Daily News
Published Date: Feb 7, 2012
SPEAKERS URGE GOVT TO RAISE EDU BUDGET TO 5% OF GDP
Speakers at a seminar urged the government to raise education budget from 1.8 percent of its total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to five percent as there is dire need for a knowledge-based society in order to enable the country meet challenges it is being faced with these days.
The speakers were reading out their dissertation at a seminar, ‘Education and Human Development’ organised by the Knowledge-Based Society (KBS) in connection of Sustainable Development Policy Institute on Monday.
KBS Chief Coordinator Professor Dr Shaukat Farooq said with the timely implementation of reforms in the public education system, Pakistan could be transformed into a knowledge-based society to meet the challenges of globalisation. He said vocational education should be made compulsory to students who were being taught by religious seminaries.
He said that about 30 million children were not going to school in the country and most of them resided in slums. Other speakers, Arif Naveed and Misbah, spoke at length on the topic and appealed to educational institutions, civil society and agencies to come forward to eliminate illiteracy in the country.