KARACHI, June 27: The federal ministry of education has notified the National Textbook and Learning Materials Policy and Plan of Action (NTLMP) and asked all provincial governments to take appropriate measures for its immediate and effective implementation, sources in the provincial education ministry told Dawn.

The main feature of the move is the establishment of an “Inter-Provincial Standing Committee on Textbook Policy” to regulate operational and procedural issues, besides monitoring and coordinating the implementation process. The curriculum wing of the federal education ministry will be the secretariat of the committee, to be constituted soon.

In a communiqué to all the provincial education departments, textbook boards, curriculum boards, etc, the federal authorities said the NTLMP was notified after a consensus of all provincial governments and stakeholders and in pursuance of the decision taken at the 11th Inter-Provincial Education Ministers’ Conference, held on January 22 in Islamabad.

Sources in the ministry said that as per the decision taken by the ministers at their 9th conference, held in December 2005 in Karachi, a committee was constituted to design and recommend a textbook policy for improvement in textbooks and learning materials. The committee’s draft policy was considered at the 11th conference early this year that proposed a textbook and learning materials policy, which had not been notified.

According to the notification, the objective of the policy is to bring about improvement in the quality of education at all levels through better textbooks to be made available at affordable prices and other learning materials for promoting Pakistan as a knowledge-based society.

“Choice and competition are major forces in achieving this objective. Choice on the part of the buyer promotes acquisition of knowledge, empowerment and participation. Competition on the part of the producer leads to a wider variety of products, improved quality, availability and better prices,” it said.

According to the policy statement, a well-regulated system of competitive publishing of textbooks and learning materials will be introduced as part of an enhanced public-private partnership in the development of education.

The textbooks boards will be transformed into competent, facilitating, regulating and monitoring authorities.

The statement said that a provincial committee duly represented by the education authorities, textbook boards, private sector and other stakeholders as may be considered necessary, will be formed to select prescribe textbooks for use in government schools of the respective provinces or the areas of jurisdiction. Books so selected may be published by the textbook boards in the defined manner.

The secretary of the concerned department of the respective province will act as mediator in case of complaints from publishers regarding handling and decisions in the process of approval of manuscripts and selection of textbooks.

The private schools will be free to use the textbooks duly approved and certified by the respective board.

As part of the review and approval process, textbook boards will seek a no-objection certificate from the federal education ministry’s curriculum wing, which is the competent authority to certify that a particular textbook is compatible with the national curriculum.

The federal and provincial governments will arrange for the textbook boards to provide assistance in capacity development for the national and/or provincial publishing industry to become competitive players in an expanded education publishing market.

According to the new policy, the federal and provincial governments will increase investments in school libraries and supplementary reading, teachers’ guides, teachers training and learning materials, besides promoting a reading culture in and outside the schools.

Sources said that resource centres will be established at federal and provincial levels under the respective textbook boards, curriculum wing and the National Book Foundation with the support of the federal government through donor agencies.

These resource centres would serve as a centre point both for the respective government institutions and the private sector publishers as a facility for reference and resource material and training activities.

All stakeholders have been asked to take necessary steps against piracy. Those convicted under the copyright laws for infringement of intellectual property rights would be disqualified or debarred from participating in any activity under the policy.