ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: Federal Education Minister Zubaida Jalal has said the task of education planning and management has been entrusted to the district governments which will result in decision making at the peoples’ level.

Speaking at the first-ever meeting of the provincial education ministers and education secretaries here, Ms Jalal said much of the action concerning education lay in the communities at Tehsil and district level. She said the centralized system and distanced planning would be replaced by this new approach through ‘governance by people and learner’ approach.

The minister said education was a national task and to accomplish this, efforts on part of the entire nation was required. She hoped that the Education Sector Reforms (ESR) would bring about the much desired change through which every Pakistani citizen would acquire a dignified and enlightened identity in the global environment.

Briefing the participants about the ESR programme, she elaborated that it was designed in the long-term perspective of National Education Policy (1988-2005) and the 10-year Development Plan.

She said the ESR was an action plan for 2001-2005 focussing upon stemming the rot that had set in the education.

“In order to save it from further crumbling and damage, rehabilitation of the existing educational infrastructure, both physical and human and bringing it to maximum fruition is included as one of the major plants of the programme,” Ms Jalal said.

For this, she added, consolidation and optimum utilization of the available infrastructure, improvement of skills and capacity of existing manpower was envisaged to enhance the capacity and the performance of the education system.

The minister said the private sector and civil society organizations should also join in designing, executing and monitoring educational activities.

She said the local governments would be actively involved in mobilizing resources and managing schools.