Provinces face more hurdles in transfer of funds: Zobaida
By Our Reporter
ISLAMABAD, May 20: There are numerous bottlenecks in the smooth transfer of funds to the provincial governments than the district governments for implementation of various educational programmes in the country
, Federal Education Minister Zobaida Jalal said.
She was speaking as chief guest at a national symposium and award ceremony on "Universal Primary Education (UPE)" organized by the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) here on Thursday.
"We are still facing uncalled-far hurdles in the way of transfer of funds to the provincial governments to be distributed to the district level governments, which needed to be sorted out on emergency grounds," she said. In this regard, the federal education ministry has already asked the provincial governments to make recommendations, so that a comprehensive formula could be evolved in future for easy transaction of funds, she said.
Since education is a provincial subject, hence the present government unlike the previous governments has allowed the provincial governments to cater to the educational needs of their respective populations, the education minister said.
"However, I would like to suggest here that the provincial and district educational plans should be aligned for common targets instead of parallel programmes," the minister said.
A minimum level of education for all citizens is not only a basic human right but also is imperative for conscious participation of the masses in the development programme of a sovereign nation, she underlined.
The challenges of rapidly changing political, economic, technological and socio-cultural environment can be effectively met only by an educated and enlightened citizenry, she emphasized.
Referring to the ministry's Education Sector Reforms (ESR), she said adult literacy centres especially for women had been opened to achieve the targets of Education for All.
About incentives for the private investors in the education sector, Ms Jalal said income tax exemption, relaxation in customs duty on import of educational materials etc, supply of electricity and gas at domestic rates, provision of land for schools on subsidized rates and grant of loans for building schools are being offered by the education ministry.
She expressed her hope that very soon, the government will achieve its target of 100 per cent primary education which, at present, was about 90 per cent. Talking to the mediapersons after the function, she said, the government had already released Rs500 million to provincial governments including the FATA, the AJK and the Northern Areas for streamlining the Madressahs.
