LAHORE, May 25: The Punjab Education Department will hold a workshop in September to reach a consensus on a comprehensive textbooks policy. The decision was taken at a special meeting organized by the education department here on Tuesday as part of its preparations for the workshop.

The meeting was presided over by Punjab Education Minister Mian Imran Masood. It was learnt that the meeting initially discussed deregulation of textbook boards and handing over of textbooks printing contracts to foreign companies.

However, Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association central chairman Zubair Saeed resented the idea and demanded that the textbook boards should rather be strengthened to ensure production of affordable quality textbooks.

Assuring the education minister that the PPBA would support the government by improving the quality of textbooks, Mr Saeed stressed that the government was duty-bound to protect the local industry. The PPBA would not let anybody hinder or destabilize the local industry, he added.

The education minister said the department did not want to take any decision regarding publication of textbooks in haste. He said the government would protect the local publishing industry but, at the same time, ensure improvement of curricula to meet present-day requirements.

The minister said the textbooks would be prepared while keeping the national interests supreme. He said a comprehensive policy would be formulated while giving due consideration to the historical and cultural background of the country.

The minister said a national workshop on the subject was held at Islamabad in February, where it was decided that provinces would hold workshops to discuss the textbooks issue.

He said the education department would ensure that all experts participated in the forthcoming workshop to reach a consensus on a comprehensive textbooks policy after reviewing all aspects of the issue.

Federal education secretary Shafqat Ayzdi, Punjab education secretary Shahid Rasheed, German Development Cooperation Education Sector Development Programme chief technical adviser Dr Reinhard and chief minister's adviser on teachers training Sadia Shahzad Chaudhry also attended the meeting.