BAHAWALPUR
State Minister for Education, Trainings and Standards in Higher Education Engineer Balighur Rehman said that the government would establish Federal Curriculum Commission for bringing reforms in curriculum at federal and provincial levels.
He was addressing a launching ceremony of National Plan of Action and Progress towards Article 25-A. It was organised by the ministry, Unicef and Unesco. The minister said he was in consultation with the chief ministers of all the provinces and representatives from the Education Department would be taken onboard while establishing this commission. The Federal Curriculum Commission would lessen disparities among in the curriculum being implemented in all the provinces, bringing uniformity, he added. The minister said the government was striving hard to initiate reforms for increasing spending on education up to 4 percent of GDP by the year 2018. “We have to initiate key reforms in terms of improving service delivery and enrolling more children into schools to transform the country,” he added. The minister thanked all the political parties for giving prime importance to the education sector in their manifestos during elections. Secretary Education Ahmed Bakhsh Lehri on the occasion said education is important to address the issues of food security, climate change, poverty and terrorism. He appreciated the efforts of the provincial authorities in formulation of the plan of action. Unesco Director Dr Kouze Kay Nagata said the United Nations’ institutions in Pakistan were aimed to reduce poverty and equip the citizens with the power of knowledge with focus on marginalised communities.
She said education is the key to progressive, social transformation, poverty reduction and economic growth. She said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon had launched global initiative for education to enroll every child into school. Dr Nagata said this year, the upcoming International Literacy Day would be marked everywhere with the same pledge to provide every child with education. She said Unesco had provided technical assistance for preparing the NPA and it would ensure enrollment of 25 million out of school children of primary and secondary age group.
She congratulated the Islamabad Capital Territory and Sindh province for adopting Article 25-A, and working for its implementation. She also hoped that the other provinces would also take steps for implementation of this article. She emphasised on increasing spending on education up to four or five percent of GDP in the coming years. Representative from Unicef Don Rohrmann said strong political will was needed to enroll millions of out-of-school children in the schools.