ISLAMABAD: The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) Pakistan was launched in Islamabad Wednesday.

Head of UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) Joanna Reid was one of the lead panelists.

UK strongly supports ASER as the only citizen-led independent assessment. This makes it an important tool for citizen accountability. DFID has supported ASER since its inception several years ago.

While addressing the panel, Joanna Reid said, “There has been progress in increasing access to education in Pakistan as the number of out of school children has dropped from 25 million to 22 million as per government data. However, more remains to be done. Without compromising on access to schools, our focus should be on improving the quality. The education budget allocation is now 3.02% of GDP, up from 2.83% last year but is still short of the target.” Joanna added that economic growth in Pakistan is heavily dependent on education prospects in Pakistan. Speaking to the panel she said, “There are 61 million young people in Pakistan aged 10 to 24 years as per the estimates of Population Council. Their ability and skills will play a major role in making Pakistan prosperous and a successful player in global economy. If half of them are not equipped to do their job, Pakistan will not be able to meet the workforce needs of its economy.”

The ASER launch ceremony was hosted by Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agaahi in partnership with other ASER partners at Serena Hotel today. Member National Assembly engineer Baligh-ur-Rehman, Chairman Standing Committee on Federal Education & Professional Training, Dr. Amir ullah Marwat, Member National Assembly, Asad Umer, Member National Assembly, Senior Journalist Naseem Zahra, Vice Chancellor Pakistan Institute of Development Economics Dr Asad Zaman, Alif Ailaan Campaign Director Mosharrad Zaidi and Human Rights Activist Tahira Abdullah were among the panelists for discussion on the launch of the report.—NNI