In the current dismal economic scenario, our country needs the highly qualified scientists, researchers and economist to drive the economy forward and increase the rate of economic growth.

Government has introduced various education policies but education sector needs immediate attention from the public sector, by increasing educational budget, the goals of promoting quality and equity of educational opportunities could not be achieved, Asad Farid, Acting President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has stated this in a statement. He said that by initiating different public-private joint venture in education sector could bring positive impact for imparting quality esucation.

He said that Government should encourage research in higher education institutions which would accelerate economic growth of the country. He said that measures should also be adopted to develop a big pool of PHD’s who could contribute in developing future roadmap and strategy for the economic uplift.

ICCI Acting president said that Pakistan Government should collaborate with international universities and adopt appropriate policies to raise educational standards as there are a number of students, who went aboard for getting higher education.

He said that in Pakistan the budget allocated to education was very low. He said that Pakistan was among those twelve countries that spend less than 2 percent of GDP on education. He was responding to a report which showed  the educational budget allocations of some countries as per their GDPs; Cuba 18.7 percent of GDP, Brunei 9.1 percent, Iran 4.9 percent, UK 5.3 percent, US 5.7 percent, Malaysia 8.1 percent and India about 6 percent. He urged the government to increase the education budget by at least 4 percent of GDP in upcoming budget.

Asad Farid said that our education should be research and knowledge oriented, therefore, Government should take effective steps to improve education system by providing necessary professional training to teachers.