PESHAWAR, March 6: The NWFP government has formed an 11-member task force to devise a new education strategy and submit a comprehensive document covering all issues regarding infrastructure facilities, meaningful syllabi and teachers’ role.

Speaking at a news conference here on Thursday, Provincial Education Minister and task force chief Maulana Fazale Ali said the body had been vested with an important assignment on basic issues of education.

According to him, it is the first step towards Islamisation of education in the province.

The task force, minister said, would study and evaluate present system and state of general as well technical education in the NWFP.

The force was asked to identify the problem areas at macro and micro-level and recommend practical solutions to short, medium and long-term implications, he added.

The minister told newsmen that the force would cover infrastructure needs, issues of policy guidelines, planning and decision-making, development and devolution of responsibilities, teachers’ training, syllabi and curriculum, studies abroad, extra-curricular activities and other related aspects from the lowest to highest possible level.

The task force, he said, would also evaluate the private sector schools and regularise them in a proper way, bringing them at par with the public sector educational institutions in terms of fee-structure, curriculum and other related issues.

He said the force would also suggest a thorough overhauling and revamping of the examination system.

The Urdu language, he said, would be the medium of instruction at all levels to give a chance to the poor children to compete for the top slots. “The Urdu is our national language and we want to give it a proper status,” he added.

The minister said modern languages would also be taught at various educational institutions to hone skills of teachers and students.

The service-structure and promotion criterion would be given a new turn to remove the bureaucratic bottlenecks involved in the long and complicated process, he added.

Other members of the task force are: Senator-elect Dr Mohammad Said, former Dean Faculty of Science, Peshawar University; Dr Qibla Ayaz, chairman of Seerat Studies Department, Peshawar University; Mufti Ghulamur Rehman, chief of Nifaz-i-Shariat Council, NWFP; Mohammad Ali; Prof Gul Badsha, Government Boys College, Bajaur; Mohammad Rahim Haqqani, headmaster, Middle School, Lower Dir; Mohammad Mushtaq Kakakhel, No.2 Government Primary School, Qasim Beg, Nowshera; secretary law and parliamentary affairs, the NWFP; director higher education, NWFP, and director schools and literacy, the NWFP.