The recently-announced national educational policy is more or less like old wine in the new bottle. Our education planners have always ignored the virtues of critical thinking, problem-solving techniques and conceptual understanding as a primary objective of attaining education.

This is the main reason that our youth cannot cope with things internationally.

Surprisingly even in the 21 century we, as a nation, are struggling for mass education.

In other words, we will achieve 86 per cent literacy rate by 2015 according to the then national education plan at the expense of 7 per cent of our GDP.

This should have been done much earlier but it is still a good step.

Moreover, we must emphasise the need for education of women.

Last but not the least, we need to harmonise our educational standards with the developed nations in order to pave the way for better future.