ISLAMABAD, Dec 7: Lack of resources is hampering establishment of required number of schools, especially for girls, in rural areas, Federal Education Minister Lt-Gen (retired) Javed Ashraf Qazi said on Tuesday.

He was speaking at a lunch organized by the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) for the delegates of International Conference on Volunteerism & Millennium Development Goals here at a local hotel. Participants came from all over the world to attend the three-day (Dec 5-7) conference organized by the commission.

"Driven by certain societal tendencies, parents do not allow their daughters even to go to nearby village to attend schools. Hence, what they need is schools at their doorsteps - a demand the ministry is finding difficult to meet," he said.

Besides witnessing population explosion, the country is falling behind in providing educational facilities to the masses at the required pace, he added. Unfortunately, he said, the country was lagging behind in terms of literacy rate as well as quality education which had been overlooked in the past.

"We have been following an education system which does not cater to the needs of present-day market demand and, instead of producing skill ful workforce, our schools and colleges are producing students only to increase unemployment rate in the country," Mr Qazi said.

"The education ministry has already started working on a project to provide technical education to the next generation, and, in this context, polytechnic institutes would be established all over the country," he said.

Being appreciative of the NCHD's initiative to set up 43,000 literacy centres in far-flung areas, the minister suggested the commission to focus more on technical education. Talking about volunteerism, he said there was no dearth of volunteers in the country.