ISLAMABAD, Jan 25: The government has decided in principle to increase spending on education to 4 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the next financial year. Education spending currently stands at 2.7 per cent.

This was stated by Federal Education Minister Lt Gen (Retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi while talking to students of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, who called on him on Thursday.

Talking to Dawn an official of the ministry said both President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had given the green signal to the education minister for the increase. “There can be some final adjustments during budgeting but in principal it is agreed that somewhere near 4 per cent of the GDP would be allocated,” said the official.

The government, at international forums, feels embarrassed for not meeting the Unesco’s minimum requirement of four per cent of the budget sanctioned to the education sector.

Despite commitments, successive governments have failed in providing education sector its share resulting in poor-quality education.

According to the Unesco, Pakistan is second after Nigeria in the world with the highest number of `out-of-school’ children. According to details there are 6.5 million out-of-school kids wherein, 80 per cent were never enrolled, 10 per cent dropped out, while the remaining could get to school at some later stage.The ministry has taken all on board in the ongoing curriculum review in reference to the NWFP and Balochistan provinces, said Javed A. Qazi.

Students also inquired the government’s initiative in FATA and as to how it was providing educational facilities with the prevailing unrest in the region.

The national curriculum is free of any biases, hate and sectarianism, while medical technology and computer science have been introduced to make it compatible with the rest of the world, the education minister said.