Ladies and gentlemen Aslam-o-Allakum and Good Afternoon.
Today I have been provided opportunity to speak on a very important issue of basic education. Actually Syed Anisul Hassnaina Musavi Secretary, Ministry of Inter Provincial Coordination Government of Pakistan had to talk on this topic but due to his important commitments at home he could not make it. As such I on behalf of Government of Pakistan and on my own behalf pay sincere thanks to organizers for organizing such an important event and providing opportunity to participate.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Basic education includes pre-primary & primary education and lower secondary education. It is also called elementary education.
As beginning of academic career it aims to meet basic learning needs of an individual. It inculcates the basic concepts of life, moulds the personality and prepares an individual for future life. Studies have shown benefits of basic education on different aspects of society mainly on public health and economy. In health it helps in control over spread of HIV/AIDS, improved vaccination, prevention and medication of disease, better nutrition, lower maternal, infant and child mortality, longer life expectancy. In economy it helps in empowerment of masses, increases productivity in traditional sectors, provides improvement in service sectors Other benefits include impact on democracy, human rights, governance and political stability.
Ladies and gentlemen
As we all are aware that Basic Education is an important sub-sector of Education which provides base of the whole structure of education and is the foundation for further education. It prepares the students for secondary, technical and higher education. All individuals have to go through basic education experience before choosing any stream for further education. As such for improvement in any sub-sector of education, quality of basic education needs to be improved.
Importance of basic education has been unanimously accepted at all international forums and adopted in all national policies It has also been declared as basic human right by UN. In Article 26 (1), United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, and clearly laid down that:
‘Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory.”
Universal basic education is also focus of the Education For All (EFA) movement led by UNESCO.To achieve Universal Primary Education by 2015 is the Goal No 2 of the Millennium Development Goals. It is also a priority for developing countries.
Ladies and gentelmen
Pakistan is also signatory to these international obligations. These international commitments form the basis for national development efforts. The Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973 clearly lays down in Article 37 (b) that:
The state of Pakistan shall… remove illiteracy and provide free and compulsory secondary education within minimum possible period”.
Recently through constitutional provision, basic education has been included in the list of fundamental rights. According to Article 25-A of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan “The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such a manner as may be determined by Law”
Ladies and gentlemen
Despite the constitutional guarantee of free and compulsory secondary education, Pakistan has not been able to achieve targets of universal primary enrollment fully. More efforts would be required to further increase in net enrollment rate and retention rate. Pakistan’s adult literacy rate (for population aged 15 years and above) was very low as it inherited a weak educational base of basic education and high illiteracy rate at time of independence, which was among the lowest in the world and much below the South Asian average. The main cause of this higher rate of illiteracy was weak base of basic education and also the vicious circle as weak literacy base is major cause of weaker basic education. So it became very difficult for Pakistan to eradicate illiteracy within shorter period without improving Basic Education..
Ladies and gentlemen
Due to lower level of literacy and basic education, Pakistan, 6th most populous country of the world, ranked lower In Human Development Report i.e at position 144th position out of 187 countries.
Ladies and gentlemen
We are here to share, discuss and deliberate upon the major issues of basic education which included access , retention , achievement, and, equity .There are certain weaker areas/factors which were hindering the progress to improve basic education. These factor/weaker areas included..
High population growth
Poverty restrict the parents to send their children to public or private schools.
Location of school and long distance from school.
Missing facilities and weak physical infrastructure.
School environment
Relevance of education to market demand.
Medium of education is different in both, public and private sectors.
Rural/Urban, gender and regional gap..,
Weaker technical education base..
The allocation of funds for education is about 2% of GNP which are very low. Only 50% is allocated to Basic Education
The teachers in needs further training and refresher courses to improve capacity.
Ladies and Gentlemen
To overcome the problems and improve the basic education, Government of Pakistan had taken short term and long term initiatives and measures which are generating positive effect. The initiatives included.
Provision of more than 50% of the total budget of education to basic education.
Free education upto matriculation and free supply of textbooks.
Grant of stipends and incentives to girls students and female teachers.
Setting up of primary schools for each village in hand.
Setting non-formal basic education community schools for reaching the unreached and serving the un-served .and providing basic education facilities to small remote localities.
Providing missing facilities and capacity building of existing schools.
School up-gradation through conventional and non-conventional means to reduce the current imbalances.
English language teaching has been introduced from class-1.
Shifting direction towards vocational / technical training for employment..
Early Childhood Education introduced..
All primary schools are being converted to co-educational.
All new primary schools are required to have ratio of 60 to 40 boys and girls, proportion of 70% female teachers to 30% male teachers at Primary level.
Special monetary incentives are being offered to attract and retain female teachers and students in the rural and hard areas.
Accountability and facility for the teacher for the retention of the students. (linking teacher promotion)
Provision of better pay scales/ pay package to teachers.
Shortage of teachers be removed.
Labors laws for bidding child labour.
Teachers training institutions carry out research for the needs and requirement of the students.
Introduction of service training of teachers once in the year.
Training of teachers educators supervisors and supervisory staff.
Increase in learning coordinators.
Revision of teachers education curriculum. (Pre-STEP two years Diploma and 4 years Bed}
Ladies and gentlemen
The sub-sector of basic education needs support of international co-operations. Particularly the role of UNESCO & Education Forum for Asia as well as other UN and Regional agencies, I feel besides the efforts of multilateral international agencies, there should be bi-lateral co-operation between the countries to share innovative methods and techniques, researches , trainings and material exchange to mutually benefit and help in development of this important are of education.
I take this opportunity to congratulate the organizers for organizing this important conference and managing assembly of large number of experts and intellectuals in the field of education . It is expected that in the sub-sessions will have more deliberations and will bring out more useful recommendations.
At the end I once again congratulate the organizers for such elaborate arrangements and pray that our efforts will help us in improvement of basic education and achievements of set targets and goals.
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