ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif emphasized on Tuesday that the best resources and efforts should be used to introduce contemporary educational models, including digitization initiatives, in addition to providing teachers with the most recent training.
He was speaking at a ceremony to officially launch the “Teleschool Pakistan App and Google for Education and Digital Continuous Professional Development” initiative, which aims to further transform Pakistan’s formal education system. The prime minister lamented that the country’s teacher training programs fell short of expectations and cited his own experiences in Punjab province as evidence. During his time as chief minister, he claimed to have ordered actions to raise the caliber of about 40 training facilities in the province.
The prime minister urged the Minister for Federal Education to chalk out a mechanism in consultations with the provincial governments to improve the quality of teachers’ training. Referring to the significance of the latest technology in modern education, he underlined that if they wanted to equip the young generations with the latest education, they would have to give them laptops and other related gadgets, so that the future builders of the nation could get themselves acquainted with the new modes of education. He said that about 100,000 laptops would be distributed among the high achievers across the country, hinting that such initiatives would be realized.
The prime minister opined that the vocational training programme should be taken forward in collaboration with the provincial governments and the private sector. Instead of making investments on the brick and mortar, they should invest over the young students by imparting them technical and skill training, he added. He emphasized that the students should be directly trained by involving the private sector. The best institutions in the private sector should be hired in a transparent manner and investment be made on each student by imparting them proper training. The prime minister said that they would also establish a network of Danish schools in the far-flung areas of Balochistan for which huge investments would be made.
He expressed the confidence that the quality education to the students in remote area of the province would help bring them at par with the rest of the students of other parts of the country. He also urged that the educational requirements of the orphan children should be taken care of. He said imparting the latest education to the young generations should be the goal of life for them. Appreciating the efforts of the federal minister, ministry and other partners, the prime minister said it was a good day for the education sector of the country as the latest technology would be utilized to further improve the quality of education. Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Rana Tanveer Hussain said that quality of education was linked with teachers’ training which was being focused. The covid-19 pandemic had provided the world with the opportunity to adopt distance school learning methods, he added.
The minister said under the initiative, six channels were being launched which would prove a milestone in the education system of the country. He said in Pakistan there were about 22.8 million out-of-school children and resources were not enough to cater to them, adding the recent initiatives would be helpful in covering the needs of these children. He said that the technical and skill development of the youth was vital and observed that the country’s universities were not included among the world’s top leading educational institutions which was unfortunate. Representatives of development partners, parliamentarians and officials were present during the ceremony. Secretary for Federal Education and Professional Training Waseem Ajmal presented an overview of the initiative. He said digital contents would be created and made available on different media and added a total of six digital channels were being launched for different ages.
He said after the Covid pandemic, 6000 quality videos were prepared. Teachers would also be properly trained under the professional development initiative, he added. Under the initiative, 150 chrome books were being distributed among the students while another 6,000 chrome books would be distributed soon, he added. President and GCEO PTCL Hatem Bamatraf, in his remarks, expressed that they felt pride on being part of the latest educational initiative which would help transform the educational system in Pakistan. Earlier, the prime minister also distributed chrome books among different students of Islamabad.
