November 12, 2003	Wednesday	Ramazan 16, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 11: The government has launched an aggressive programme to promote education in the country spreading over fifteen years in three phases each, Parliamentary Secretary for Education Dewan Jaffer Hussain Bukhari told the National Assembly here on Tuesday.

Responding on a calling attention notice of Sultan Ahmed Khan in the National Assembly about the shortfall of Rs76 billion out of Rs100 billion for the literacy programmes, the parliamentary secretary said in addition to the government’s budgetary allocation of 2.2 per cent of the GDP, the international donors had committed to roviding monetary assistance that was enough to implement these programmes.

He told the House that different donor agencies had committed $1.3 billion during the next five years in addition to the $66 million committed by the US government to promote education in Pakistan. Moreover, he said, the USAID had also assured $100 million for basic education and teachers training.

He said different countries had also converted loan worth Euros 12.3 million into aid for education.

“If we convert all this amount into local currency then the amount so available is enough to meet our needs,” he assured.

The parliamentary secretary said in the first phase of the programme - Education For All (EFA) - spanning five years, the main focus was on increasing literacy ratio by 61 per cent for which the government needed an amount of Rs53 billion. However, he assured that the amount would be easily met with the help of the international donors.

He also assured the members that the establishment of new literacy centres in Punjab would be completed shortly whereas similar centres had already been completed in Sindh and Balochistan.