ISLAMABAD, May 11: The government plans to conduct a census of educational institutions of all categories, including private, in the country, an official statement says. A project worth Rs265 million has been approved for this purpose and the process would be completed in 12 months, the Director-General, Academy of Educational Planning and Management (AEPM), Dr P.A. Shami said in a statement here on Wednesday.

Ministry of Education, provincial education departments, Federal Bureau of Statistics and statistics division will execute the project, Dr Shami said.

The main objective of the project, he said, was to conduct complete catalogue of all categories of educational institutions from all over the country.

The project also aims at fulfilling the information requirements of national and international agencies and to support decision-makers and education managers in planning, monitoring and evaluation of education sector at different levels including development of a comprehensive national data bank.

The project aims at fulfilling the information requirements of national and international agencies and to support decision- makers and education managers in planning, monitoring and evaluation of education sector at different levels including development of comprehensive national data bank.

It would also ensure that the national database is systematically updated by incorporating information of all educational institutions.

The repository will provide data computing quantitative indicators required by national and international agencies, Dr Shami added.

He said recognizing the importance of educational data, the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Committee had decided that the database should be expanded by including all categories of educational institutions — private, public, religious maddressahs, technical, vocational, colleges and universities.

It aims at strengthening and expansion of the database of National Data Bank on Education through collection of comprehensive information on all categories of educational institutions.