PTI unveils its much awaited ?Education Policy Vision?PTI to spend Rs 2.5 trillion on education sector, uniform curricula, Urdu medium for Primary, English as subject management to be devolved to town level
Imran Khan
ISLAMABAD, Feb 20: On the eve of unveiling of the six-point ?Education Emergency Policy? of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday vowed to introduce uniform education system with one curricula for all and provision of education in mother tongue and Urdu language for primary levels, increasing the education budget from current 2.1% to 5% of the GDP over its five-year term and Rs. 2.5 trillion would be spent on education; and that the party would recover the looted money from corrupt politicians and the same would be diverted to education spending.
PTI’s Proposed Approach
- PTI’s Education Policy aims to provide equal opportunity of quality education in a system which caters to every citizen, young and old and removes poverty as a barrier for children to realize their potential
- The objective of education will be to promote critical thinking and to improve articulation skills of students
- PTI strongly believes in One education system for all, to achieve equality and attain cultural and social harmony
PTI believes that the education system of Pakistan can be reformed by adopting the following 6 point agenda:
- One education system for all
- Mother tongue and/or Urdu as medium of instruction
- Each province will choose mother tongue and/or Urdu as medium of instruction in all government and private schools up to Class 8
- Class 9 to 12 will be transition years during which schools shall have the option to shift to English as the medium of instruction in preparation for professional / higher studies
- English will be the medium of instruction for all university and professional education
- English and Urdu will be taught as compulsory subjects from Class 1 to 12
- A new Uniform Curriculum for all
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- Uniform and world standard curricula for all government and private schools.
- Standardized Assessment / Examination of students.
- All students in public and private schools will be assessed under one standardized assessment / examination. These assessments will test students on their understanding, rather than their memory.
- Each province to have an independent Examination Commissions with stakeholder representation to oversee exams for Class 8, 10, 12 to bring standards of all regional boards at par.
- Operate with full transparency to rank and disclose school / student performance.
- Decentralized governance in education
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- Education service delivery and management will be devolved to district and sub-district levels.
- Provincial governments will provide oversight and regulation only.
- Establish fully autonomous District Education Authorities (DEA) to perform education management functions on an aggregate level
- will be dedicated institutional hubs for education provision in the district
- will reconstitute the entire teaching cadre in the District to make it more accountable for quality and performance
- School Councils elected by parents of current students will perform school-specific functions
- All schools/colleges will have formula based funding available as a matter of right
- Uplift and upgrade government schools to increase enrolment and reduce dropout rate
- Dramatically increase government spending on education
- Increase government spending on education from 1.8% today to 5% of GDP over its 5-year term, allowing the government to achieve its stated objectives.
- Provision of Adult literacy
- Focus on illiterate adults in the 15-30 age bracket (55.8 million) and invest resources to provide functional literacy to them.
- Teacher Training
- Fresh induction and training of a million plus teachers
- Re-thing pre-service teachers’ education
- Investment in ‘in-service’ training and re-training of current teaching cadre
- Information and Communications Technology
- Extensive use of ICT for teaching, learning, performance management and proactive disclosure
- Use of content available on the ‘cloud’ (Sal Khan Academy model) to provide the option of 24/7 self-education
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Mass availability of Tablet Computers to enable use of distance education facility
In addition to its 6-point Agenda, PTI believes that Special Initiatives need to be taken to further strengthen the education system of Pakistan. These include special focus on:
- Girls’ Education
- Sports and Extra-curricular activities
- English Language Program
- Skill Development
- University Education