HEALTH and education sectors are the ones which were ignored by successive governments despite their importance to take forward the country on the path of sustainable development and exploit the true potential of the population.
The PTI government had come to power with the slogan of bringing improvement in both the social sectors to improve the living standards of the people. Whether there is improvement in this regard, President Arif Alvi appears to be very confident when he stated on Sunday that Pakistan is moving towards a non-elite health and education system. As regards the health sector is concerned, the PTI government has really introduced a revolutionary health insurance scheme under which the poor people can also get medical treatment at the health facility or hospital of their own choice either public or private sector. This really is a major step towards providing quality health services to the population without any discrimination. Its benefits will be far more visible when the scope of the scheme will be expanded to the whole population. Regarding the education sector, the students belonging to poor segments of the society are being provided with assistance in the form of scholarships under Ehsaas Program. However, this scheme is only for the undergraduates. This class-based education system needs to be addressed at the grassroots level by improving the standard of education in public sector schools and colleges so that their students can better compete with those studying in the private schools. Whilst the government is trying to bring a uniform syllabus in the country but much more needs to be done to raise the standard of government schools on the pattern of western countries where people prefer sending their children to public sector schools rather than the private ones. President Arif Alvi is a learned person and ever since assuming the office, he has played a commendable role by engaging with different segments of the society to address the problems faced by our society. We are confident that he will continue to give his invaluable suggestions to relevant quarters to bring further improvement in both health and education and achieve the long cherished dream of non-elitism in both the sectors in real sense.
