RAWALPINDI, May 17: President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday directed the education ministry to put in place a common examination system for all the provinces as well as Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Promising that the budgetary allocation for the education sector would be doubled next year, he decided that a Rs60 billion programme for educational reforms would be restarted. He said the finance ministry would be asked to release the first tranche of Rs5 billion next year.

The decisions were taken at a meeting in the president’s camp office. In addition to Federal Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi, who afterwards briefed newsmen about decisions taken during the meeting, Minister of State for Education Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli, Higher Education Commission Chairman Dr Attaur Rahman and the education ministers of Punjab, Balochistan, the NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir attended the meeting.

The president said that, except for Sindh, students all over the country would have to take exams of 9th and 10th classes simultaneously. He added that Sindh’s exemption would last for a year. He directed the federal education ministry to establish advanced computer labs in educational institutions across the country.

The president approved the recommendations of the committee tasked to review the national curriculum. The federal education minister quoted President Musharraf as having remarked that while the curriculum would be duly modernised, no effort would be spared to make sure that it remained strictly in accordance with the teachings of Islam.

The president reportedly took a dim view of politicisation of educational institutions. He observed that an unnecessary preoccupation with politics had adversely affected academic careers of students.

He said that provincial education ministers would meet on June 10 to review the pace of implementation of decisions taken at the May 17 meeting.—Agencies