MANSEHRA, Jan 6: The Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob, has put his weight behind a uniform system of education, saying the root cause of all evils was the class-based system of instruction.

He was speaking as the chief guest at the parents’ day ceremony of the OPF Public School here on Sunday.

The PML-Q MNA Sardar Shahjehan, director education of the OPF, Israr Jamali, and the principal of the school Balqees Nisar also spoke on the occasion.

Sardar Yaqoob said the education system in the country needed revolutionary changes and extensive reforms if the nation was to come at par with the developed nations in terms of knowledge acquisition.

At present, only 8 per cent of the federal budget was being spent on education, which was quite insufficient, he said.

He laid stress on allocating more funds for raising the literacy rate and improving the standard of education in the country.

Yaqoob said that all the developed countries had chosen to use their national and regional languages as mediums of instruction. “We cannot make progress if we did not follow suit,” he added.

He said the establishment of Overseas Pakistani Foundation was the result of sincere efforts on the part of Pakistanis serving abroad.