Framework for Economic Growth, Pakistan - Planning Commission

International conference on “Framework for Economic Growth, Pakistan”Answer by Ali Asghar, Head of Omar Asghar Khan Development Foundation:I think religious extremism comes whenthere is anger and frustration. So it isimportant to organize youth and look at theirpositive energies. Young people need to beencouraged as they have been ignored ondifferent occasions. Youth has made greatsacrifices at many occasions for the countrylike floods and earthquake etc. So energy isthere in our youth but we are wasting that bynot providing them opportunities.Answer by Mahbub Hossain, Executive Director BRAC, Bangladesh:The discussion we are having is oneducation and opportunities available. Youthis going to schools and there are a largenumber of drop outs. We need to dosomething for that also. We need to putsome skills in them to place them intoformal industrial sector and developentrepreneurship etc. to enable them todevelop their own businesses. We need togive them opportunity as well.Answer by David Martin, Country director, British Council, PakistanWe need education reforms to move towardsthe right direction. There is a largepopulation which is to be taken on board.We need to do something good as othercountries have done it and they have movedto near a perfect education system. Look atBrazil and China that what they haveachieved in last few years. Second importantthing to focus is attitude and behavior of theyoung people. I agree with the panelists herethat we need to focus on the training of theyouth.At the end I would like to comment that weneed to take English language as a mediumof education. Being an educationist I wouldlike to say that the solution is not there inEnglish medium education. I have seeneducation systems around the world movingtowards English medium for their educationsystem and a decline is seen there in qualityof education. Education system in mothertongue in early age allows children o learnin a language which they speak at home.They can afterwards move to anotherlanguage which can be Urdu or English.There are many countries in Europe wherepeople speak good quality English such asNetherlands. People in country likeSwitzerland managed to learn English,French, German and Italian. Problem here inPakistan is that English is taught here inschools as a subject. Better way to learnEnglish is by communicating with studentswhile teaching.Answer by Faisal Mushtaq, Chief Executive, Roots School system:We talked about uniformity and equalitywithin education system. Private educationin Pakistan is no more an urban elitephenomena. There is a recent study byHarvard Business School that education inPakistan is now a rural-urban phenomenon.There are private schools which start with afee of 50 rupees a month and go up to 15000rupees a month. It’s a matter of choice.It is the responsibility of the state to promotequality, relevant, accessible and oneeducation system. Since denationalization ofeducation in 1979 there has been asuccessive vacuum which is filled by theprivate sector. Our national education isworld class and nothing is wrong with theeducation system. But the problem is withthe implementation. Now under 18 thamendment education is a provincialsubject. Even in Germany and Indiaeducation is a state subject. So while going82