‘Number of out of schoolchildren increased in pandemic’

Islamabad:The number of out of schoolchildren and learning losses of the students have significantly increased due to the coronavirus pandemic induced campus closures but the federal government is striving to address the two issues with the help of technology, said federal education minister Shafqat Mahmood on Monday.

He was speaking to a high level delegation of Unicef led by Omer Abidi, Deputy Executive Director of Unicef, which met him at the ministry. The visitors said UNICEF is working with the ministry of Education and Professional Training in many projects including Education Cannot Wait, Digital divide, technology assistance for blended learning, Teachers Professional Development and out of schoolchildren, etc.

It is also in collaboration with NAVTTC on skills development particularly for disadvantaged adolescents. While apprising the efforts of the ministry to continue education during the pandemic, the federal education minister said, we have brought all the federating units, whether under the government or under the other parties rule, on the same page to formulate unanimous education policy which was the major achievement of us.

Shafqat Mahmood said, the number of out of schoolchildren has significantly increased and learning losses also enhanced owing to the pandemic and we are focussing on these two issues with the help of technology.

He also apprised the delegation about development and launching of Single National Curriculum and teachers training programme. Mr. Abidi commended the vision of the federal education minister and his efforts to launch SNC and to mitigate the digital divide across the country. The both sides reiterated their resolve for keep working together on education issues.