Islamabad :

State Minister for Education, Trainings and Standards in Higher Education, Engineer Balighur Rehman on Thursday said the PML-N led government would take drastic measures for bringing improvement in education sector, ensuring 4 per cent of GDP spending on education till the year 2018, as per commitment.

Talking to APP, he said Pakistan is signatory of Education For All (EFA) goals and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of education and committed to fulfil the commitments.

For this purpose, he said, the government would utilise all resources to increase literacy rate, control drop outs and improve the quality of education in the country on priority basis.

Balighur Rehman said the government paid special attention towards the higher education sector and raised the budgetary allocations for this sector from Rs 48 billion to Rs 59 billion, which reflect its commitment towards education.

The budget enhancement would increase the number of scholarships for the students being offered by the HEC, the minister said.

Following the practice of giving on-campus jobs to the students by the universities, the minister said, the government would implement the Prime Minister Scheme worth rupees three billion to provide internship to the youth qualifying 16 years of education.

The students who have completed their education and are jobless would get professional training as well as stipend of Rs 10,000 monthly, the minister added.

The Laptop Scheme worth Rs three billion is another initiative to acknowledge the outstanding achievements of the students at higher education level, he said.

The ministry in consultation with Higher Education Commission (HEC) would soon set the criteria of the scheme and ensure transparency.

The minister said that the students who have earlier received laptops under provincial scheme will not be eligible to receive it again.

About the increasing fee of private schools, the minister said it is a fact that most of the parents cannot afford the increasing fee structure of these schools, so “We have to expand and strengthen the network of public schools along with improving the quality of education to reduce the reliance of people over private institutes.”

Balighur Rehman said the proposal to enhance the powers of Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) is under-consideration for which changes in the act of FBISE are required through parliament.

The FBISE, after getting more powers, would be enabled to provide affiliation to more educational institutes, he added.

source: http://www.brecorder.com / Business Recorder / Home> Top News> Pakistan Top News / by Parvez Jabri / Thursday – August 01st, 2013