Government plan to enhance education sector
Government has doubled its efforts to promote education
Islamabad, Sep 16: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday said his
government accorded high priority to education and all possible
resources would be made available for this purpose.
"The
recently announced Education Policy has incorporated all ingredients
necessary to broaden the educational base. Under the new education
policy, the government has planned to enhance the education budget to
seven percent of GDP by 2015," he said.
He was talking to
Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad
Zafarullah, who called on him at the PM's House.
"The
government has doubled its efforts to promote education across the
country in order to realise the dream of a progressive Pakistan,"
Gilani said.
He approved a proposal regarding creation of a
Center of Excellence in Management Sciences in BZU and necessary grant
in this regard would soon be released. He approved a grant of Rs 30
million for Seraiki Area Study Centre.
The prime minister also
gave approval for construction of a sub-campus of BZU at Sahiwal with
an estimated cost of Rs 500 million. He approved funding for Teacher's
Housing Scheme to cater to the demand of BZU teachers.
The
vice chancellor briefed the prime minister about various ongoing
projects of the university.
He told Gilani that this year
30 scholars had been named for Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Foreign Scholarship. Daily times
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Targets in national education policy ambitious
Islamabad: The education policy offers little to the people
and most of the claims in the policy are a wish list with ambitious and
clearly unattainable targets like increase in education budget to 7 per
cent of GDP by 2015.
This was stated by Zahra Arshad,
National Coordinator, Pakistan Coalition for Education (PCE) an
independent network of educationists, civil society organizations and
citizens.
Reacting to the newly approved education policy,
the PCE has in a statement also demanded the government to withdraw the
seminaries from the control of Ministry of Interior and give them under
the jurisdiction of Ministry of Education.
The organization
also criticised inclusion of highly controversial chapter on Islamic
education in the final draft of the policy.
Such an
ideologically driven act would surely lead to sectarian and inter-faith
conflicts, statement stated adding that PCE and its allies expressed
serious reservations on the national Education Policy (NEP) and
demanded that it should be immediately open to amendments.
PCE said that the increase in education budget up to 7 per cent of GDP
seemed very ambitious compared to the current allocations of 2.7 per
cent of GDP for education sector, including 1.7 per cent from public
sector and 1 per cent from private sector.PCE accused the government of
undermining the supremacy of parliament because the National Education
Policy should have been discussed in the parliament before it was
tabled in the cabinet for approval.
Partners of PCE demanded
that over emphasis on the Islamic education and appointment of qaris
should be a subject to revision in the approved policy. They termed the
decision of governing seminaries (maddrassas) via Ministry of Interior
as a fatal flaw in the National Education Policy.
PCE strongly
demanded that the policy should be open to amendments
and improvements at all stages of implementation.
To achieve greater
consensus NEP should be discussed in the parliament
and all parliamentarians should give their views on the current policy.
Partners of PCE demanded immediate formation of a federal
review committee on administrative level to incorporate the
recommendations of the civil society in the finalized draft of National
Education Policy.
The coalition demanded that the proceedings
of federal review committee on Education Policy should be open to
public. PCE condemned one dimensional approach of NEP to a
multi-functional institution of education. Dawn
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IIU arranged Mehfil-e-Qirraat
Islamabad: The international islamic university (IIU) arranged a 'Mehfil-e-Qirra'at' at Faisal Mosque under
the auspices of Dawah Academy of the university. Renowned 'Qaries' from
Iran and Pakistan participated while a large number of faithful and
general public attended the ceremony.
Meanwhile, Sahibzada Sajid ur
Rehman, director Dawah Academy hosted an 'Iftar' dinner which was
attended among others by Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, Prof. Fateh Muhammad Malik,
Dr Anwar Hussain Siddique, Dr Anis Ahmad and other university staff,
said a statement issued here Tuesday.
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Grandparents Day at Foundation School
Rawalpindi: Grandparents Day was celebrated at the Foundation School, says a press release
issued here on Tuesday. The chief guests on the occasion were
grandparents of schoolchildren.
The programme included beautiful poems
and befitting skits, which showed the love showered by elderly members
of the family on their young ones. Songs were sung and feelings of love
and respect were expressed by students to their grandparents.
Expressing their views, the grandparents thanked the school management
for grooming the personalities of their children. In the end, bouquets
were presented to all guests by their grandchildren. Foundation School
Administrator Muhammad Shoaib thanked all grandparents for sparing time
for the function. He urged students to give their grandparents time and
love. The news
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