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.