Education system won’t be Westernized: President
Urges private sector to help re-build schools in quake-hit areas
By Our Special Correspondent

ISLAMABAD—President General Pervez Musharraf Wednesday underlined a firm commitment to building an elaborate education edifice in the quake-shattered areas and urged the private sector to join in the effort by adopting schools at grassroots level.
He was addressing an international conference on the future of schools and education, organized by the Beaconhouse Group, which is administering the largest private sector school system in Pakistan.
The President informed the conference that a comprehensive database, containing information about requirement of educational institutions down to the village level in the quake-affected areas of NWFP and Azad Kashmir would shortly be put on the Internet.
“The availability of the database will facilitate and encourage sponsors to come forward and make the whole process of developing education and health facilities transparent.
“We do not just want to reinstate old facilities but will pursue a need-based strategy to build well-equipped schools, colleges and institutions of higher learning to spread education at grassroots level and meet requirements of fast-paced progress,” he stressed.
Dilating on the need-based strategy, he said, it is aimed at developing human resource on modern lines and under it at least one primary school will be built in each of the 4000 affected villages, a middle schools for every four villages, a high school for every eight villages and three to four colleges in each of the 25 tehsils. President Musharraf said this way all nine districts damaged in the October 8 catastrophe would have a network of educational institutions from primary to higher level and meet the requirements of development of the affected generation on modern lines. The AJK University destroyed in the calamity would also be rebuilt on modern lines, he added He also informed the participants about the policy of owner-driven construction of houses in the quake-hit areas, saying survivors will build these houses while the government will provide them finances and guidance. The President lauded the Beaconhouse schools’ contribution to promotion of education in the country and expressed the hope that it would adopt schools in the quake zone to help provide quality education to younger generation.
Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri, Director Beaconhouse School System, Mrs Khurshid M Kasuri, and Chief Executive Qasim Kasuri,and foreign delegates attended the conference. President Musharraf spoke of the drawbacks in the public education and ascribed them to a lack of resource allocation in the key sector over a long period of time but stressed that his government is redressing the situation.
“We are fully conscious that human resource development lies at the core of progress and it is through education that Pakistan will rise,” he declared. He enumerated a host of steps taken to improve education scenario across the country and said the education budget would be increased to four percent of GDP.
He said increase in the education budget and services rendered by the private schools and institutions run by Pakistan Army, Navy and Air Force will help improve the quality of education. “Now we are investing much more in the sector and the provinces too are spending large amounts to improve the quality of education, he said.
In this context, he referred to efforts underway to improve the curriculum on the basis of suggestions being drafted by progressive and forward-looking scholars. The President said education system would be harmonized with development requirements and a vocational education authority, which is to work independent of the Education Ministry, will focus on developing technical skills of the students.
The authority will set up vocational institutes all over the country to provide quality training to the young people, he added. The Government, he said, has also addressed the issue of harmonizing imparting of education in Urdu and English languages and now as per requirement some subjects would be taught in the national language while others would be taught in English.
The students will be required to take examination in these subjects in the same languages. “That will enable us to meet development requirements in the 21st century,” he said. He said the Government is also mindful of the importance of quality of teachers and has initiated a number of programmes to enhance their capacity and will also increase their salaries.
On higher education, President Musharraf said the Government has bolstered its budget manifold from a mere Rs 600 million in the not too distant past to Rs 14.5 billion. He appreciated the performance of the Higher Education Commission in increasing the number of students doing PhD in science subjects to per annum to 800 in a matter of few years.