National education policy: Govt set to enrol 20m out-of-school children

Online lectures will be delivered in institutions with no teaching staff

ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training Tuesday launched National Education Policy Framework 2018 under the first 100-day plan of the government. The Education Ministry in its framework has identified four key areas in the education sector including improving quality education, enrollment of out of school children, imparting skills development to youth and introducing uniform education system and reiterated to resolve these challenges in the next five years.

National Education Policy Framework was formally launched by the Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood in a ceremony held in Islamabad. The ceremony was participated by the Parliamentary Secretary for Education Wajiha Akram, Secretary Education Arshad Mirza, Islamabad based MNA's Ali Nawaz Awan and Raja Khurram Shahzad, journalists, civil society, NGO's, parents, and a large number of students.

Speaking on the occasion as a chief guest, the Minister for Federal Education Shafqat Mahmood said the government had established a National Task Force to identify key areas for development of education. We had consulted with the donors, NGO's, and experts in formulating of education policy frame work, he added. He said Inter Provincial Ministers Conference was also arranged in Islamabad in which the education policy was discussed with the provinces. Sharing the details of future tasks in education sector, the minister said the government was all set to bring back more than 20 million out of school boys and girls.

Currently, he said, there were three kinds of educational systems existing in the country, including madrassa system, private schools system and public sectors schools system adding, unfortunately all of them had different syllabuses. However, he said under the new education policy the uniform education system with a uniform syllabus would be introduced aiming at bringing unity among the nation.

Talking about the quality education, he said during an assessment it was found that the standard of education was different among government school students and private schools. He reiterated that to improve quality education among government schools uniform education system is a must. He further added that market oriented education would be provided to the students so that they are able to get jobs.

He also underlined the need of skills development saying that it was the only way for socioeconomic development of the country. "We have a number of primary schools across the country but a serious lack of middle schools; therefore, students are unable to continue their studies. We are initiating alternative systems of education under which middle-school level classes would be initiated in primary schools, in order to meet the students’ educational needs, he said. In order to meet the need of teachers, he said, we are going to start "Smart Schools System" by getting benefit from modern technology under which teachers would deliver lectures online in schools lacking teaching staff. Smart classrooms would be established in every school of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), he said adding that the usage of technology was the need of the hour.

An "Educational Volunteer Programme" would also be initiated to fulfill the need of teachers; he said and added that under this programme the educated youth would extend their services voluntarily to teach the children in schools of their areas.

The government would increase the number of non-formal schools to achieve the task of maximum enrollment in the schools, he said. "We will establish ‘National Curriculum Council’ in which educational experts will be included to develop a consensus for uniform syllabus," he emphasised. He said the dialogue had been initiated to create consensus among the different educational systems. To a question, he said, "Under the pilot project for ICT schools, we will try to enroll all 27,000 children in the next two years with the public-private partnership. It was our target to introduce "One National Certification System" across the entire educational institutions by launching uniform examination system."

Later, the minister also launched the out of school children campaign in the federal capital. By signing the admission documents he enrolled six students of the federal capital in the schools established near their residences.

Earlier, in his welcome address Ministry of Federal Education Secretary highlighted the key points of the new education policy. He said it was the responsibility of the government to provide free and compulsory education to each and every child under the Article 25-A of the constitution.

On the occasion, Joint Education Adviser Rafiq Tahir while sharing the out of school children plan for ICT students said that the federal capital had been divided in seven sectors. In collaboration with community schools, NGO's, retired teachers, and United Nation, the federal ministry for education would bring back all out of school children, he added. He said the target to enroll out of school children in the capital would be achieved in five phases.  

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2018.