KARACHI, July 18: Federal Minister for Labour, Manpower and Overseas Pakistanis Owais Ahmed Ghani on Thursday asked the private sector to invest more in human resource development.

Speaking at an award distribution ceremony for diploma in information technology students, organized by the Skill Development Council (SDC) in a local hotel, the federal minister said the poor should also be given an opportunity to get IT education.

Owing to the colonial educational system in the country, the poor cannot get quality education, he said adding that the British had adopted a two-tier education system to create an elite class. This system continued even after the independence, he added.

“In computers, the medium of communication is English and the majority of students have not got education from the English-medium schools, so they are lagging behind in this modern education.”

The labour minister said that due to the colonial-type educational system, 95 per cent population were without quality education.

“We need a unified system of education for all.”

Mr Ghani said that in the specialized education, including IT education, the masses were neglected because it was costly. “The government alone is not responsible for providing education to all segments of society, the private sector is also equally responsible.”

He said the development of human resources was essential for the nation’s progress and the basic human resource development began at school.

Owais said this was an era of computers and serious efforts should be made to provide computer education to all segments of society

He underlined the need to pay attention to quality of education. “We need quality people,” he said, adding that instead of quantity, emphasis should be on quality.

He appreciated the role of the SDC in providing quality education to the people.

Both public and private sectors should work together and strengthen each other for the development of the country.

Earlier, in his welcome remarks, the chief executive officer of the SDC, Karachi, Syed Nazar Ali, said the SDC had provided loans to thousands of students in the fields of industrial electronics, computers, biomedical mechanics, refrigeration and air-conditioning, textile technology, Java programme etc.

Moreover, he said the SDC had also financed many professional development programmes, workshops and other such events.

Earlier, the labour minister gave away trophies to successful students.—APP