Federal Minister for Education, Professional Training, National Heritage and Culture Shafqat Mahmood on Friday said that the government was working to increase literacy level and promote non formal education for taking the country forward through education.
Addressing the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC)’s meeting of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) regarding Advancing quality alternative learning (AQAL) Phase-II at a local hotel, he appreciated JICA for initiating AQAL phase II to address the root causes of out of school children and for working closely with the federal and provincial literacy departments to cope with these issues through innovative and locally appropriate strategies.
The Minister said that the government was trying its best to address the out-of-school children issue through technology based solutions and single national curriculum (SNC) that would bring revolution in the field of education in Pakistan and strengthening systems of data.
He added that Pakistan Institute of Education (PIE) would be created to strengthen data systems and promote research based planning in education.
He said that the “Matric-Tech” learning programme would be a huge landmark in attracting interest of the parents who were not happy with the educational outcomes previously.
He added that JICA would continue to partner with the federal and provincial governments to strengthen non-formal education and accelerated learning systems in Pakistan that could result in innovation, strategic delivery strategies, promotion of digital and distance.
“More than 20 million out of school children were a huge challenge but all out efforts were being made to bring these children back to the school”, he maintained.
The minister said that due to Covid-19 pandemic, closure of schools and increasing number of out of school children caused difficulties in the way to child learning process,
He said that non-formal education was a provincial domain but the federal government has some capacity pertaining to it, so it was needed to ensure proper coordination among the provinces and federal government.
