ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training Wednesday launched the National Education Policy Framework, 2018, under the first 100-day plan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government. In the framework, the education ministry has identified four key areas in education sector, including improving quality education, enrolment of out-of-school children, imparting skills development to youth and introducing uniform education system, and reiterated to resolve these challenges during the next five years. Speaking on the occasion as chief guest, Minister for Federal Education Shafqat Mahmood said the government had established a national task force to identify key areas for development of education. “We consulted with the donors, NGOs and experts in formulating the education policy framework,” he said, adding that an inter-provincial ministers’ conference was also arranged in Islamabad wherein the education policy was discussed with the provinces. Sharing the details of future tasks in education sector, the minister said the government was all set to bring back more than 20 million out-of-school boys and girls. Currently, he said, there are three kinds of educational systems existing in the country, including Madrassa system, private schools system or English medium and public-sector schools and, unfortunately, they all have different syllabuses. However, he added, under the new education policy, a uniform education system with uniform syllabus would be introduced aiming at bringing unity among the nation. Talking about the quality education, the minister said during an assessment it was found that the standard of education was different at government schools and the private schools. He reiterated to improve the quality education at the government schools, adding that market-oriented education will be provided to the students so that they could be able to get jobs. The minister underlined the need for skills development, saying it was the only way for the socioeconomic development of the country. “We have a number of primary schools across the country but due to lack of middle schools, the students are unable to continue their studies. We are initiating alternative system of education under which middle classes would be launched in primary schools in the evenings to meet the requirements,” he said. “In order to meet the need of teachers, we are going to start ‘Smart Schools System’ by getting benefit from the modern technology under which online lectures will be delivered in schools facing lack of teaching staff,” the minister said. The smart class rooms would be established in every school of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), he said. An ‘Educational Volunteer Program’ would also be initiated to fulfil the need of teachers, he said, and added that under the programme, the educated youth would extend their services voluntarily to teach the children in schools of their respective areas. The government would increase the number of non-formal schools to achieve the task of maximum enrolment in schools, he said. “We will establish ‘National Curriculum Council’ in which the educational experts will be included to develop a consensus for uniform syllabus,” he revealed. To a question, the minister said, “Under the pilot project for ICT schools, we will try to enrol all 27,000 children in next two years with the public-private partnership. It is our target to introduce ‘National Certification System’ across the entire educational institutions by launching uniform examination system.” Later, the minister also launched the out-of-school children campaign in the federal capital. By signing the admission documents, he enrolled six students of the federal capital in the schools established near their residences. Published in Daily Times, November 29th 2018.