GCT marks silver jubilee of its foundation

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Prime Minister Imran Khan has been acting on his promise to introduce a uniform education system in the country after getting rid of the present multiple academic systems as for the purpose federal government and all the provinces are required to be on the same page irrespective of the mutual political differences.

Member National Assembly belonging to ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Parliamentary Secretary for Aviation Division Aftab Hussain Siddiqui stated this on Saturday while addressing as the chief guest at the inaugural ceremony of the day-long Children Carnival and Inter-School Competition held here at the Arts Council. The carnival was held to mark the Silver Jubilee of foundation of the not-for-profit Green Crescent Trust (GCT) that has been running a network of over 150 charitable schools in Sindh having enrollment of 29,000 children.

Speaking on the occasion, the MNA and Parliamentary Secretary said the PM Imran Khan in his drive to promote uniform academic facilities for students of the needy families had recently rolled out the largest ever need-based scholarship programme of the country.

The MNA said that some 200,000 students belonging to the low-income families would be provided scholarships in four years as 50,000 such scholarships would be given on annual basis.

He said that once these students from needy families would complete their education, they would be given loans under yet another initiative of the present government “Kamyab Jawan Scheme” to enable to them to do entrepreneurship. He said that another initiative of the present government was to introduce mainstream education in the religious seminaries of the country. He conceded that successive governments in the past had not paid heed to the health and education sectors owing to which people were deprived of the basic needs of life.

He said that country would definitely do progress if education standards and facilities available to the students of government-run schools were remarkably improved as for this collective efforts were required.

He said that federal and provincial governments while leaving aside the political differences should combine their efforts to reform the education system of the country. He said that the present government would definitely support bona fide non-governmental organizations working in the education sector like the GCT.

Also speaking on the occasion, GCT CEO Zahid Saeed urged the government to declare educational emergency in the country with support of the provinces to deal with the alarming issues like out-of-school children.

He said that though the subject of education had been devolved to the provinces following the 18th Constitutional Amendment but the federal government could not absolve itself from its responsibility to provide quality education to children belonging to under-privileged communities.

He said that 4.2 million out-of-school children alone in Sindh was a serious challenge for the government as for this available resources and budget for the education sector had to be spent on transparent and efficient basis.

He said that per capita income of Pakistan would increase by five times if the government worked with dedication to improve educational standards and to enrol the out-of-school children as had happened in the case of China.

He said that GCT had begun its journey some 25 years back and decided to establish schools in such remote and rural parts of Sindh where there was no existing government or private school.

Zahid Saeed said that first school of the GCT had been established in a remote part of District West of Karachi with one teacher and 50 students as after 25 years the enrollment of schools in the GCT’s schools had been increased to 29,000 who were being taught by a faculty of qualified 1400 teachers. He said that the GCT had the aim to increase its enrollment of students to 100,000 in next five years.

He said that donations received by the donors and sponsors of the GCT was not spent on brick and mortar of the schools as they had been established in rented buildings as financial assistance in this regard was directly spent on education of the underprivileged children. Patron-in-chief of GCT Sardar Yasin Malik also spoke on the occasion and urged the businessmen community to do philanthropic work for good of the society.

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