Islamabad : Educationists and academicians on Sunday underlined the need for providing training to the teachers at par with the global standards to improve educational standards in the country.
They called for up-gradation of education system to impart quality education to the youth and termed it imperative for socio-economic development of the country.
Talking to this agency, the former chairman of Higher Education Commission, Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman who was presently serving as Chairman of Prime Minister’s Task Force on Science and Technology, said the provision of quality education could only be ensured through capacity building of the teachers.
Atta-ur-Rehman stressed for bringing the needed reforms in the current examination system and called for ensuring level-playing field for every student.
Underscoring the importance of adopting uniform examination system, he said a single national examination board should be established across the country to conduct exams.
The former chairman said technical and vocational education must be provided at matriculation and Madrassa level as skill development of the youth led to economic prosperity and progressive nation.
He said multiple languages including English, Arabic and Chinese should be imparted at primary level as it was easy for a child to learn languages at early age.
Professor of Political Science in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Dr Rasul Bakhsh Rais opined that the fees of government universities should be increased to provide equal opportunities to students in the educational institutions.
Through this way the needy students would be awarded scholarships, he added.
After the 18th constitutional amendment, the education was made provincial subject which was a main hurdle in improving the education standards, he maintained.
He stressed the need for uniform curriculum from class 1 to 12. When contacted, Joint Education Adviser Rafiq Tahir told this agency that the government had taken concrete measures for bringing reforms in the education sector.
In that regard, he said the government had introduced National Education Policy in 2018. Under the policy, he said, the government had formalized its commitment to improve education sector outcomes through several actions.
We will raise the standard of Education in the schools and deal with the issue of 22.5 million out of schoolchildren he added.
To ensure the achievement of Pakistan’s national and international commitments to education, the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training has selected priority goals as an important policy action for immediate implementation, in coordination and collaboration, with the provinces.
The priority goals were including bringing out of schoolchildren to schools, uniform education system, quality education and enhance access to relevance skills.
To achieve the task the steps like national cohesion, effective use of information, improved governance and financial efficiency of the education system, innovative use of technology, active communication campaign would be taken, Rafiq said.
He said Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Committee (IPEMC) would also play an active and decision-making role in setting common standards to enhance national unity.
