Centre signs MoU with provinces, Fata & Fana: Madaris reforms
By Nasir Iqbal
ISLAMABAD, June 19: The federal government on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the four provinces, Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), Federally-Administered Northern Areas (Fana) and Azad Kashmir to reform 8000 Madaris during the next five years.
The MoU was signed during an inter-provincial meeting on Madaris reforms.
Education Minister Zobaida Jalal, who presided over the meeting, stated that Rs225 million had been allocated in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2002-03 for teaching of formal subjects in Madaris under the Madaris Reforms Project.
“The project will establish and strengthen lines of communication between Madaris and the government. It would also educate 1.5 million students, both male and female, and would enable them to continue their studies in colleges and universities,” the minister said.
Ms Jalal said the education ministry had received a very positive response from all religious Madaris about the scheme.
She said Madaris of all schools of thought were willing to get them registered with the government to be able to get the government support, saying only because of the will of the Madaris representatives, the education ministry was able to launch the Madaris reforms project.
The main objective of the reforms was to teach formal subjects in Madaris to bridge the gulf between religious education and formal education by teaching subjects of English, maths, Pakistan Studies, social studies and general science from primary to secondary levels.
At the intermediate level, English, Economics, Pakistan Studies and Computer Science will be taught, in order to integrate this system with the formal education system of the country.
A salary of Rs4000 would be given to teachers for teaching formal subjects at the secondary level and Rs10,000 to teach at the intermediate level, under the scheme. The cost of textbooks, stationary items, sports facilities and utility charges and one-time grant for the library and furniture facility to all the Madaris are also part of the scheme, which would be implemented in letter and in spirit.
Beside this, she said, computers would be given to the Madaris at the intermediate level.
A steering committee comprising Education Secretary, Joint Educational Adviser, Chief Education of the P&D (planning and development) Division and the Project Director has been constituted which would look into the overall activities of the project.
About the selection of Madaris, Ms Jalal said Madaris would be selected under the ESR (education sector reform) formula by the provincial education departments and the ministry of education would extend cooperation in the selection of the Madaris as and when required.
Commenting on the implementation strategy she said the project would be for five years. The willing Madaris would be helped for three years under a phased programme by extending facilities to 3000 Madaris in the first year, 3000 in the second and 2000 in the third year. The ministry would develop textual and instructional material when required after consultations with the Madaris administration.
The recruitment of teachers would be made by the institutions concerned on contractual basis in consultations with the respective provincial education departments. The qualification for recruitment of the teachers would be SSC-PTC (secondary school certificate-primary teaching course) for primary, FA/FSc+CT (certificate of teaching) for middle, BA/BSc+BEd for SSC and MA/MSc preferably MEd for Intermediate level.
The funds would be released by the ministry to the provincial education departments. The Auditor-General of Pakistan Revenues would be responsible for the audit of the project accounts. The monitoring and evaluation of the project would be done by the provincial education departments and the provincial education foundations.
