QUETTA: Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch has said that the Balochistan Education Sector Plan has been prepared at a cost of Rs61.35 billion as an instrument to manage prioritisation, planning, execution, monitoring and review of education policies in the province.

Addressing the last session of a two-day international forum titled “Turkey educational challenges: international experience in education policy & search for solutions” in Istanbul the other day, he said the Pak-Turkish International Educational Foundation was delivering quality education to students in Pakistan.

According to a press release issued here on Monday, the chief minister said that almost 1.3 million children were out of school in Balochistan. A high dropout rate, wide gender disparities in education indicators, poor quality of teaching and low access of children to school had emerged as the biggest challenge in the province, he pointed out.

He said Balochistan faced the most unique situation in Pakistan as a large number of settlements (approximately 10,000 out of a total of 22,000) were without schools, where 81pc of the population was catered by the public sector, 9pc by the private sector and the rest by madressahs.

He said ties between Turkey and Pakistan were rooted in shared history, a common cultural heritage and reflected the aspiration of people of both countries.

“Pakistan and Turkey are extending cooperation to each other in diversified fields and the relations between them are bolstering with each passing day,” he said.