ISLAMABAD, March 26: Speakers at a roundtable discussion programme on Friday criticized federal education minister for, what they said, misquoting the findings of a committee constituted to evaluate the report on curricula and textbook reforms.

It is worth mentioning here that a controversy has been generated over the findings of a study done by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), criticizing 'over-emphasis' on the subject of Islamiat and ideology of Pakistan in the syllabi taught at school and college levels.

Speaking at the round-table discussion on "Ideology and Education", organized by Islamabad Social Sciences Forum, Dr A.H. Nayyer, a Quaid-i-Azam University faculty member, accused the education minister of not sharing the exact findings of the committee with the members of the National Assembly.

He said either she had been misinformed by the ministry officials about the final outcome of the evaluation committee's meetings, or she herself assumed that the report was wrong.

After the unveiling of the report "A Civil Society Initiative in Curricula and Textbooks Reforms", undertaken at the SDPI, a 15-member committee was mandated to discuss the report in detail, Dr Nayyer said.

Nine members of the committee, after six days of discussions, endorsed the report whereas six members had dissent views on the findings of the study. The committee with a majority of three members endorsed the findings of the study and submitted its report to the education ministry, he said.

"I do not know what has prompted the education minister to say, that too, at the floor of the National Assembly that the committee has rejected the report," Dr Nayyar said.

Referring to the findings of the report, he said after the independence, Islamization had been used as a tool at all levels by the ruling elite for its survival.

Dr Nayyar was critical of Jamaat-i-Islami chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, who is opposing the findings of the report, and said over the years, especially during Gen Zia's regime, the Jamaat had been proactive in defining the curricula heavily loaded with extremist religious views at school and college levels.

He also accused the bureaucracy of maintaining the status quo, saying they found their survival in the existing education system. Another pretext which the ruling elite uses for not making any liberal changes to the curricula is the national security issue, he maintained.

"Every time when there is such an effort, a number of government-sponsored think tanks, such as Institute of Strategic Studies, come up with the allegations that changes in the curricula can disturb the social fabric of the society," he said.

He said the curriculum wing of the education ministry was the real problem and only recently it had objected to the 4th class Social Studies textbook on the grounds that it did not carry enough material on Jihad.