Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain on Tuesday called for laying greater focus on children brought-up at an early age for promoting a healthy society and ensuring a better future of the young generation.

In human development, the first five years of childhood were highly important, he said while addressing the concluding session of the two-day national conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) held here at the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU).

While speaking highly about the importance of education in the nation-building task, the President said the government was actively engaged in reforming the entire educational system and developing a conducive environment for proper physical and mental health care of the children.

Those who also spoke during the concluding session included the Minister of State for Health, Saira Afzal Tarar and Vice Chancellor AIOU, Prof. Dr. Shahid Siddiqui who announced that the university would soon be developed as a hub of children-health care activities.

In this connection, they had prepared a comprehensive plan to promote pre-primary education that includes launching of special certificates and degree courses and introduction of a research journal on ECCE, he added. The conference was organised by the Ministry of Education and Professional Training in collaboration with the Early Childhood Development Network of Pakistan (ECDNP), AIOU and some relevant NGOs.

More than 300 delegates including ECCE experts and academia participated in the two-day event that had two plenary and 10 concurrent sessions during which a road-map was prepared to promote the cause of children. President Mamnoon Hussain noted that the federal government had taken a number of initiatives for the promotion of ECCE in particular and for education in general. He hoped that that the recommendations of the conference would guide the government to devise future strategic plans for the promotion of ECCE in Pakistan The President also referred to Pakistan’s vision 2025 and said it had put the country on the road to progress and prosperity. Pakistan, he added fully stood by the international community to ensure the provision of basic education to children.

“The government is committed to develop a society based on basic ethics and human values, while fighting out social evils and the menace of terrorism and extremism,” he remarked. The President also emphasised that children’s education and growth should take place in a manner, so that they could become good human beings and be able to serve the nation for a prosperous future. Earlier, the Joint Adviser Ministry of Education, Rafiq Tarar, in his brief remarks talked about the way forward to achieve the stipulated targets in the ECCE.

Security at schools: The Pakistan School Safety Framework (PSSF) is an initiative of national priority and will go a long way in improving the safety standards of educational institutions in Pakistan, a country highly prone to natural and man-made disasters. These views were expressed by the participants of the National Level Consultative Meeting on the implementation of the Pakistan Schools Safety Framework (PSSF) held in Islamabad on Tuesday.

The purpose of the consultative meeting was to share the findings of the pilot programme of the PSSF with all stakeholders and to get their valuable input. Detailed deliberations were carried out in the moot on the future implementation strategies for the PSSF in the whole country.

The meeting was attended by Provincial Ministers for Education, Secretaries for Education and Disaster Management, Director Generals PDMAs, high level representation from P&D departments, Police, Rescue 1122, private school executives, UN representatives development partners and other high ranking government officials.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), in collaboration with UNICEF undertook a well-deliberated initiative of formulating the Pakistan School Safety Framework, as envisaged in the Disaster Management Act 2010 and National Education Policy 2009.

This framework provides guidance to all stake holders to ensure safety and “Disaster Risk Reduction” (DRR) in schools while focusing on Child Centred Disaster Risk Management. Safe learning environment, preparedness against hazards at schools, to evolve a response mechanism, to sensitise stakeholders on DRR and ensuring participation of children in building resilience.