Minister of State for Federal Education and Professional Training Baligh-ur-Rehman on Wednesday said that government was providing facility of education and growth opportunities to children, enabling them to meet the challenges of current world.
Addressing the inaugural session of 10th Inter Provincial Education Ministers Conference (IPEMC), he said that they had gathered there to ensure facility of education and chances of advancement to children as it was their religious, constitutional and moral responsibility.
The session was attended by KP Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak, provincial ministers including Atif Khan, Mushtaq Ghani and Chairperson National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) Former Senator Razina Alam Khan, academicians and educationists.
He 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. He 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. 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.
He said, “We have decided to establish national curriculum council for making result oriented decisions regarding education and educational standards has also been set to improve training of teachers and providing conducive environment to students”.
Baligh-ur-Rehman said that the development of education sector could truly be credited to democracy as hefty amount of Rs767 billion has been allocated to education during the current year as compared to the previous allocation of Rs550 billion in 2013.
He 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 a decision was being made to establish model teachers training academy which has been agreed upon by the planning ministry. He said that teachers from all the federating units would be given quota in the academy, adding, teachers from all regions would also be invited through the platform of UNESCO that would also provide technical assistance. State minister also appreciated KP 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, KP Education Minister Atif Khan appreciated efforts of Baligh-ur-Rehman to make the forum functional and said that it would help in adopting a more result oriented policy by benefitting from mutual experience sharing.
KP education sector plan was also formally launched in the inaugural session of the conference.
