Daily Times

With the revolutionary changes in global education system, Pakistan is also focusing to modernize its educational landscape by improving infrastructure, access to education and fostering a culture of innovation and inclusivity.

This transformation in education sector is hoped to improve quality of education through a series of strategic initiatives and programs under implementation for reshaping education in the country to make our students compatible to international standards.

Under its National Education Emergency Program, the government is equipping institutions in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) jurisdiction with state-of-the-art computer labs, fully furnished libraries, smart classrooms, tech fellow programs, foreign language courses and mind games.

Besides, extensive renovation would be carried out at public sector schools with new gyms, dispensaries, updated washroom facilities, refreshed exterior of main buildings, school meal programs, e-Rozgar schemes, football courts, clean drinking water, boundary walls and playgrounds.

“Education Ministry is initiating a range of actions like education technology, teacher education and assessment reforms and tackling foundational learning issues to transform educational sector,” remarked Federal Secretary Education and Professional Training Mohyuddin Ahmad Wani.

“One of the most notable additions is providing students the latest technology and software. This facility would ensure to enhance their technical proficiency and digital literacy making our students compatible to international workforce demands,” he informed.

Mentioning to establishment of IT labs in rural schools to promote digital literacy and bridge technology gap between rural and urban areas, he said, the government was upgrading curriculum to align student with modern era demands.

Since Pakistan lags behind in contemporary education curricula and skills, the government has made this subject a part of its top implementation agenda focusing not only the teaching techniques but also providing conducive and healthy environment for students and the teaching staff. Therefore numbers of projects have been initiated to bring our education system at par with international standards and prepare skillful workforce.

In this regard, the officials at the Education Ministry, besides other initiatives, mention to establishment of 11 modern Daanish Schools at ICT, AJ&K, GB and Balochistan to impart education to children of underprivileged families, address illiteracy and bridge educational gaps.

Similarly, 100 Early Childhood Education (ECE) Centres being established in urban and rural areas of Islamabad would provide quality education and enhance cognitive and social development of young children in line with SDGs 4 and 5.

The Prime Minister’s Health and Hygiene Initiative for education, also aims at improving health and nutrition of students, teachers and community members with establishment of 100 health centers in girls’ schools of ICT rural areas also hoped to go a long way in improving health and academic performance of girl students.

“Software Technology Parks (STPs), e-Rozgaar Centers established to support freelancers would enhance their skills in digital economy and promote entrepreneurship and innovation in digital sectors,” the officials remarked. “Provision of Telescopes to 110 schools and colleges would boost students’ interest in astronomy and science.”

National Institute of Excellence in Teacher Education (NIETE) has been launched to train teacher through latest digital modes and AI-powered tools for improving their performance. Recruitment of Tech, Coding and Robotics Fellows would support schools in teaching coding and AI while financial literacy would equip both students and teachers for fiscal management.

Provision of Foreign Language Labs to teach students Korean, German, Arabic, Japanese, and Chinese languages would also help broaden students’ global outlook ensuring better career opportunities and cross-cultural competence.

As launching of mind sports, arts and podcast rooms would encourage strategic thinking, creativity and communication skills, the indoor and outdoor gyms would ensure better health of students.

Establishment of gyms in 16 FDE Colleges, schools up-gradation and solarization and launching of Chromebook are the other important components of infrastructure development at public schools in rural areas under this project as well as bridging rural-urban digital divide.

Different other initiatives like environment and entrepreneurship curriculum, kitchen gardening program to promote environmental awareness and healthy eating habits, national wellbeing hotline to provide students mental health support and counseling services, regular student leadership and outreach initiatives for their participation in co-curricular activities and development of national open-source data portal to ensure transparency and access to standardized data for educational stakeholders are also part of PM Educational Reforms Program.

The Education Ministry also offers performance grant mechanism to backward districts under its Aspire Program to improve their educational outcomes and its Global Gold Standard Training Institute will provide Pakistani teachers access to global best practices in education, focusing on modern pedagogy, digital learning and subject matter expertise.

The officials at the Ministry have expressed hopes that all these initiatives would pave way for a modernized education system, facilitating both the students and teachers with latest teaching and learning techniques and preparing a well-equipped workforce to compete globally.

“We hope that with these initiatives Pakistani students would benefit from latest teaching techniques with the country grooming a skilled lot to bridge the technology gaps within the country and secure better slots in international market,” noted the officials at the Ministry.