Federal Minister Madad Ali Sindhi chaired the 37th Inter-Provincial Education Ministers' Conference (IPEMC) today on 12th December, 2023. The Meeting has been specially called on by the Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training, Mr. Madad Ali Sindhi in order to deliberate on: "Formulation of Uniform National Strategy to cater the issue of Out of School Children (OOSC)" Madad Ali Sindhi said that all the provinces need to work together with the federal government to resolve all the education related problems. He said that Out of School Children is the biggest challenge we face in addition with quality of education. Madad said that these issues have been given top priority. He said that quality of education needs to be improved at all levels including schools, colleges and universities. Madad said that we have enough resources to make a difference, we just need to work hard with honesty. Madad Ali Sindhi, Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training, said that Education Ministry was ensuring that an inclusive approach is taken to devise strategies that benefit students, teachers and parents in every province. Madad Ali Sindhi in his opening remarks said that the meeting was going to play an instrumental role in developing a cohesive plan for providing access to education in all corners of Pakistan. He reiterated that IPEMC’s contributions were going to be significant in the enrollment of Out of School Children (OOSC) including the distance learning interventions. He also assured the provinces that maximum facilitation would be given to them for reaping benefits from these projects. Madad said that Federal Government has a steadfast commitment to address school-related challenges, which is why we have organised this conference to foster an inclusive environment for all provinces to fully participate. Each province will be given the platform to present its plans and formulate practical strategies to address challenges related to out-of-school children. Madad said that he hopes that the conference successfully fulfills its objective of formulating a uniform national strategy to tackle challenges faced by children outside the school system. Minister was told that Rs. 25 Billion has been allocated to address the out of school problem. He was apprised of the out-of-school children crisis, in addition with pivotal update on education initiatives. IPEMC discussed the establishment of Challenge Fund of 25 billion for Out of School Children. The conference delved into a detailed progress update on the Performance-Based Grants allocated to provinces, a crucial initiative through ASPIRE. IPEMC also discussed the establishment of a ‘Foundational Learning Hub’ in the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training which will launch a Foundational Literacy Policy in 2024. The Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education presented ongoing reforms in the assessment system, underscoring the commitment to elevate the educational landscape. Similarly, a comprehensive presentation on E-Taleem, an electronic education initiative strategically designed to transform the education sector, was given to update all the stakeholders of the on going progress. He was further briefed that Federal Government has notified the Syllabus for 9th - 12th grade as well. Secretary Education, Waseem Ajmal Chaudhary welcomed the participants and provided an introduction to IPEMC and an overview of the core agenda of the meeting. He said that the Federal Government intends to extend special focus on the OOSC agenda by allowing all provinces to participate and brief regarding their statistics, strategies and challenges while working on catering the problem of out of school children. Similarly, he urged the provinces to cooperate with the federal in terms of sharing data, incorporating Reading Hour in schools and increasing the usage of Tele school App launched by Ministry of Federal Education and PTCL. The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training highlighted the achievements under the ASPIRE program, through which the federal government provides substantial performance-based financial grants to provinces to work against specific indicators. For this year, under the program, it was highlighted that the following commitments will be achieved by the provincial education departments and federal ministry: development and notification of foundational literacy policies to ensure emphasis on foundational learning in early grades, data standardisation to enable standardised data collection and analysis across Pakistan, the implementation of the international assessment, Literacy and Numeracy Assessment (LaNA) and the establishment of the National Education Open-Source Data Portal at the Federal level. Education Minister Punjab Mr. Mansoor Qadir, Education Minister Balochistan Dr. Qadir Bux Baloch, Education Minister GB Mr. Ghulam Shahzad attended the meeting in person. Education Secretaries of all provinces and Federal Education Secretary Mr. Waseem Ajmal Chaudhary in addition with representatives from FBISE, HEC department Lahore, PMDIU Lahore, Foundation Hub, ASPIRE, PPDU, HEC, PIE and PTCL also attended the meeting.
PREVIOUS NEXT
