Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Experts in a seminar urged the government to invest more in education and stressed to meet the United Nations (UN) millennium education goals.The seminar was organised by Member National Assembly (MNA) Asiya Nasir in collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) on Wednesday in connection with the upcoming World Literacy Day on September 8, to discuss ‘Education for All’ programme and pay homage to the children of Army Public School, Peshawar, who sacrificed their lives in the deadly terrorists’ attack.

Vice Chancellors (VCs) of ten universities across the country attended the seminar. Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) Vice Chancellor Dr Javed Ashraf shed the light on the importance of education. A large number of students also participated in the event.

While discussing the ‘Education for all’, the experts revealed that two out of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are related to education, but the government has so far not succeeded to achieve the goals. However, they said that the government was making efforts to improve education sector and that is a good tradition in the history of the country.

Chief guest at the occasion, State Minister for Education Balighur Rehman said that in the past, the MDGs were not at the priority list of the governments, but the incumbent government has formulated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“The ruling party (PML-N) also constituted a committee for the practical implementation of these goals”, Baligh claimed.

He said that the incumbent government has allocated two percent of the budget for education, which is very low in comparison with the tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio. “It was the best which could be allocated at the moment, our tax to GDP ration has been improved from 8.55 to 9.1 percent. In forthcoming fiscal year, it would be our utmost strive to increase this amount for literacy improvement,” he assured the participants.

He admitted the fact that as per United Nations standards, a nation should spend at least four percent of its GDP or 20 to 25 percent of its total budget on education.

“ In the tenure of my party government, we have increased the budged to Higher Education Commission from Rs 40 billion to Rs 70 billion in two years, the state minister claimed. The minister said that the literacy rate has gone up from 58 percent to 60 percent according to the figures of AEPAM (Academy of Education Planning And Management).

A student of Islamic University, Abdul Kabeer Muhsin told the scribe that he with a group of his colleagues have come to join the event for getting education, knowledge and information regarding their future.

“Attending such events would help us to explore our capabilities, particularly, such event would help me in research work for my MPhil,” Muhsin claimed.While talking to Daily Times, Asiya Nasir said the purpose of the event was to review the MDGs and SDGs formulated by the government. ‘Education for All’ and the article 25 (A) of the constitution is about not only provision of education to every child, but also equal education,” Asiya added.