Comprehensive policy for promotion of education stressed

PESHAWAR: The participants of a discussion here on Tuesday stressed the need for a comprehensive policy for the promotion of education in the country.

The discussion was held at the launching of the Alif Ailaan report “2013-2018 Five years of education reform: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Wins, Losses and challenges for the future 2018-2023” here.

It was noted that the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has made improvements in coverage of physical facilities across schools, recruiting teachers, increasing attendance, and instituting new development programmes.

However, the province still needs to tackle significant challenges in the form of improved learning outcomes, retention, and girls’ access to education, enrollment and increased and effective education spending.

The panelists included Minister for Education Muhammad Atif Khan, former minister for education Sardar Hussain Babak, Remedial Therapist Irum Mumtaz, social and political activist Mohsin Dawar, head of the PTI election policy unit Taimur Khan Jhagra and Musharraf Zaidi, the campaign director.

The event was also attended by prominent lawmakers, including Usman Khan Kakar, Sanaullah Baloch, Shagufta Malik, Amna Sardar, Raza Haroon and Faisal Subzwari, and senior government officials.

The report said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s focus remained on improving existing school infrastructure and school facilities in addition to increasing IT labs under science and technology initiatives in schools.

It added that Education Department took steps to refine the recruitment and training process of teachers through NTS and multiple partners. It also introduced tests for grade-V and VIII to assess learning outcomes.

The report said that these efforts were largely guided by strengthening the data monitoring mechanism through Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) and putting new management and evaluation systems in place to track progress.

The report said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was the only province that allocated more than 20 percent of its total budget for education consistent with the UNESCO Global Monitoring Report guidelines. It said that a stipend totalling Rs1.72 billion was being given to the girl students for retention while community schools were also being set up in remote districts.

The report said that challenges still exist that require the attention of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lawmakers. These included the crisis of out-of-school children and high level of student attrition beyond primary schools due to lack of schools and facilities.

During the panel discussion, Irum Mumtaz regretted that our society had no understanding of the special children and their needs. “Our society distinguishes children in black and white as able and disabled,” she said. She added that this needs to be addressed.

She said that dyslexic kids should get proper attention as they were not disabled but needed to be taught with different strategies.

However, Raza Haroon reminded her that children had other problems too other than dyslexia that included Down syndrome. He said their needs must be kept in mind while devising education policies.

The panelists said that leaders of all political parties should hold a national conference to address the issue of education and finalise a national plan for promotion of education in Pakistan.