LAHORE, Aug 24: Speakers at a conference here on Friday have urged political parties to give top priority to education and set achievable targets in their manifestoes for the forthcoming general elections.
Speaking at the conference arranged by the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), Mukhtar Ahmad Ali, the CPDI chief executive, analysed the manifestoes of leading political parties with an emphasis on their commitment vis-à-vis promotion of education in society.
He said there were only one or two paragraphs in the manifestoes of every political party and that too lacked specific commitment relating to issues like medium of instruction, access to higher education, promotion of merit-based transfers and postings, regulation of private schools and mobilisation of additional resources.
The CPDI chief pointed out that while the public sector education was in total disarray, access to private educational institutions was difficult due to their inflated fees.
He said that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) had committed to raise literacy rate to 100 per cent by 2012. The PML was in power for the past five years but the literacy rate was still below 60 per cent.
It was hard to believe that the party would be able to achieve the 100 per cent literacy by 2012, he added.
Mr Ali said the government had also promised to raise budgetary allocation for education to 4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2012.
He said this target was also unlikely to be achieved because of a limited absorptive capacity of the Education Division, which was able to utilise only 20 percent of the allocated budget by the end of third quarter last year.
MNA Shakila Khanum Rashid of PPPP, who is member of the National Assembly’s standing committee on education, urged recognising the pivotal role of teachers in formulating policies and taking initiatives in the education sector. She also highlighted the importance of teaching social sciences, which, according to him, were being ignored to promote natural sciences.
PPPP MNA Nafeesa Raja said her party would lay greater emphasis on education in its manifesto for the next general elections. She stressed forging consensus among all political parties on basic issues like that of promotion of education in society.
Pakistan Tehrik-I-Insaf leader Rashid A Khan said his party had taken a number of initiatives in education sector particularly in Mianwali district. He stressed establishing autonomous educational institutions that could deliver without interference and bureaucratic hurdles.
Haris Khalique, the executive director of the SPO, said political parties had yet to realise the importance of education. “Leaders do not consult workers while preparing manifestoes due to a lack of democracy within their party ranks.”
He was of the view that quality education could be delivered despite limited resources. He said the Education Division had failed to achieve the targets due to its limited absorptive capacity.
Jamaat-I-islami leader Sajid Ali said his party was conducting research in various constituencies to understand public grievances. He said that political leaders should set realistic targets and explain as to how they would achieve the same.