President Dr Arif Alvi has reaffirmed Pakistan’s resolve to raise the literacy rate by providing school access to all children. In his message on the International Day of Education being observed on Tuesday, he said we will have to focus on enrolling the out of school children.
The President also expressed the resolve to improve the education system and enable the youth to earn a respectable livelihood with the help of modern technology. Arif Alvi that education is a powerful driver of development, and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health. He said no country can make sustainable progress without significant investment in the human resource.
Earlier President Dr Arif Alvi has said that creative and out-of-the-box solutions must be adopted to ensure 100% enrolment of children in schools and to promote preventive health mode of treatment for ensuring accelerated socio-economic uplift of the people and the progress and development of the country. He expressed these views during a meeting with the Chairman of the National Commission for Human Development.
President said that as per estimates only 68% of the country’s children were enrolled in schools at the primary level, which was alarming and observed that 100% enrolment of children must be ensured by instituting out-of-box solutions like using mosques from Fajr to Zohar as schools and using hybrid modes of learning wherever possible. He highlighted the need for adopting innovative Information and Communication Technology tools for imparting education at the grassroots level and imparting marketable skills to the youth through non-formal and formal education and skill development programs.
The President said that there was a need to create a comprehensive system in the country to retain professionals, which included doctors, engineers, IT specialists and persons with high levels of skills in other sectors, to contribute their intellect, knowledge and expertise within the country and take tangible steps to stop the brain drain of precious human resources.
He said that the Pakistani Diaspora, which was contributing its intellect, knowledge and expertise to the growth and development of its host countries, should be engaged to transfer their expertise, skills and knowledge to Pakistan through various online and hybrid platforms. The President said that the large family size, especially in the poor segments of society, could be substantially reduced by meeting the need for contraceptives with longer efficacy by making them readily available to people, besides providing them with education.
