ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday said education was the key to fight against ignorance, extremism and terrorism, therefore the government had taken a number of steps to promote educational facilities, both for boys and girls.
Addressing Islamabad Model Schools for Boys and Girls here at PM Staff Colony, after inaugurating the new buildings of these two institutions, he said, “We do have financial constraints but fully determined to promote educational facilities and it is at top of the priorities of the government.” The Prime Minister said once the Muslims were at the top in the world, mainly due to the progress in education. He said lack of education was the main cause of the downward trend of the Muslims.
He said education played an effective and key role in the progress and prosperity of the society, to keep it united and make it more stronger.He said, “After the 18th Amendment, the education has become a provincial subject, but the Federal Government is still making sincere efforts and contributing a lot in the improvement of educational facilities in the country.
”The Prime Minister said the Federal Government has been in consultation with the chief ministers to have a coordinated, correlated and unified system of education throughout the country for providing equal opportunities to the students.He said education was important for the progress and prosperity of the country, and added that illiteracy is root-cause of all destructions including the extremism and terrorism.
The Prime Minister said, “There is need to give due importance to education to fulfil the dreams of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Iqbal and aspirations of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto to make Pakistan a strong, stable and prosperous state with promotion of educational facilities for every one.”He said the youth of Pakistan was dynamic, energetic and intelligent but they just needed good opportunities and facilities to groom their talent.
The Prime Minister said, “We should not under-estimate our youth as if they will be provided adequate opportunities, they have the talent and they could project the name of the country and their parents in the world.”He said the government will take important decisions to promote education and special emphasis will be given on teachers training and creating harmony among the teachers and parents to improve educational facilities.
The Prime Minister said teachers and parents should be role-model for the children so that they could be motivated to get education without any hesitation and difficulty to play a due role in nation building.Gilani said youth played important role in Pakistan Movement and Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah considered the youth as his main force.He said the youth had proved it that they could play important role in any difficulty and challenge either earthquake, floods or extremism.
The Prime Minister said extremism, terrorism and ignorance were the main hurdles in the progress and prosperity of the country and only promotion of education could provide a solid force to face these challenges.
Gilani said those who are destroying schools, hospitals, attacking security officials and innocent people were not loyal to the country and those were also ignorant and education could fight them effectively to change their attitude and behavious.
Referring to 51 percent female population, the Prime Minister assured that the government would ensure equal opportunities in education and other fields for the female population.The Prime Minister said, “The students are asset for the country and they are not liabilities” therefore despite financial constraints, the government has been providing funds for the education sector.
He said due to awareness among the people and especially in the students, every one knew that extremism and terrorism were the real enemies of the country and creating hurdle in the progress and prosperity of the country.Appreciating the contribution of some of the foreign countries in the promotion of educational facilities in Pakistan, the Prime Minister said, the government would make more steps for the mobilization of the international community for the promotion of educational facilities.
The Prime Minister said the government had also been taking steps for the improvement of educational institutions and he referred to the decision taken by him to declare all educational institutions in the Federal Capital as Model Schools and Colleges to improve the standard of these institutions.
The Secretary Capital Administrative and Development Division Junaid Iqbal Chaudhry, speaking on the occasion highlighted the salient features of the government to promote educational facilities in the Federal Capital.He said construction of two Model Schools, one for boys and one for girls, in the PM Housing Colony, have been completed at a cost of Rs. 115 million.
He said a strategy has also been finalised to train the teachers and other staff of the schools of Islamabad to convert them as Model Schools under the directive of Prime Minister.He thanked the Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani for ensuring the funds for the construction of these two Model Schools and said it clearly indicated that Prime Minister was education-loving as his family had a number of contributions for promoting education in Multan.
The schools are equipped with Computer Lab, Science Lab and libraries and each schools has 11 class rooms and accommodate 550 students.Later, the Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, along with Leader of the House in Senate Nayer Bukhari visited different class rooms and exchanged pleasantries with the students.During the visit to the library, the Prime Minister assured the students that the government would provide more books and reading material to them as required.The Prime Minister also announce Rs. 100,000 to the students who presented Milli songs on this occasion. – APP
