April 3, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 30, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, April 2: The government encourages public-private partnership in education sector to increase literacy rate in the country.

This was stated by Director-General Federal Directorate of Education Brig Maqsoodul Hasan (retired) while speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of a teachers training workshop on ‘child friendly schools and quality education’, here on Wednesday.

The four-day workshop has been organized by the Better Pakistan Foundation in collaboration with FDE at the curriculum wing of the ministry of education.

The FDE director-general said such workshops would provide an opportunity to the teachers to understand the needs of the students. It would also help them create a children-friendly environment in schools, he added.

He said teachers were the most important part of the literacy enhancement campaign and they should play an active role in increasing the enrolment rate. Steps had been taken to involve the community in the process, he added.

He said pre-primary (kutchi) classes had been successfully run in 50 schools in Islamabad Capital Territory for which qualified teachers were appointed. The government would provide free-of-cost books to the students of pre-primary, class I and class II particularly in the rural areas of the ICT, he added.

In his welcome speech, former deputy chairman Planning Commission and Chairman Better Pakistan Foundation Ahsan Iqbal said the workshop would provide an opportunity to the teachers to learn from each other’s experiences and help evolve a future plan of action.

Mr Iqbal said currently the world was going through an educational revolution leaving behind the industrial revolution. “But, Pakistan is way behind in this sphere,” he added.

He said a ‘literacy week’ would be observed throughout the country from April 6 to 14. A ‘mass enrolment campaign’ for the admission of poor children to schools would also be held during the literacy week, he added.

Mr Iqbal said: “We need the government’s support in this connection because it is impossible to reach the objectives in the field of education without such support.”