Another ‘jihad’ on the cards: PTI to wage war against illiteracy

Elementary education minister links problem of terrorism to poor education facilities in the province.

PESHAWAR:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf will wage a ‘jihad’ against illiteracy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), said chairman Imran Khan, adding poor education facilities are the biggest challenge for the province.

Imran was speaking at a school enrolment programme at Government Higher Secondary School No1 in Cantt on Tuesday. “Overcoming illiteracy is not impossible and my party has accepted the challenge,” Imran added.

“You will not find such varying standards of education for the rich and the poor around the world like we have here in Pakistan. We have waged a war against educational injustice,” Imran said, adding residents will see the ‘change’ soon.



Schools here are in very poor condition and the provincial government is committed to completely change the system, but we’ll do this in phases which require time, Imran said. “I knew the education situation was not good but I was unaware about the extent of the problem.”

Vowing to improve the education sector, the PTI chairman said the annual budget for approximately 29,000 schools, including 23,000 primary schools, has been increased to 30%. “No one can stop a child belonging to a low-income background from excelling in any field.”

“We have enhanced the budget but if we feel there are not enough funds, I will knock at the doors of overseas Pakistanis and request them to sponsor one school each,” the PTI chairman said, adding he can surely find 29,000 people.

Village councils will monitor teachers’ performance in their respective areas and the council member will have the authority to terminate a teacher over poor performance. The K-P government will support anyone interested in setting up ‘welfare-based universities’, he further said.



Imran added the provincial government will seek the expertise of former Higher Education Commission chairman Dr Atta-ur-Rahman to help manage the education sector and improve standards.

Speaking at the same event, Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said they were bound to follow the PTI manifesto and have started reshaping the health, education and other sectors. He also  announced to launch a uniform standard of education from next year.

“We admit our standard of education in government schools is not up to the mark keeping in view annual results, but we will surprise you in the future,” Khattak said.

Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education Muhammad Atif added that unless the education system is changed problems like terrorism and poor economic condition will exist and asked people to identify children out of school.

Education Secretary Jaudat Ayaz said the government has increased the annual education budget to Rs85 billion or 21% of the total provincial budget.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 11^th, 2013.