NCHD committed to enhancing literacy and skill development

Islamabad

The National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) is vehemently engaged in enrolment drive with the support of provincial governments, donor agencies and parents all over the country.  Through its efforts, 82,166 children have been enrolled in 5,681 Feeder Schools.

This was informed by the NCHD Chairperson Senator (r) Razina Alam Khan in the 42nd Commission Meeting held here today which was attended by Mrs. Roshan Khurshid Bharucha (member), Dr. Sono Khangharani (member), Dr. Mubashir Bhatti (member), Rafiq Tahir (ex-officio member – Joint Education Advisor Ministry of Federal Education & Professional Training), Abid Hussain (director general, NCHD), Zulfiqar Ahmad (chief executive officer - PHDF) and Ejaz Mehdi (ex-officio member – representative of Secretary, Finance).

The chairperson expressed her concern over the fact that 57 Million people in the country are illiterate while 24 Million children never go to school. She further deplored that out of 26 Million children who are enrolled, only 33% reach the matriculation level. While discussing the grim educational statistic in Pakistan, NCHD chairperson said the primary net enrolment is 72% out of which 33% are dropouts. The government was alive on the situation and taking practical steps to bring all out of school children into the educational institutions.

She informed that NCHD has imparted education to 3.84 million adults in 164,190 literacy centres and now the project of bringing the students of seminaries into the regular education programme is gaining support in FATA and rest of the country. The project would introduce science, mathematics, social studies and English in the curriculum of these students to help them attain academic proficiency up to class 5th, she informed.

She said that this project of Deeni Madaris (seminaries) would help enable the madaris students to achieve academic excellence in formal and modern educational subjects. This NCHD project of formal education in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), would assist the existing seminaries to prepare their children for primary education, she viewed.

While briefing the commission members on impact of NCHD projects under donor funding she said that the following projects are being operational such as:

“Mainstreaming of Deeni Madaras” in 100 madaras of FATA, AJK & ICT with a total budget of Rs50 million to educate 2500 children,

“Every Child in School Initiative (ECSI)” operating in 10 districts of KPK and 10 districts of South Punjab with a budget of Rs193 million and Rs9.2 million respectively, “Strengthening policy and training for retention through intensive enrolment campaign and dropout mechanism” funded by UNICEF with a budget of Rs50 million, “Own a School Initiative programme” established 25 schools and enrolled 1,254 children and provision of primary education in KPK through community feeder schools covering six districts.