Lack of seriousness in education policy implementation
Nothing new in the National Education Policy 2009
Lahore, Sep 12: The National Education Policy (NEP) 2009 on the one hand has
nothing new to offer and on the other lacks seriousness and commitment to its
implementation. Also, the federal cabinet's announcement that the
budgetary allocation for education sector would be raised to seven per cent of
the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015 is nothing more than a wish-list, which
sets no milestones on an annual basis. Similar is the case with the target of
enhancing literacy rate to 85 per cent by 2015. This was the crux of
comments obtained from senior educationists, politicians and academics here on
Friday. Former Punjab University vice-chancellor Prof Dr Khalid Hameed
Sheikh said the budget utilisation for the education sector was as low as 1.7
per cent of the GDP, for which reasons needed to be identified, whether it was
due to a lack of capacity to spend budget or budget itself was released late. As
the policy did not set targets on an annual
basis and claim substantial allocation at seven per cent of the GDP by 2015. He
said the policy lacked a strategy for its implementation. Former
education minister Imran Masood said the NEP 2009 was merely a fill in the
blank. He said the policy had nothing new to offer: it just announced steps that
were already taken and being implemented in Punjab by the previous government.
As announced in the NEP, he said, the previous Punjab government had
already launched the programme of introducing medium of English language in
public sector schools, the project of free textbooks for all public sector
school students of Class-I to Class-X. He said the previous government
started providing infrastructure in schools at a massive scale, launched
teachers' training programme and enhanced the qualification for teachers to be
recruited at elementary and secondary level, but the present government was also
boasting of introducing all these steps. He said the previous government
made efforts to improve the quality of education by upgrading curricula and
teachers' training. Referring to government's decision to make Classes
XI and XII part of the school education, Masood said this policy would reduce
the capacity of colleges as the government would be recruiting teachers for
higher secondary schools, while the teachers' strength at colleges would start
decreasing. "There were only 250 higher secondary schools in Punjab, which the
previous government wanted to minimise because they were not worth
consideration." He stated that there was a great difference of profile among
students doing intermediate from colleges and those studying intermediate
classes at higher secondary schools. Masood also stated that present
government's implementation level and commitment remained too low during the
last two years. Admitting that the previous government could not
streamline the seminary education, he said the NEP surprisingly reflected that
seminaries would be dealt with by the interior ministry. He said the previous
government had registered some 250 seminaries. He said the present government
neither gave any long-term sectoral programme nor opened engineering colleges,
research centres and planning institutions. He said the government should adopt
different strategies to increase enrolment, enhance literacy rate and reduce
drop-out rate. In order to enhance literacy rate to 85 per cent by 2015, he said
the government needed to activate NGOs and private sector because the existing
strategy would not lead the government to anywhere with regard to achievement of
this goal. Punjab Professors and Lecturers Association president Nazim
Hasnain criticised the federal cabinet for approving NEP 2009 that put forth a
highly illogical decision of making Classes XI and XII part of the school
education. He said the college teachers had an experience of teaching FA/ FSc
classes for long besides a huge infrastructure of science laboratories and other
facilities were available in colleges. He said this decision would lessen the
utility of those science laboratories and other intermediate level facilities,
while put a huge financial burden to create those facilities in schools.
He said the government was playing with the education system while
keeping the real stakeholders at a distance. "This policy will completely
destroy the education system in the country," he said. Hasnain said the
education standards could never be improved through "education emergency" but
through consultation with all stakeholders and motivating them by offering them
their due rights. Meanwhile, the All Pakistan Private Schools Welfare
Association (APPSWA) on Friday organised a seminar to review the NEP 2009.
The speakers had a consensus that the government had miserably failed to
develop a comprehensive NEP that could meet the needs and requirements of the
country, while keeping in view the ground realities. They said the NEP
was hollow and based on wishful claims while the private sector was totally
ignored in the new policy. They said the government must remember that it could
not achieve the target of 85 per cent literacy without active participation of
the private sector. Dawn
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All provinces supported education policy
Lahore: Provincial Minister for Education Mian Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman has said that for
the first time the National Education Policy has been prepared in consultation
with all the provinces and Punjab has played an active and leading role in its
preparation. He was speaking at the launch of Split Degree Programme
jointly initiated by Superior University and York St John University, UK, here
on Friday. Speaker Punjab Assembly Rana Muhammad Iqbal, Rector Superior
University Dr Abdul Rehman, Pro Rector Dr Sikandar Khan and Deputy Vice
Chancellor York St John University Dr David Maughan Brown were also present.
The education minister said the split degree programme would enable
Pakistani students to benefit from the British university at low finances.
He said the Punjab government was taking revolutionary steps for
promotion of education and maximum resources were being utilized for the
purpose. Mujtaba also appreciated management of the Superior University
for providing quality education in the fields of commerce, computer science and
law, etc. Speaking on the occasion Dr Abdul Rehman said under the split
degree programme Pakistani students would be getting degree of British
university at affordable fee.
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Reforms in fee structure of private schools
Islamabad: On the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif, a comprehensive
package of reforms recommendations regarding regulatory mechanism and financial
matters including fixation of category-wise fee structure for private schools in
Punjab has been framed. Special Task Force for Education has submitted the
package of reforms to the CM. The package has been framed to redress the
public complaints about unprecedented high fees being taken by these private
educational institutions. Presently, the provincial government has no
power to take action against registered private schools on increasing their
monthly tuition fees by 30% to 45%. The recommendations regarding private
schools reforms framed by the CM's Task Force embodies fee fixation for private
schools in accordance with their assigned category to provide financial relief
to the parents. Executive District Education Officer Rawalpindi, Malik
Muhammad Ashraf said that on approval of these recommendations the concerned
officials will have powers to regulate such institutions.
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Law College hosts Iftar dinner
Lahore: Punjab University Law College arranged a meeting of the visiting
faculty and full time teachers on the commencement of new session 2009-10 here
at Dr Pervaiz Hassan Environmental Law Centre. The meeting,followed by
Iftar-Dinner, was presided over by Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran. Prof
Dr Ehsan Malik, Ms Shazia Qureshi and Samee Uzair also attended the meeting and
Iftar-Dinner, stated a press release. APP
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Calligraphic exhibition
Lahore: The Pakistan National Council of the Arts,
Shakir Ali Museum, is holding an exhibition titled "Khatati plus Naqashi" on
Saturday, depicting the sacred art of illumination and decoration along with the
meticulous flowing style of Arabic calligraphy. The exhibition is of students
from the Naqsh School of Arts which is a unique institution and of high
standard, teaching fine arts to the youth of the Walled city against a very
nominal fee. They have succeeded in bringing forth skilful calligraphists.
Federal Secretary Culture, Moin ul Islam Bokhari, will be the chief guest at the
show. The guests of honour include prominent calligraphists Aslam Kamal, Ahmed
Khan and Khursheed Gohar Kalam. Some 45-50 artworks will be put on display. The news
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