Menu 

Youth, teachers forums launched to study edu policy (The Nation)

by: admin

June 29, 2015

Islamabad – Idara Taleem-O-Agahi and Pakistan Alliance of Independent Schools (PAIS) have launched 12 youth forums and 12 teacher forums for the engagement of youth and teachers to study the National Education Policy (NEP) 2009 and provide consultations on how the youth may be represented appropriately.
The youth will comprise ITA’s Education Youth Ambassadors (387) from across Pakistan. These ambassadors have carefully been selected in consultation with the World at School to represent and advocate for the cause of education at grass root level.

These ambassadors will be leading the youth forums at provincial and district levels engaging parents, teachers, policymakers, government education department, unions and others for the review process. The forums will formulate focus groups linking to the local education departments to ensure that the revised education policy to inculcate the voice of the youth in Pakistan. These forums will be spread across a span of two months in order to effectively articulate the point of view of the youth in any national education policy and document. These forums will be held all across the country in parallel time frames in order to yield maximum efforts of community and citizens of Pakistan.

According to Article 25-A of the constitution of Pakistan, the state should provide free and compulsory education to all children between 5 to 16 years of age in Pakistan. Similarly Pakistan is also a signatory to international conventions on education, including the Education for All in 1990 and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) joint declaration on education and the Dakar Framework for Action (April 2000). Keeping this process and progress in mind Pakistan needs to provide periodic review of national policies, documents, researches, surveys, white papers and standards in education. It is imperative to unify the federating units on a consensus, as the 18th constitutional amendment of Pakistan, for addressing issues of capacity, governance, quality, access, and standards in the education sector.

As per chapter 10 of the economic survey of Pakistan, the inter-provincial education ministers shall oversee the implementation of the National Education Policy (2009) and review its progress periodically. This review of the NEP is an imperative process for all stakeholders within the education sector (private and public). The youth makes up a very crucial and abundant portion of these stakeholders and hence their involvement in the review of NEP cannot be undermined or neglected.

http://nation.com.pk/E-Paper/Islamabad/2015-06-27/page-14/detail-5

http://epaper.pakobserver.net/201506/27/islamabad-2.php