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Education not given priority in budget: experts
LAHORE
EDUCATION should be the top priority of the nation, which should be duly reflected in the allocation of resources to the educational sector on a par with international standards. These views were expressed by the speakers at a roundtable on ‘Profile of Budget Education for 2009-10’ held in Lahore under the auspices of Pakistan Institute of National Affairs (PINA).
The speakers said that the federal and provincial budgets 2009-10 had not shown right approach towards education. They said that it was high time that the legislators recognised the pivotal role of the teachers in the education system and they should be provided with a congenial environment for high quality teaching in terms of bringing an end to contract system once and for all, ensuring faster track of promotion on seniority-cum-efficiency basis and modelling their service structure in line with the civil services.
Mian Muhammad Akram, a professor of Economics, highlighted the challenges faced by the education sector. He said the major challenges were inadequacy of funding for research, training facilities for teachers and educational managers, scholarship grants for deserving students, development packages for teachers and the provision of basic facilities at institutional level such as classroom, electricity, toilet, school boundary walls and clean drinking water.
Professor Mumtaz Akhtar, director of IER, Punjab University, argued for a uniform system of education according to the national aspirations. She said, “We could achieve high academic standards by investing in teacher education, especially at the college level.”
University of Management and Technology Rector Dr Hassan Suhaib Murad called upon the legislators and the educationists to come up with visionary initiative for streamlining the educational system within the framework of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Altaf Hasan Qureshi, secretary general of PINA, observed that due to faulty vision of decision makers Pakistan’s educational system had tilted towards market-oriented disciplines. He appreciated the zeal of Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif for talent promotion and hoped that concrete steps would be taken to promote quality education in public educational institutions and motivate the teachers to present themselves as role models.
Ashraf Sohna, Punjab labour minister, said that in the present turbulent situation, the nation was looking forward to a soft revolution which could be ensured only through education. Primary education, in particular, should be given focal importance, he said.
The News: Tuesday, June 23, 2009
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