JICA assures full support to Pakistan in achieving educational goals

ISLAMABAD, Mar 20 (APP):Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Wednesday assured its full support to Pakistan to achieve the sustainable development goals in the field of education.
It was decided during a called on meeting of JICA delegation in Pakistan, led by its Vice President Dr. Toda Takao with the Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood, a press release said issued here.
Welcoming the vice president JICA with delegation, he said that Pakistan and Japan had had long standing and durable relations.
He further said that JICA role and support to Pakistan in education was highly commendable.
He said that Pakistan was facing various challenges in Education sector.
“Among these challenges improving the Literacy Rate and bringing the out of school children to schools are the main priorities”, the minister added.
Shafqat Mahmood said that as per the vision of the Prime Minister Imran Khan, we were working relentlessly in Education Sector to bring positive changes in it while taking all the stakeholders on board.
“Education is the Primary focus of this government and the only way out of poverty is through pursuing Education and Professional Training”, the minister said.
He informed Dr. Toda Takao that Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training was working on introducing a Nationwide Literacy Program to drastically improve the Literacy Rate in Pakistan.
“We would like the technical support of JICA in this regard and take benefit from its international experience in the field of Literacy”, Shafqat Mahmood added.
He said that we had started a Program for the enrollment of out of school children. “The Pilot project is already launched in Islamabad Capital Territory in which about Eleven Thousand out of school children will be enrolled in government schools at the start of New Academic Year.We will introduce Technology to overcome the lack of Teachers, access and capacity issues”, he added.
The minister said that Education was beyond Politics and we would work with all the provinces and relevant stakeholders to build consensus on introducing Uniform Education System and Uniform Curriculum to provide level playing field to all students and to inculcate uniform national thought.
He further said that the ministry was working on Skill Development and starting skill education from schools which was also an area of interest for JICA.
“The task force on Skill Development has finalized its recommendations and we are now moving into the implementation phase of this and would very much like the support of JICA”, he said.
The minister further said that we were reorganizing the education ministry and some of its attached departments to improve its efficiency and effectiveness and to avoid duplication and wastage of valuable resources.
Vice President JICA, Dr. Toda Takao appreciated the steps taken by the Education Minister for promotion of Education & Skill Development and offered JICA support in this regard.
He said “We are looking forward to work closely with the government of Pakistan in the field of Literacy, Out of School Children and Skill development.”
Dr. Toda Takao said that we were currently working on the assessment of all the Education Projects of JICA in Pakistan and would make them more effective.
He said that JICA would assist the Ministry of Federal Education in all its initiatives and will share international experiences in the field of Literacy.
Both, the Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood and Vice President JICA, Dr. Toda Takao agreed on keeping regular coordination for increased cooperation in education sector of Pakistan.