July 13, 2005	Wednesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 5, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, July 12: The federal education ministry will revise the PC-I of Non Formal Basic Education project (NFBE) to make it functional in the background of the Planning Commission’s decision that it was a “sick and slow-moving” project and should be wound up early next year. The decision to this effect was made on Tuesday at a meeting to discuss the project with Education Minister Lt Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi in the chair.

In May 2005, the Planning Commission had declared NFBE a sick and slow-moving project and recommended its premature closure by the start of the next year.

The minister said: “The project will not be wrapped up at any cost, as it has been a great source in enhancing the literacy rate.”

The meeting was attended by the provincial education secretaries, project coordinators, representatives of the planning commission and other high-ups of the federal education ministry.

The minister told the meeting that Pakistan had been a signatory to many international and multilateral forums, which demanded 100 per cent literacy rate till 2015 and meeting other quantitative goals in the country’s education sector.

Expressing his concern over the commission’s decision, the minister said NFBE being a powerful catalyst in enhancing the present low literacy rate would not be wound up at any cost and continue to function through a revised PC-I, which would soon be submitted to the Planning Commission.

He also clarified that no staff or teacher of the project would be rendered surplus and they would continue their duties with an increased salary package.

The minister said under the revised PC-I, the matriculation passed untrained teachers of the NFBE schools would get minimum Rs3000 as salary and the salaries of the inter and graduate untrained teachers would also be increased.

He also directed increase in the supervisory allowance from Rs200 to Rs500 per school per month to the NGOs for the supervision of NFBE schools allocated to them.

He also asked the ministry to increase the amount for teaching aids and materials in the schools from Rs3,500 to Rs10,000 per year and Rs500 per month for the utility bills of the school.

Chaudhry Mohammad Akram, the Project Director, apprised the meeting about establishment of total 82,000 NFBE schools throughout the country including FATA, FANA and AJK.

It was decided that a broad-based action plan for strengthening the NFBE project would be formulated so that the country could achieve 100 per cent literacy rate before 2015.

The meeting was told that during the last five months 1,500 new NFBE schools were opened throughout the country in which 1,397 women teachers got employment and 41,910 students were enrolled.

It was decided that the same number of schools would be opened after every three months. The project director also informed the meeting that the current enrolment in 10,374 NFBE schools stood at 3,11,220 students in which 65 per cent were girl students.

The minister also informed the meeting that a foolproof and reliable monitoring mechanism with technical and trained manpower had been established in the federal education ministry with the task to monitor and verify the activities of the NGOs in the NFBE project.

He categorically warned that any NGO found involved in embezzlement of the project money would be blacklisted.

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