Media Tracking Report 28 Dec, 2020 - 15 Jan, 2021

Education in

Govt announces phase-wise opening of educational institutions from Jan 18 - DAWN The country's education ministers, in a meeting, decided to reopen educational institutions in the country in phases from January 18. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan, cautioned that more precautions were needed to control the spread of Covid-19, since data showed that closing the educational institutions earlier had led to a "delay in [the spread of] the virus". In a separate press conference, Punjab Minister for School Education Dr Murad Raas termed the 50 per cent attendance policy "the most important thing", saying that schools were being opened "not because the coronavirus situation [had improved] but because the children were incurring huge educational losses".

Pakistan, Turkey ink education MoU - The News Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Pakistani education minister signed a MoU for the promotion of literacy in Pakistan in a ceremony also attended by foreign minister . With this, Turkey’s Maarif Foundation will be able to expand its operations in Pakistan in terms of opening and running new campuses, cultural and educational centers, language centers, student exchange programs, and scholarships

The worst of worlds: Faisal Bari - DAWN A common complaint about public-sector teacher recruitment used to be regarding nepotism and corruption, since then there has been significant reform with teacher’s recruited through a system that is more transparent and ‘objective’. However, this has had unintended consequences. Literature on teachers shows that academic performance of candidates does not predict well whether a person is going to be a good teacher or not. It is the more ‘subjective’ and harder to evaluate elements, such as personality type, that offer a better correlation. The reforms so far are incomplete - We need to do a lot more especially in how we manage teacher selection for quality, and how we incentivise teaching-quality improvements.

CPEC in Pakistan

Call for exploiting agriculture potential under CPEC - DAWN The Par­lia­mentary Committee on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) called for strengthening the agriculture sector under the CPEC framework by observing that this diminishing sector has the potential source of employment for the people of the country. The committee emphasised that Pakistan needs not to rely on China for technological transfer rather boost its capacity building. The country needs to en­hance the areas of research to encourage indigenous technological innovations and modernise its agriculture sector, the meeting noted.

PM’s de-coal initiative to kickstart new starting point for CPEC energy cooperation - Profit by Pakistan Today The de-coal initiative launched by Prime Minister requires the country to develop clean energy to fill the energy gap which would kickstart biomass energy cooperation as a new starting point for CPEC energy cooperation. It was stated that Pakistan is an agricultural country with a large population, abundant resources such as waste in urban and rural areas, and a huge energy market; therefore, it is suitable to develop biomass energy which can alleviate multiple problems in Pakistan such as electricity shortage, climate change, and polluting emission.

IMF and Pakistan

'Good news' soon about restarting IMF programme-Pakistan central bank governor - Reuters Pakistan is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to put its fiscal support programme back on track, the country’s central bank governor said, adding he was optimistic about the economic outlook despite the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, staff from the IMF and Pakistani authorities reached an agreement to pave the way for the disbursement of $450 million in IMF funds pending approval from the global lender’s executive board. Baqir said there was no disagreement on the end goal between the two sides, and that Pakistan needed to increase its low tax-to-GDP ratio. The only discussion was on the timing of reform measures, which would have contractionary effects on the economy, further burdening people suffering with the effects of the pandemic.

Civil Service Reforms

CSS to be renamed as CSP under institutional reforms - The Express Tribune The Cabinet Committee on Institutional Reforms has approved a set of proposals, including the proposal for renaming the existing Central Superior Services (CSS) as the Central Services of Pakistan (CSP). The cabinet committee has also approved several recommendations of the Task Force on Institutional Reforms, including a separate cadre of professionals such as engineers, doctors and foreign postings, and criteria for placement and promotions of officers in the future.

Climate Change in Pakistan

Is Pakistan prepared to deal with climate migration? - Deutsche Welle A report by ActionAid International and Climate Action Network South Asia recently revealed that in the past few decades, more than 18 million people in South Asia have been forced to migrate due to climate change. By 2050, up to 63 million people could be displaced as a result of it, the report said. Many of these environmental migrants are from Pakistan, which has been hit hard by climate change. Environmentalists have expressed concern over a massive climate-induced migration in various parts of Pakistan and the government's apathy toward tackling a serious problem.

All resources to be moblised for GB’s climate resilience: Amin Aslam - Business Recorder Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Climate Change, said the present government was taking all-out measures to help Gilgit-Baltistan government to overcome challenges of environmental degradation, solid waste, climate change and deforestation.He highlighted that over recent years, the global warming-caused events of glacial melting, glacial lake outburst floods, riverine floods and shifting rainfall patterns that had shown rising frequency and intensity, affecting badly not only socio-economic lives of the region but also those in the southern parts of the country.