Uniform Education for all Stressed
By Our Reporter
Lahore,April 29:Speakers at
a seminar have empasised the need for a uniform system of education
for all sections of society in Pakistan.The seminar was held by
the Pakistan Association for Adult Continuing Education(PACADE)
in collaboration with United Nations Educational,Scientific and
Cultural Organization(Unesco) on "Global Campaing for education
for all" at the Lahore Press Club on Saturday.
Senator Dr.Khalid Ranjha who
presented over the seminar said that education had never been
a priority in Pakistan which had left the country lagging behind
in literacy and development. He said rural areas had poor educational
facilities for their children.Poverty and feudal mindset against
education were the main causes of the lack of education in rural
areas besides lack of sincere efforts to pomote education on part
of the government,he said.
He said that a farmer would
not send his children to school but engage them to work on farms
to supplement his incom. A feudal sent their children to good
schools and most of them had recieved education in foreign countries
but he would discourage their tenants and farm workers to send
their children to school lest they challenge their authority after
receiving education .
The feudal mindset against
education prevailed in rural Pakistan,he said.He added village
mosques had been playing an important role in providing basic
education of recitation of the holy Quran to rural children where
they also learned how to read and write Urdu.
The mosque school sould be
revived to spread education in villages to spread education in
villages in the absense of government schools,he said,adding that
an awarness campaign should be launched among rural people about
the fruits of education to persuade them to send their children
to mosque schools and later to government or private schools.
Punjab University's Institute
of Communication Studies Director Dr.Mugheesuddin Sheikh said
there were half a dozen education systems in vogue for children
of various classes of the people.
He said unless a uniform system
of education was evolved , achieving the good quality of education
would remain a dream. He said both the public and private sectors
would need joint efforts.He said unless people and the government
were committed to promoting education for all, no positive results
could be achieved.
PACADE President Mr.Inayatullah
said Pakistan was among the countries in the world with the lowest
literacy rate.
China,India and Pakistan had
got independence almost at the same time but China had achieved
a literacy rate of 80 per cent,India 65 per cent and Pakistan
50 per cent.
He said in 1981, the government
had allocated Rs.750 million for a National Literacy Plan but
it could not be implemented because of a lack of political commitment.
He said that the World Education Forum in Dakar,Senegal,in 2000
fixed six education goals for 160 countries.
The goals are :expand early
childhood care education;promote learning and skills for young
people and adults; increase adult literacy by 50 per cent ;achieve
gender parity by 2005 and gender equality by 2015;and enhance
education quality.He said that according to a finding of the Unesco
Golbal Monitoring Repot for the year 2007,Pakistan was one of
the few countries which would fail to achieve of the six goals.
DAWN Lahore. MONDAY,
APRIL 30,2007
