance of National Basic Education Policy Programme (NBEPP), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development (BMZ) and being implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

The plan has been developed in consultations with all the relevant stakeholders including both external and internal partners from the education community such as Federal Directorate of Education, private sector, National Education Assessment System, etc.

It is founded on the policy principles enshrined in the National Education Policy 2009 and the obligations stipulated in the 18th Constitutional Amendment as well as the then prime minister’s directive to make Islamabad a model education city.

The ESP focuses on the provision of basic education to children of age 5-16 in Islamabad and proposes some interventions for the institutionalization of early childhood education in ICT. Areas such as non-formal education, special education and dealing with education in emergencies are also explained briefly.

Launching ceremony for the ESP was held on Monday, where a large number of people from different walks of life participated.

Minister of State for CA&DD, Barrister Usman Ibrahim, while launching the ICTESP, lauded the German development support for developing the ESP.  He stressed that the work has just begun and the ESP will lay the platform which is needed to plan and implement things strategically. He invited everyone to join hands to implement the ESP in its true spirit to make ICT a role model for the rest of the country.

CA&DD Secretary Khalid Hanif, in his opening remarks, stressed the need for improvement in imparting quality education. He cited that the ESP is focused for widened and equitable access to education for all school age children and youth in ICT, irrespective of their gender, cast, religion, race, social status, physical and mental ability. It also envisages for Improved quality of education to cater to the total range of social and economic needs of the individual and society as a whole and

Former CA&DD Deputy Educational Adviser Dr Syed Tajammal Hussain Shah gave a detailed presentation on the ESP with a focus on key strategic interventions outlined in the ESP around access, quality and governance. Budget requirements to implement the ESP along with other challenges were also identified in-depth.