ISLAMABAD, July 19: Federal Education Minister Zobaida Jalal has said that all possible facilities will be provided to foreign agencies helping the government in social sector development.
She was talking to a delegation of the Saudi-based International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO).
The minister said the government would welcome all foreign donor agencies willing to launch projects for social sector development in the country.
The minister told the IIRO representatives that all foreign donors were satisfied with the progress being made by her ministry in developing the basic education system.
The minister was informed that IIRO had a wide spectrum of activities ranging from construction of hospitals and clinics for the poor, establishment of camps for refugees, provision of emergency aid to orphans and distribution of Sadqatul Fitr (Eid alms), sacrificial meat and Aftar packages (Ramzan breakfasts) among the needy Muslims.
In Pakistan, the IIRO initially had an office in Peshawar, which was set up in 1988 and covered both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The office was shifted to Islamabad in 1992.
The IIRO delegation, headed by Rehmatullah Nazeer Khan, told the minister that the organization was interested in opening orphanages that would provide schooling and accommodation to Muslim children. The IIRO plans to open more orphanages in Islamabad, Peshawar, Quetta and Muzaffarabad. A plan is also under consideration to sponsor the education of 5,000 orphans at various schools of Fauji Foundation, FG schools under the GHQ and FG schools in Islamabad and in various other institutions.
The minister maintained that both the IIRO and Ministry of Education would work together for this noble cause of educating orphans free of cost, which would also help increase literacy rate in the country.
The delegation further told the minister that the orphans already studying in the schools would get monthly stipends, besides having their tuition fee and other school expenses waived. The IIRO would work closely with the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) to get the required data of the orphans who are already studying in various public and private schools. A committee was formed in this connection under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (Education) Sarfraz Ahmad Syed. It also included the technical advisor to education minister, Beela Jameel, and FDE director-general Brig Maqsoodul Hasan (retd).
Later, talking to a delegation of students from Quetta, the minister said that gone were the days when education was considered inaccessible due to lack of planning and opportunities. She told the students that the present government was committed to providing basic education to every child of the country. She maintained that education had now become a national obligation.
She also briefed the students on the on-going projects for educational uplift.
APP ADDS: The federal education minister has denied that the government had planned to privatize the government universities.
She said: “No such suggestion is under consideration.”
The minister said an amount of Rs800 million had been set aside in the budget 2002-03 to transform the religious institutions according to contemporary needs out of total federal allocations for the institutions.
The minister said that during the year 2000, the government had provided a survey form to the religious institutions and about 8,000 institutions had returned these with required information to the ministry.
She said the government will also introduce the subjects of mathematics, English, Pakistan studies and general science in religious institutions, in addition to their existing curriculum.
The government, she maintained would provide four teachers to each religious institution and after three years the institutions would be able to manage it by themselves.