ISLAMABAD, Nov 09 (APP):Federal Minister for Education, Professional Training, National Heritage and Culture Shafqat Mahmood held a meeting with the delegation of World Bank led by the Practice Manager Mr. Christian Aedo Tuesday at the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training.
Welcoming the delegation of World Bank, Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood remarked that When he held charge of this ministry, there was no project between the ministry and the World Bank but now we were jointly carrying out so many important projects including ASPIRE 200 million US dollar program, A program-for-Results financing, 400 million dollars Higher Education Development Program,19 million US dollars Covid-19 Response, Recovery and Resilience in education project and 20 million USD DARE grant program.
Shafqat Mahmood also assured the World Bank to execute all these programs well within time.
Federal Education Minister said the ministry is also very keen and pleased to actively participate in the World Bank ” Accelerator” program for which we are formulating certain priority actions regarding school’s children, quality education, distance learning, and remedial learning.
Discussing the learning poverty, which is according to a survey has increased from 75 percent to 79 percent owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the federal education minister has said, we are very much concerned about the issue and in next IPEMC which is scheduled to be held this month in Karachi, the introduction of remedial courses to reduce the learning poverty would be the part of agenda of IPEMC.
Shafqat Mahmood also apprised the delegation of World Bank that the federal cabinet would accord the approval of the merger of different organizations of the ministry to create the Pakistan Institute of Education ( PIE) as an executive department, today and it would be an outstanding organization for data gathering and to develop research and assessment mechanism.
The Chairman NAVTTC, Syed Javed Hasan who was also present in the meeting, requested the World Bank to start engagement with the country’s largest vocational training institution which is creating employability by equipping the youth with the latest skills. The World Bank nodded to the proposal and collaboration.
Highlighting the technological intervention projects launched by the federal education ministry in ICT including STEM and Blended learning project, Shafqat Mahmood said, before 2019, no educationist talked about the significance of technology in education on different fora but after the outbreak of Covid-19 all educationists were emphasizing on the use of technology to leapfrog the hurdles existing in the education system.
The technological interventions would take some time to show results but we were heading on right track, added the Education Minister.
Federal Education Secretary Ms. Naheed Durrani has emphasized establishing a sustainable and permanent system of connectivity with the provinces for exchange of information and oversight of these projects instead of the project by project liaison.
Both sides expressed their satisfaction over the progress of ongoing projects and reiterated their resolve for enhanced coordination and collaboration.
Follow the PNI Facebook page for the latest news and updates.
