January 6, 2006	Friday	Zilhaj 5, 1426

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LAHORE, Jan 5: A bilingual mode of teaching is being introduced from primary to intermediate level from the next academic session starting in September this year. Under the federal government plan, the medium of instruction for some subjects will be English while others will be taught in Urdu.

Punjab Education Minister Imran Masood confirmed on Thursday that the decision had been taken after a consensus among the provinces. “At least half of the subjects from Class-I to XI will be taught in English to improve the standard of education,” he added.

The minister said the Federal Curriculum Wing would propose which subject should be taught in which language and submit it to the provinces for feedback.

Answering a question on teachers training for implementation of the proposed programme, Mr Masood said Punjab had a staff of qualified teachers and it was also recruiting graduates in this regard.

“The bilingual mode of teaching cannot be introduced if we remain stuck in teething troubles. Once we launch it, all the hiccups will be removed,” he explained.

Mr Masood said the change in curricula was a federal subject, however, any proposed change would be discussed with the provinces. “The change in curricula does not mean we are following the west. In fact, it is time to give a new shape to the curricula and raise the standard of education in the country,” he said.

He said subjects like Pakistan Studies, which had a repetition of contents at matriculation and intermediate level, should be deleted from the latter’s syllabus and replaced by a new one.

He said Punjab had been assigned the task to develop a syllabus of physics (for intermediate) as the existing one had gone outdated. The new syllabus of physics, he said, would be introduced in the next academic session.

Explaining delay in the process of handing over the colleges under the administrative control of districts to the provinces, the minister said the National Reconstruction Bureau had initially objected to the decision but now it was making certain amendments to the rules and a notification in this regard would be issued soon.

As many as 425 colleges in Punjab, 270 in Sindh, 250 in the NWFP and 60 in Balochistan were handed over to the district governments in 2001.

The decision to repatriate them had reportedly been taken on the reports that the district governments were not properly utilizing the development funds on colleges.

Besides, most of the executive district officers were of BS-18 and BS-19 and authorized to maintain the annual confidential report (ACR) of the principals of BS-20, which was creating controversy.

The colleges were also not functioning in line with the guidelines of the Higher Education Commission, thus, hindering improvement in curricula. Political interference in the transfer and postings of teachers was also one of the main objections.