PESHAWAR: Minister urges provinces’ role in decisions on curriculum
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Dec 7: NWFP Education Minister Maulana Fazli Ali Haqqani has said that the federal government should consult the provinces taking decision about deleting something from or adding some topics in the curriculum. “The NWFP government has no representation in the curriculum wing at the centre and the criteria for its membership were also not clear,” the education minister said.
He was speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday.
The minister said that the NWFP government had also shown reservations in the inter-provincial education minister’s meeting held recently over National Assembly’s standing committee’s proposal to abolish Pakistan Studies at the HSc level.
Instead of abolishing this important subject, we should improve the material that we teach at the SSC and HSc level. We should teach our children the facts. Students should know what was the real role of politicians and the military in the history of Pakistan, the minister said.
Students should be taught what is the ideology of Pakistan and it should be our priority, he said.
Speaking at a press conference, Mr Haqqani said that the education ministers from all the four provinces have agreed to start the academic session from the first week of September 2006 all over the country to bring uniformity in the educational system.
Inter-provincial education ministers’ meetings were being held every three months to improve the educational system and to create a uniform educational system in the country.
The last meeting was recently held at the Sindh Secretariat which was also attended by Federal Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi.
Mr Haqqani said that he expressed his concern over the national education policy and said that national targets should be clear and not only geographical but ideological limitations should be kept in mind while formulating the new education policy.
The education minister said that provinces were asked at the meeting to suggest about elective subjects and the scheme of studies at the SSC and HSc level. In this regard, I have suggested that ‘Dars-i-Nizami’ should be included in schools and at the intermediate level in colleges.
Mr Haqqani said that the NWFP government had also suggested that instead of cutting down the number of educational boards by merging different boards, there should be one board at the provincial level to prepare question papers and conduct marking of answer sheets. “The other boards could act as sub-offices.”
He said: “I have suggested that instead of cutting down the number of educational boards, the board system should be improved. The final decision in this regard will be taken at the next meeting.”
The education minister said that he had taken up the issue of mother tongue (Pushto) as the medium of instruction and as a subject but the federal government was stressing only on the English language as a subject and as a medium of instruction.
He said: “Education experts will decide what subjects should be taught purely in English and what in Urdu to remove the class-based education system.”
