ISLAMABAD, May 23: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has approved a proposal under which schoolteachers will be able to move up to grade 20, education minister Zobaida Jalal said on Friday.

She was talking to reporters after conclusion of a ministerial meeting of South Asian countries on Education for All, at a local hotel.

The minister was flanked by Unesco assistant director general Sir John Daniel; Unesco country representative Ingeborg Breines; Prof Jehan Ara Begum, advisor to the prime minister of Bangladesh on primary and mass education; Pema Thinley, director general education ministry, Bhutan; Dr Mahmood Shougee, deputy prime minister of education, Maldives; Rabindra Khanal, assistant minister for education ministry, Nepal; Dr Karunasena Kodituwakku, minister of human resources development, Sri Lanka.

She told reporters that the new scheme would encourage the teachers of primary, middle or secondary levels to improve their skills through a series of trainings.

“We know that teaching is the last resort to opt for, which means it is not a profession of choice. That is why, we have decided to improve the status of this profession,” she said.

Ms Jalal said a committee would soon be formed, comprising representatives of all the provinces, to prepare an attractive salary package for teachers.

She said her ministry was endeavouring to increase the budgetary allocations for education this year, adding that “we have pushed the funding for education to 2.2 per cent of the GDP from 1.7 per cent”. She was confident that the allocations would be enhanced to four per cent as per Unesco requirement within the next five years.

“If we calculate the financial grants made by other departments towards education from different sectors like Defence, Information Technology, Science and Technology, Labour and Manpower, the actually budgeting for education comes to three per cent of the GDP.”

However, she conceded that four per cent of the GDP allocations for education were too ambitious for many countries of South Asia because of peculiar internal problems.

The Sri Lankan delegate said 3.1 per cent of the GDP in Sri Lanka went to education, and the literacy rate was 91.6 per cent because the country invested heavily in education in 1960s.

Similarly, the budgetary allocation for education in Maldives is six per cent of the GDP, with 97 per cent literacy rate.

The representative of Nepal said 2.9 per cent of the GDP used to be spent on education, but due to Maoist movement a heavy component of budget was being diverted towards security apparatus.

Earlier, the education minister, while speaking at the concluding session of the ministerial meeting, said all the macro economic indicators of Pakistan showed substantial improvement and, now, the government’s attention was towards implementation of a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy.

“We have deliberated on the themes of quality, financing of education as well as gender parity during the ministerial conference,” she said, adding that the papers presented on financing frameworks for education from each of the seven countries showed an enormous commitment and well researched positions on education targets, strategies and resource requirements.

She said when opportunities were denied to any group, when women and other disadvantaged groups remained disenfranchised, it resulted in violations of personal and collective rights, thereby undermining societies, culture and countries. “This is not acceptable to the region. Practical recommendations have been put forth by the group in the sspirit of EFA and millennium development goals,” she said.

The minister emphasized the need for trusting each other, working as powerful strategic allies, valuing the comparative advantages.