Need of pragmatic approach in edu sector stressed

PESHAWAR: The NWFP Governor Owais Ahmas Ghani has stressed the need for adopting a pragmatic approach in education sector to resolve the problems, ensuring level playing field to the government run institutions and enable them to compete with their sister institutions in the private sector. He was addressing as a chief guest at a two-day national level symposium on Education Sector Reforms which begin here at Governor’s House. Provincial minister for Higher Education Qazi Muhammad Asad, Minister for School and Literacy Sardar Hussain Babak, Chief Secretary Sahibzada Riaz Noor and the Vice Chancellor of the NWFP University of Engineering and Technology, Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani also addressed the event while the provincial minister for Information and Public Relations Mian Iftikhar Hussain was also present on this occasion. The Symposium that was organized by the provincial government was largely attended by renowned educationists, senior officials and a group of students.

The governor on this occasion said that maintenance of discipline, promoting universal language the English as medium of instruction and reformation of syllabus at the primary level, would have to be made the focal points of the education policy. ‘‘We must have to tailor the policies in line with the absorption capacity of our students and make the quality education accessible to them,’’ Owais said. The ground realities in this respect, he added, provide sufficient guidance to put the things on the desired tracks. Side by side, the Governor said, there is need to promote and strengthen the spirit of commitment amongst the teaching community towards their responsibility and ensure their presence in the educational institutions as well. In this age, the Governor said, when the entire world has turned to a global village and the state of economic affairs have also been globalized, we have to pace with the rest of the world.

Therefore, he said, to ensure proper socio-economic well being of our coming generations is also closely linked to the state of educational facilities to be made available to them. In this well knitted world, the Governor said, we also have to maintain our social values intact.

In such a situation, he added, the educationists have to play a crucial role to achieve the desired goals. ‘‘Future is in your hands and whatever decisions we will take, will be for your well being and to ensure a better future for you,’’ he pointed towards the students. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister for Schools and Literacy, Sardar Hussain Babak described the economic handicaps as the major hurdles in the provision of quality educational facilities to the students. He said, indeed, there is need to critically analyze the ground realities and improve the state of working of the government educational institutions especially at the school level. Presently, he said, only 200 primary schools are added annually in the education system of the province which are quite insufficient to meet the ever increasing demand.

However, he said, the government is making all out efforts to come up to the expectations of the people. While conceding to a point to promote awareness amongst the people, he also described the parent teachers associations at the school level, quite an effective forum.

The Minister for Higher Education, Qazi Muhammad Asad in his speech said, we wish to introduce much needed reforms in our education system to enable our youth not only to earn livelihoods for themselves but also to become better contributors to the society and the country. While referring to his recent visits to various foreign countries, he said, there is need to spare more resources and enhance budgetary allocations to ensure availability of quality educational facilities in our educational institutions.

The Vice Chancellor of the NWFP University of Engineering and Technology Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani, in his address on this occasion stressed the need of bringing effective administrative reforms, reformation of curriculum and making the teaching community as the focal point at the school level to make the efforts result oriented. For this purpose, he said, there is need to determine a reasonable percentage of GDP annually to resolve the resource availability problem, besides ensuring accountability of service providers, improvement of medium of institutions and maintenance of discipline in the educational institutions. In this connection, he particularly mentioned the government run schools and said, "we have to change the educational environment and make quality educational facilities accessible to every child", he said. Earlier, in his introductory remarks, the Chief Secretary Sahibzada Riaz Noor said, the basic aim to hold the symposium is to make brain storming deliberations and chalk out concrete recommendation for bringing improvement in education system.

There are certain aspects, which, he said, were suffering weaknesses but there also exists certain sectors, where we had made significant achievements. However, he pointed out we have to go along away to achieve our desired goals and there are no short cuts to surmount the challenges. Keeping in view, the prevailing situation as well as the ever increasing population ratio, he said we have to take courageous steps to provide sufficient and better educational facilities to our children.

Referring to the ongoing efforts to make the educational facilities accessible to deserving students, the Chief Secretary said that the Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti has donated Rs. One billion as seed money for establishment of an endowment fund, which will be further increased with passage of time. Meanwhile, proceedings of the Symposium are in progress wherein elaborate discussions are underway. A task force has been constituted to chalk out recommendations in this connection which will be presented for final consideration before the forum tomorrow.