Rs25bn earmarked for education of drop-out children: Ahsan

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Planning and Development Prof Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday said the government had earmarked Rs25 billion for imparting elementary education to drop-out children in the country.

Addressing the Pakistan Learning Conference 2023, he expressed confidence that investing in early childhood education would lead to a significant reduction in dropout rates and enable children to fully utilize their inherent potential.

He said intellectual growth in the early period of children was an essential requisite for their later success and for leveraging the impending available opportunities in their lives.

“The children who receive early childhood education experience lower failure rates, exhibit better academic performance, and are more likely to pursue higher education,” he added.

The minister also said investing in early childhood education was an investment in the nation’s development and future, as the growth and prosperity of a nation depended on the quality of education provided during the crucial phase.

The survival and progress of nations in the modern era were not determined solely by military might but by the quality of their education systems, he stressed.

The minister said classrooms and laboratories, where knowledge was imparted and creativity was nurtured, held the key to a nation’s success.

He called for a shift in priorities, where the allocation of resources and attention to early childhood education should take precedence.

The minister stressed that reflection and innovation were the mainstay for progress that were to be quintessentially nurtured in society.

He added that the Muslim era in Spain was the golden era in Islamic History where the Muslim scientists upheld the injunctions of The Holy Quran to reflect and observe the universe. The decadence befell the Muslim Ummah when they quit to use mental faculties and observation.

He said the government placed high premium on education in Vision 2025 by initiating the projects to reform the education curriculum , training of teachers and aligning the system of examinations according to present day needs.