ISLAMABAD, Aug 9: Less than 50 per cent children complete their primary education in the existing education system in the country, which needs comprehensive changes both in terms of teaching methodologies and infrastructure.

This was stated by the federal minister for education, Zobaida Jalal, at the first annual meeting of the national Education For All Forum (EFAF) here on Friday.

Speaking as the chief guest, she added that more than half of our population was functionally illiterate while the quality of education continued to decline.

She also expressed her disappointment over gender disparities at all levels of education, which called for concerted efforts on the part of public and private sectors.

The world today is undergoing profound transformation. The economic future of the developing countries lies in their capacity to use and transform knowledge for their own requirements.

The education minister also underlined the fact that the educational profile and related indicators of the country were not encouraging.

“Participation in primary education is low while the dropout rate is high at all levels of education,” the minister said.

Therefore, achievement of equity, equality and quality in the education sector top the government’s list of priorities.

She further added that political commitment was one of the imperatives for EFAF and the government had already released substantial funds for the programme under its Education Sector Reforms (ESR).

“We have set the stage for bringing about real change in the education sector in the form of EFAF and now it is up to the future governments to carry it forward,” the minister continued.

She was of the view that the role of family, school, community, non-governmental organizations and media had to be maximized to promote the cause of basic education in the country.

It was the first annual review meeting of Education For All Forum Provincial EFAF people were also present on the occasion to share their experiences with each other.

The federal ministry of education set up the EFAF on October 1, 2001, to pursue the targets set by World Education Forum in Dakar, one of which was to ensure free and compulsory primary education by 2015.

Pakistan is one of those developing countries who made a commitment to work for EFA goals at the World Education Forum in Dakar.

The goals are to reach the disadvantaged population groups in rural and urban areas with emphasis on girls and women, promote community participation and ownership of basic education programmes at grassroots and improve relevance and quality of basic education.

APP ADDS: Secretary (education) Tariq Farook, who is also the vice-chairman of Education For All Forum, in his speech hoped that the recommendations made at the conference would be implemented in letter and spirit.