ISLAMABAD: A turf war is looming over the control of the curriculum wing of the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved its transfer to the Federal Ministry of Education and Professional Training last December.

Secretary CADD Khalid Hanif confirmed to Dawn on Tuesday that a summary has been moved for the prime minister to revisit his decision taken on a request from the education ministry.

“In our summary, we mention that the plea of the education ministry seeking control of the curriculum wing was not appropriate,” he said.

CADD asks PM to revisit his decision to turn over the wing to federal education ministry

When asked what would happen in case the summary was rejected, the official replied: “Surely we will need a (new) curriculum wing for developing curriculum for Islamabad Capital Territory educational institutions.”

He pointed out that after education was devolved to the provinces, CADD was established to look after the affairs of leftover divisions and departments.

“And curriculum wing was one of the leftover departments,” he noted.

Indeed, according to him, CADD should also have the administrative control of National Book Foundation. “All provinces have textbook boards but we don’t have any such body,” he said.

State Minister for Education and Professional Training Engineer Balighur Rehman, on the other hand, insisted that his ministry had no issue with CADD.

“We are very much ready to accommodate CADD,” he told Dawn.

“I have been offering CADD that we will look after their needs of curriculum development as well. My aim is to take all provinces and CADD on board to bring change in the education sector. So, there is no issue on our part,” said the minister.

Currently, his ministry is working to set up offices of National Curriculum Council (NCC) at the curriculum wing. The formation of NCC was approved in a meeting of inter-provincial education ministers in October last year to have minimum standards in education in the country.

Minister Balighur Rehman said that CADD would be facilitated at the NCC.

“First we will offer them our (NCC) services in developing curriculum. Otherwise we will give them separate rooms for running their own setup,” he said.

Before the passage of the 18th Amendment in 2010 the curriculum wing was part of the defunct federal education ministry. After the amendment its control was given to CADD, which is mandated to look after education and health in the federal capital.

But a couple of month back, its control was given to Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, which was established in 2011.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2015

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