close
Thursday March 28, 2024

Call to focus on health, education in budget 2017-18

By our correspondents
May 04, 2017

Jang Economic Session

LAHORE: Allocation of more resources for health and education, besides practical steps for employment generation should be the focus in the forthcoming budget while the government priorities should be set in accordance with the public requirement.

These views were expressed by the students in the Jang Economic Session on ‘Expectations of students with 2017-18 budget’. The students who spoke on the occasion were Abdul Rehman, Abdul Wahab, Tayyab Tariq, Hafiz Shahrukh, Kazim Raza and Hassan Ubaid. The session was hosted by Sikandar Lodhi.

Abdul Rehman said that the expectations should not be high while keeping the government’s performance in sight. He suggested investment in all infrastructure not only bridges and roads besides ensuring health and education facilities. He believed enrolment in schools can increase by improving quality of education in government schools while socio-economic issues could be resolved with proper education and justice system.

Abdul Wahab said that quality of education should also be focused in the next budget. He said increase in student fee or imposition of tax on it is deplorable. He called for promotion of vocational training and technical education for youths.

Tayyab Tariq said socio-economic issues are worsening due to lack of government priorities. He said national interest projects should not be politicised. He said education institutions should also be established other than Lahore while youths issues would not be resolved by giving them laptops only. He called for focusing employment generation projects. Hafiz Shahrukh said that everyone has been compelled to come on roads to raise voice for their rights. He said Lahore is not whole Pakistan so development of one city is not development of whole country. He said the government lacks in decision making capacity. He said problems would not be resolved by spending money on metro buses and infrastructure projects. He called for cutting down the education fee. He said provision of equal health and education facilities across the board will reduce population burden from bigger cities and stop rural urban migration.

Kazim Raza said that the government should focus on real public issues instead on bridges and roads construction projects. He said performance of health sector is dissatisfactory which increases the issues of health and economy. He said Pakistani youths did not lack behind in ideas of doing business but these ideas could not be used due to limited resources, research and development. He called for ending recommendation culture.

Hassan Ubaid said that steps for primary, secondary ad higher education is the need of the hour as youths are not benefitted with internship programmes. He said vast employment opportunities could be helpful in resolving the social issues. He said the situation of government schools is very pathetic and standard education is on the decline. He called for provision of relief to public on utilities.