*ISLAMABAD:* Pakistan still has 22.6 million out of school children by theend of 2017, Federal Minsiter has revealed.
An increase in annual education budget from Rs 550 billion to Rs 850billion was one of many other positive initiatives taken by the rulingparty, said Federal Education Minister Balighur Rehman on Wednesday.
He said that the number of out of school children has decreasedsignificantly from 26 million to 22.6 million during 2013-17. Besides, theminister said the government is on the path to progress and expects toincrease the economic growth rate to 6 percent and add around 10,000MW tothe national grid by the end of this year.
The minister was addressing audience at the ground breaking ceremony of anew campus of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Engineering (CASE) atsector B-17. He said that Pakistan has been gifted with a young populationwhich would prove to be a valuable asset for the country.
“The establishment of such institutes would be a big opportunity foryoungsters to get enrolled themselves with this institute and enhance theircapabilities at maximum level,” he added.
While recalling some odds faced by CASE due to non-fulfillment of criteriaset by Higher Education Commission, Balighur Rehman said that theseobstacles ultimately proved positive for CASE as it got huge piece of landto build a vast campus on, which he said, would be converted into auniversity hopefully.
He suggested the CASE administration that although they had a good team,however the quality of education should not be compromised at any cost.
The minister further said that a large number of students werebeneficiaries from public-private partnership programmes being run in thecountry successfully.