ISLAMABAD, May 5: The National Curriculum Revision Committee (NCRC) of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has finalized the curriculum of environmental sciences being taught at public- sector universities of the country.

In this regard, a three-day meeting of the NCRC concluded at the HEC regional centre, Peshawar, said an official statement on Wednesday. The NCRC prepared the final draft of the curriculum after thorough review of the existing curriculum and the recommendations and suggestions received from all the public- sector universities.

The final draft prepared by the committee would be sent to all universities for implementation according to their set procedures. The committee also presented a number of recommendations to strengthen the discipline.

These recommendations included integration of socio-economic themes into the disciplines of natural sciences in the curriculum of environmental sciences, and increasing the duration of the bachelor degree programme from two years to four years.

The committee suggested that students with FSc pre-medical and pre-engineering or equivalent qualification should be considered eligible for admission to Bachelor of Environmental Sciences programme, and master degree programmes should be launched in institutions where facilities and resources were available.

It recommended that the programme structure should have both the course work as well as research thesis, and the masters in environmental science should be a one-year programme after 4- years bachelor degree.

The committee was of the view that there should be some core courses, while the rest of the courses be listed to develop specialization in various fields. These courses should be enlisted and may be offered by the institutions depending on their resources and locations.

Prominent educationists, faculty members, experts in the discipline and representatives of several national organizations related to environmental science attended the meeting. Prof (Dr) Shafiqur Rehman of Peshawar University was the convener of the meeting, while Dr Mohammad Irfan Khan of the Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, was the secretary.