ISLAMABAD, May 24: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said the government will raise allocation for higher education from Rs5 billion to Rs9.6 billion in the forthcoming budget and this allocation will be increased gradually in the coming years.

Speaking at the first students convention here on Monday, Gen Musharraf said the government wanted to have a yearly increase of 50 per cent in the allocation for education. He said due to improvement in economic situation, the government was in a position to spend more on the education sector.

The president, however, termed population explosion as the main hurdle in the way of country's development. He said the allocation made for education sector neutralized every year due to increase in population. He also said there was a wide gap between policy formalization and its implementation.

Gen Musharraf conceded that the education quality was poor in the country. He praised steps taken by the minister in charge of science and technology, Dr Attaur Rahman, for improvement in education quality. He praised the Model University Ordinance and criticized those who had been protesting over it for the past several months.

He said English should be taught at Madressahs. Gen Musharraf said he had even spoke at the UN that the Madressahs were largest NGOs and these were rendering huge national service. However, a large number of these religious seminaries were not awarding any degree to the students and some of these were even preaching sectarianism, he added.

In response to problems mentioned by a student from Fata, Gen Musharraf said the government was pumping billions of rupees into the tribal areas for their development. Roads are being constructed, dispensaries being set up and even educational institutions being opened in the area, he added.

He said the army had also been involved in the development activities in Fata and the corps commander was directly monitoring the projects.

The president said the government had sanctioned setting up of 10 degree colleges in Fata.

Earlier, the students highlighted their problems and gave proposals to improve education system while speaking on three different themes - investment in education, extremism main hurdle in development, and enlightened moderation key to globalization.

Zainab Zohra, a student from Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata), called for improving the status of the teachers in the society. She was of the view that teaching had become a last option for the people while selecting their careers. She also stressed the need for bringing positive changes in the syllabi.

She regretted that there was lack of schools and colleges in South Waziristan. The people, she said, were eager to be educated and they wanted development in their area.

"The whole world should know that we are not extremists. We are moderate, tolerant and enlightened."

Zunaira Mir of Nishtar Medical College, Multan, called for allocation of more funds for education sector.

"In order to face challenges of the 21st century, we will have to make investment in education sector," she added.

Ghulam Nabi of the AJK University said education should be knowledge based, instead of job-oriented. He said the country needed a new education system according to its own requirements.

He regretted that the teachers were not given due status in the country and there was a need to improve their economic conditions.

Tariq Ranjha of the Punjab University said class-based education system should be eliminated. He also asked the government to take steps to rid university campuses of political elements. He also said there should be one medium of education in the country.

Mohammad Gohar Iqbal of the Punjab University said the HEC was giving importance to science subjects but it had ignored the social science subjects. Abidullah Marwat of the Peshawar University said co- education system should not be abolished. Maira Javed of the Institute of Business Management called for making policies to have equal distribution of wealth in the country.