ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Aug, 2018 ) :Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood on Wednesday announced that the government would expand and promote quality education in the country with a missionary zeal.

He was addressing the concluding session of 2nd annual National Graduate conference, held at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) that deliberated upon the topic of 'Need of Multi-disciplinary Research in 21st Century.' Speaking on the occasion he said, "We have taken it as our mission to bring maximum number of drop-out children in the educational net, while making the educationmeaningful and beneficial for the society's overall development." The minister, while highlighting the challenges faced by the newly elected government commended the AIOU for taking care of marginalized sections of the society and promoting meaningful research under the leadership of Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Shahid Siddiqui.

He said it was a pleasant surprise for him to know that the AIOU was providing free educational facilities to deprived sections of the society in a big way and those also included prisoners and transgender group.

Shafqat Mahmood noted that the AIOU had emerged as a viable and excellent educational institution, reaching out to a huge number of people, through distance learning system.

It was heartening to note that the university in the recent years had concentrated on research that had made its role more significant in current scenario. He assured full support of his Ministry to the AIOU in its educational pursuits.

About educational challenges ahead, the minister said they had to serve the less-privileged sections of the people, bringing education to their door-steps, including through non-formal education. It is painful that around 25 million children were out of school, and they are deprived of their basic right of education.

It will be their endeavour to make a remarkable progress in expanding the educational facilities, with the use of new technology. Bridging the gap in the educational system between Government and private institutions will be another big challenge, and for which they will be trying to introduce a similar curriculum.

Shafqat Mahmood said they would have to raise standard of education in the government schools and deal with the issue of 22.5 million children out of school. Present 58 percent rate of education is alarming and the present government will try to make a considerable progress to this effect, he added.

He said the children studying in Urdu medium schools should also get the quality education and should be afforded opportunities to excel in different fields of life, he added.

The Minister said, they take provision of quality education as the third biggest challenge. He said they wished that the people should go for education, not just for degrees.

Earlier, the vice chancellor in his welcome address highlighted the university's initiatives and achievements in the educational sector, particularly serving the cause of marginalized sections of the society, and promoting research culture in the country.

The AIOU, he added, had been on forefront in the recent years to bridge the educational gap and construct and create knowledge through meaningful research that links with the socio-economic development of the country.

During the two-day's deliberation, 350 papers were presented by the graduate students from 27 educational institutions of the country.

At the end, students who presented best papers and got excellence in poster completions were given shields by the minister.

The conference was organized by the varsity's Office of Research Innovation and Commercialization (ORIC).