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| January 23, 2007 | Tuesday | Muharram 03, 1428 |
New textbook policy approved
ISLAMABAD, Jan 22: The 11th inter-provincial education ministers’ meeting here on Monday approved the new textbook policy, in principle, and decided that it would be implemented after the revised version was sent to the provinces.
The meeting presided over by Federal Minister for Education Lt-Gen (retired) Javed Ashraf Qazi was attended by Minister of State for Education Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli, NWFP Education Minister Maulana Fazli Ali Haqqani, Balochistan Education Minister Maulana Abdul Wahid Siddiqui, Mian Imran Masood, Minister for Education Punjab and Dr Hameeda Khuhro of Sindh along with their respective secretaries.
Under the policy, the provincial textbook boards would invite book development proposals from all including private publishers. The submitted books will be evaluated and ranked.
Approximately, 40 percent of book printing and publishing should go to the first ranker, 25 percent to the second, 15 percent to the third and remaining to be distributed to others by the provincial textbook boards.
However, the time-frame for the implementation of this policy shall be flexible and left to the discretion of the provincial governments.
It was also suggested that a province may select a textbook from any other province if so desired. The examination boards will not test students from a particular textbook but do so from the curriculum and will recommend multiple textbooks.
The ministry of education will help in establishing five resource centres in each textbook board for upgrading the capacity of small publishers and also of the authors of the provinces in writing the new textbooks.
All the provincial education ministers agreed that the secondary and higher secondary education, presently resting with the districts, would be re-assigned to the provincial governments.
The meeting agreed that the academic session in the schools will start from August 15 in order to maximise teaching-learning time. The examinations of secondary and higher school certificates shall be held in May. The Inter-Board Committee of Chairmen was directed to fix same dates for starting the examination and declaration of results for al boards in the country.—Online
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