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| Jang Economic Session |
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Speakers call for good quality technical education
Saturday, October 24, 2009
News Desk
RAWALPINDI: Speakers at the Jang Economic Session have stressed the need for introducing good quality technical education to engage the youth in the development process.
A national level campaign in this regard has to be launched, setting aside caste or class prejudices. To meet this objective, we have to merge technical education into the mainstream educational system as practised in the developed countries because progress is impossible without a comprehensive and balanced curricula. Education, especially technical, is not up to the national requirements, and public and private sectors can improve the situation by joining hands.
The chairman and the member board of directors, Technical Education and Vocational Training Authority (Tevta), Saeed Alvi and Almas Hyder, Farmers Associates Pakistan Director Hamid Malhi and Government Technical Training Institute for Women head Bushra Akhtar attended the session on ‘Development of Technical Education and National Needs’. Sikandar Hamid Lodhi hosted the session.
Saeed Alvi said development was not possible in the society without a balanced curriculum that also includes technical education.He informed that 1.3 per cent students in the country were being imparted technical education and that too was not of good quality. He said technical education was better than traditional one in the sense that it opens avenues of employment. Improving the level of technical education and attracting the nation towards it is vital for economic development. Alvi called upon the government to improve the budgetary allocations for technical education so that the country could produce workforce for the developed countries.
Hamid Malhi was of the view that technical education was indispensable for the development of agriculture and agro-based industries as our economy was based on agriculture. He regretted that there was no training facility available in the country with regard to increasing per acre yield of rice and cotton.
The cost of industrial sector production can also be lowered by making available good quality technical education. He said our technical training institutions also lacked the required information with regard to development of agricultural sector.
He was sure that by raising standards of technical education, the number of the overseas Pakistanis could also be increased. Presently, most of the expatriates are underpaid because they are unskilled.
Malhi pointed out that parents who could not afford expensive education for their children got them admitted to religious institutions and created several problems for the society. These youngsters could be diverted to technical education, which could help the country in overcoming poverty.
Almas Hyder said technical education was being made part of the main curricula the world over. In Singapore, a target had been fixed to impart technical education to half of the total population.
He asked for special measures by the government to promote technical education and in this connection, it was obligatory on the government and the media to take steps to generate interest among the public.
He said 60 per cent of our population was illiterate and that’s why its ratio in the GDP was also meagre. He said the Ayub Khan era was better when 16 per cent of the educational budget used to be allocated for the technical education that had now receded to less that 3.5 per cent.
Hyder said after doing matriculation, many youngsters were absorbed as clerks or work as peons while better employments awaited those attaining technical education.Bushara Akhtar said although technical training institutes were training ladies, it was necessary to make them aware about the latest technologies at each and every school.
A cross-section of the people in their telephonic calls expressed their views that no progress was possible without raising the standards of technical education. They said problems like unemployment could also be tackled through technical education. Most of callers regretted that education was not a priority of the government and that’s why real improvement in the literacy rate was not being achieved.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
