June 22, 2008	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 17, 1429

LAHORE, June 21: Apprecia-ting the Punjab government’s new merit policy, the participants of a post-budget seminar organised by the Pakistan Institute of National Affairs (PINA) here on Saturday stressed the need for special emphasis on primary education and demanded abolition of the entrance test system.

They also demanded introduction of uniform curricula in all public and private sector educational institutions.

Deliberating on Punjab education budget 2008 in the perspective of contemporary requirements of human development at the seminar held with Prof Malik Muhammad Husain in the chair, the speakers were of the view that self-finance and self-support schemes were tailored for the affluent class. The new merit policy would open the gates of learning for those talented students who could not afford to pay the high cost of education.

They also stressed the need for abolition of entrance test system to ensure enforcement of foolproof merit policy. They were of the view that the tests were designed to favour the students of English medium schools based mostly in big cities. One-hour test was not a true indicator of students intelligence and learning.

Participants, including Prof Dr Shafiq Jallandhri, Prof Dr Saeed Akhtar, Prof Mumtaz Ahmed, Prof Rao Jalil Ahmed, Prof Dr Razaul Haq, Qayyum Nizami and PINA Secretary-General Altaf Hasan Qureshee, were of the view that allocation of 28 per cent budget for education was good enough but still short of expectation.

The allocation should be raised to 35 per cent of the budget in Punjab and five per cent of the GDP in the federal budget.

The primary education and the educational networking in villages and far-flung areas should be the prime target of the government.

They also expressed concern over the continuation of the contract system and stressed the need for regularisation of all the contract teachers at school and college levels from the date of their appointment.