Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Monday said that the federal government has set high standards of education in the country by providing modern curriculum and quality education to the students and asked the provinces to emulate.

Addressing the launch of the new curriculum and text books by the Federal Ministry of Professional and Technical Training at the PM Office Islamabad, he said no country can progress unless it focuses on provision of quality education to its youth.

He said the Islamabad Capital Territory would serve as a model for other provinces to raise their standards of education.

The Prime Minister also called for setting up a National Testing Service so as to standardize the level of education, being imparted by different educational boards across the country. He said at present it was difficult to judge the different standards, being followed by the provinces and hoped the next government would take up this challenge.

He earlier launched the new curriculum and text books for the federal schools. In the phase-1, books from Class 1-5 have been upgraded, it will be followed by phase-2 for books from Class 6-8, while in the last phase books from Class 9-12 would be improved and updated.

He said that following the 18th Constitutional Amendment, education was now a provincial subject. He said the provinces have huge budgets and equally large responsibilities, however pointed out they lacked the capacity that needs to be built.

He was appreciative of the federal ministry for education for the initiative and said there was also the need for improving the training of the teachers to enhance the quality of education being imparted.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said at present the government was spending Rs 5000 on each student in the government schools and regretted that still the results were not satisfactory.

He said on the contrary the private schools were getting better results by spending far less money.

He said the private sector was playing a lead role in all the provinces, particularly in Punjab. The Prime Minister said in his earlier days when he entered the politics, there were only a few graduates in the federal cabinet, however today the things were different and there were Ph.Ds, Doctors, Engineers and post-graduate degree holders and even Madrassa qualified people, both in the Cabinet and the Parliament.

He said higher education provides new insights and vision for the people at the helm of affairs. The event was attended by Minister of Professional and Technical Training Engr. Muhammad Baligh Ur Rehman and Secretary Education Akbar Hussain Durrani.

The Prime Minister also inaugurated the Prime Minister’s 100/100/100 Education Program that aims at 100 percent enrollment, retention and graduation in the federal area. He expressed the hope that this initiative would also be emulated by the provinces.