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HYDERABAD, June 13: The Sindh government has decided to introduce population welfare as a subject in the syllabus of secondary and higher secondary education, says Sindh Population Welfare Department Secretary Mohammad Mohsin Qureshi.
Speaking as chief guest at a Sindh schools debate competition on “Population and Development” organised by the Population Welfare Department at a local hotel on Monday, the secretary said that the step was aimed at creating awareness among people about population planning.
Being a developing country, Pakistan needed to keep its population growth in check in order to achieve development targets, he said.
Mr Qureshi clarified that the objective behind population planning was not to stop births but to keep a gap of at least five years between children’s births. This would ensure health of mother and child and keep the family happy and prosperous, he added.
He said that education, information and awareness were the only instruments which could ensure the programme’s success. The population welfare as a subject in higher secondary education would make the youngsters aware of the demerits of high birth rate, he said.
He said that not only Pakistan but the whole Muslim world had accepted population planning at a conference of Muslim countries organized by the government of Pakistan in Islamabad last year.
Mr Qureshi said that the government had launched a programme, “Education for All, Employment for All” to eradicate illiteracy and unemployment, which if met success would put the country on a path towards sustainable development and raise peoples’ living standard.
Speeches and essays competitions would greatly help create awareness and monitor organizations engaged in this field, he said.
He lauded the students of class 9th and 10th who participated in the competition and distributed cash prizes among the best speakers.
Population Welfare Depart-ment Additional Secretary Ms Nasreen Zohra highlighted the main objective of the competition and the department’s performance in her welcome speech.
MUET: Lead Assessor Raheel Ehsan of Lloyds Register Quality Assurance conducted the 5th surveillance audit of the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET) on Monday to check the overall performance of all the departments and institutes including ISO-9000 Cell.
The assessor visited the Provost, Directorate of Planning and Development, Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Petroleum and Gas, Engineering Department of Mining, Department of Industrial Engineering and English Language Centre etc.
A spokesman for the university claimed that the assessor’s report was satisfactory and he had recorded no observations during the audit. He appreciated the departments’ performance especially proper follow-up system of ISO-9000 Cell, the spokesman said.
Mr Ehsan made some suggestions for improvement, which were considered by the review committee of the university at its meeting held the same day, he said.
