ISLAMABAD: The country saw 23 National Education Policies since its inception some 67 years ago.

Education policy should be made once and for all at federal level to deal with all educational issues.

This was stated by the civil society experts and literary personalities at the launching of an academic book titled `Privatisation, Education and Social Justice` published by the Privatisation in Education Research Initiative (PERI) at a local hotel on Wednesday.

The book launch was organised by Pakistan Coalition for Education in collaboration with Open Society Foundations (OSF).

MNA Daniyal Aziz, from the PML-N, while addressing to the participants said that a number oftimes educations policies were revised but problem regarding education could not be resolved.

`A number of persons demand that education budget, which is currently around two per cent of GDP, should be increased to four per cent of GDP but education departments do not have capacity to spend the amount even if budget is increased,` he said.

`Unfortunately teachers work as polling agents during elections so politicians try to appoint people close to them in education department. People have to take stand against it and say that education is future of their children,` he said.

`Although government has been increasing funding but public sector education is becoming worse day by day,` he said.

`We have to identify the problem to improve the quality of education. I believe that main problem is governance,` he said.

Educationist Ahmed Ali saidthat non availability of data is a big issue and another issue is that the available data is not reliable.

`Private schools are very powerful. We should be serious about the Article 25-A which ensures free education for every child from class I to X. Article 25-A was passed in 2012 for Islamabad but so far rule of business could not be made. In Sindh Article 25-A was passed in 2013 and there is also same situation,` he said.

`New teachers should be appointed and already appointed teachers should be trained to enhance the quality of the education,` he said.

Director of OSF Ian Macpherson while sharing the key findings of book said the major findings of the study with regards to Pakistan focused on privatisation in Punjab.

Pakistan spends less than two per cent of the GDP on public education, resulting in poor quality ofeducation, which has contributed to a rise of private schools over the past few decades. Currently in Punjab, 67 per cent of students attend low-cost private schools.

Chairman of IDEAS Faisal Bari, argued that `Privatization makes education a good for those who can pay for it, increasing social stratification and commodification.

In Pakistan it is estimated that 30 per cent of children are enrolled in private schools, a figure that surpasses 25 million, and this figure continues to increase due to the dismal quality of public school education in most of the country.

The literacy rate of Pakistan is only 60 per cent, far lower than its South Asian Peers.

It is estimated that 113 million children are enrolled in private schools in developing nations, many of which are low-fee private schools.