The Federal Minister for Education, Javed Ashraf Qazi, stated this while speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Friday.
The LCCI President Mian Shafqat Ali, Vice President Aftab Ahmad Vohra and former Presidents Shahzada Alam Mannoo and Mian Anjum Nisar also spoke on the occasion and offered the services of private sector for bringing improvement in the education sector.
Javed maintained that the lower education was a major area of concern, as the government had already allocated sufficient funds for the promotion of higher education in the country. He also informed the participants that the curricula being taught in schools badly needs review and in this regard a Curriculum Review Council was being set up to get it reviewed after every five years.
"It is a sorry state of affairs that for the last 18 years the Pakistani student are reading same books despite the fact that the information technology has changed the whole scenario of education altogether," he said.
He said that the Ministry of Education had already launched National Education Census to update education data by June 2006. Talking about technical education, he said that special attention was being given towards this particular sector, as there was scarcity of skilled manpower in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI President Mian Shafqat Ali said that LCCI was doing the needful for establishing a right kind of industry-university linkage and had already signed MoUs with various educational institutions in the province. The sole object of signing of these MoUs was to bring improvement in curriculum on one hand and provide right people to the industry of the country on the other. "The challenges, which we face in the 21st century and the threats, which the forces of globalisation pose to weaker and ill-prepared economies have made it even more binding upon us to produce the kind of manpower that is fully equipped to meet the challenges forcefully".
He said the government had taken revolutionary steps towards achievement of the virtually static sector of education. The government's decision to allocate at least four percent of the GDP to education in the next fiscal year deserved appreciation, he added.
The LCCI Vice President said that centres of higher education should be encouraged to initiate certificate, diploma and degree courses on international regimes of business regulations not only for the fresh students but also for the real stakeholders in trade and industry.-PR