April 02, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24, 1429

ISLAMABAD, April 1: Federal Minister for Education Ahsan Iqbal has said the government will ensure 100 per cent enrolment at the primary level in next two years by launching a massive crash programme very soon.

He was attending a briefing of the Ministry of Education and its attached departments here on Monday.

The minister said an ambitious plan would be chalked out to enhance literacy in Pakistan, which still ranked very low even in South Asia.

“This is an age of knowledge, revolution and innovation and Pakistan must seize this opportunity to enter the comity of developed nations,” Mr Ahsan said, adding that: “We have to restructure our education system to meet the demand of knowledge economy and knowledge society.”

According to the minister, provinces will also be consulted in this regard as major chunk of the capital and human resource lie with them. The success of this programme of achieving higher literacy depends mainly on the political will and close coordination with the provinces, he stressed.

Mr Iqbal said with multiple class system, we could not develop a harmonious society. We will provide equal opportunities of education to all citizens of Pakistan, irrespective of their economic or social status. This is also a constitutional obligation of the state, he observed.

The minister said: “In order to achieve the target of an egalitarian society, a uniform system of education needs to be adopted at all levels with its focus on quality.”

He directed the ministry officials to work with provincial governments to ensure that high schools existed at the each union council level with more emphasis on scientific and technical education.

He told the participants that new initiatives would be taken to revive the status of the teacher as an agent of change. “If a teacher is not properly looked after or trained, how could we expect quality in education system,” the minister remarked.

Mr Iqbal said public sector education institutes would be brought on a par with the private institutes to enable them impart best education to those who could not afford costlier education in the private sector. Vocational and other training institutes will also be strengthened to extract best human resources for their further utilisation in country’s economy, he added.

The minister said austerity measures would be adopted to save the national economy. He also said that meritocracy would be promoted at all level and favouritism and nepotism would be discouraged by tooth and nail.

Earlier, Secretary Education Jahangir Bashar briefed the minister about the ongoing activities and projects of the ministry and its attached departments.