“The ground breaking ceremony of Knowledge Park will be take place in July. This project aims to promote education through international and local initiatives,” said Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan on Friday.
He was addressing a ceremony on the concluding day of the Knowledge Park Conference organised by the British Council.
Khan said the government wanted to set up eight to 10 universities at the park.
“The government will dedicate a large part of the upcoming budget to the park,” the minister said. He did not give an estimate on the budget.
The minister said the government had also established a vice chancellors committee to formulate a roadmap for higher education institutions in the province. Khan said the committee was also working on the Knowledge Park project.
He said this was the first time an advisory board had been formed by the government to deliberate on problems of higher education.
“The government is very serious about tackling challenges to good education,” the minister said. “This is why the Knowledge Park project is being expedited.”
Earlier, speaking at the conference, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said the success of the partnership between the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Punjab government was reflected in the School Education Reform Roadmap.
He said there was a time when DFID had hesitated in going ahead with the project because there were fears that their investment would be wasted. He said the successes of the government in the education sector had revived their trust.
He said that the government was working on a skills development programme in 18 districts of the Punjab through which 40,000 boys and girls would be provided training.
Sharif said several projects were underway to harness the potential of the youth. “Knowledge Park was something we envisioned a few years ago,” he said. “We are now in a position to take it forward.”
He said the Knowledge Park would soon become the hub of learning where students would have the opportunity to explore several disciplines.
“Extremism and terrorism can only be defeated through education,” the chief minister said.
He said the government had a two-pronged approach to resolving the education crisis; employment and skills development opportunities would be provided on one hand and administrative interventions would reform the education system on the other.
He said the Punjab government had signed several memorandums of understanding with various universities in this regard.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 10th, 2014.